passed or past?

[doorknob]

Is there a rule for which is used when?

Are they just two forms of the same verb used in different tenses or does one refer to motion and the other to time?

[Quizmonster]

'Passed' is basically a verb as in 'I passed my driving test' or 'He passed me doing 80 miles an hour."

'Past' is basically an adjective or noun as in 'People behaved differently in past times' or 'People behaved differently in the past.' 

They are not interchangeable.

[THECORBYLOON]

Think of "T for Time" and use pasT.

[jno]

they used to be the same word but somehow got separated, with different spellings. Other words where the spelling varies (not quite in the same way) are burned/burnt and learned/learnt. Slightly slapdash work by early lexicographers is probably to blame.

[Quizmonster]

I get your general point, TCL, but I'm not sure how it would help with distinguishing 'time past' - referring to 'earlier days' - and 'time passed', referring to 'the onward passage of the Old Enemy'.
'Time past' can, of course, also be used in structures such as: "At what time past each hour does the bus leave?"

[acw]

TCL's rule does work! 

Passed refers to motion (time passing is motion of time, but passing wind it a motion of wind.  It's all about the motion not the time.  Time passing, is just one noun that can pass or be passed)

Past - refers to time as Quizmonster, TCL and, in fact, doorknob said.  :-)

[Quizmonster]

My point, Acw, was that if - as TCL suggested - one thought of time and used 'past' one might be tempted to write: "A long time past between the two visits", for example. 

[acw]

Yeah I get that Quiz, honestly!  I wasn't meaning to argue with you.  :-)  I guess the rule is best explained when we give things their proper names: verbs, nouns, adjectives etc - as you did in your first post. 

[jno]

acw, thank you for your discussion of passing wind/motions - try Imodium. I took TCL to be referring to the past as a time, though I could be wrong.

[Peter Pedant]

Jno - I think they are a small class of verbs that have a strong and a weak aorist

strong I think is where - ed is tacked on and weak is where the word is changed. Most verbs have either one or the other.

Hanged and hung are the classical example - and of course have different uses.

[doorknob]

would I be correct then in saying that passed is the verb in the past tense whereas past is a preposition.

[jno]

you may be right, PP, though I think it's the other way round - strong verbs mutate. But I think learnt/learned is just a standard weak verb that has acquired alternative spellings. (This one is complicated by the adjective, which is always learned - a learned man - but pronounced with two syllables.) Same for pass.

doorknob, you're right; but also: passed is the past participle (he has passed) as well as the straight past tense (he passed); past is a noun (studying the past), and an adjective (past times) as well as a preposition (past the house).

And something you do to pass the time is a pastime...

[acw]

I just following the rule that people, however old, remember things better if there's an element of humour to the "lesson".  Being 22 I still laugh at farts.  And I hope I still will at 82, 92 and 102!! 

Hadn't even thought about the preposition bit before.  Well pointed out doorknob! :-)

[THECORBYLOON]

I meant past as in the past but I must admit I hadn't thought on QM's example. I can think on two other words that confuse folk, stationary (still, motionless) and stationery (paper or materials for writing.) Think on papER and use stationERy. 

[acw]

TCL - your rule for that is very clever.  :-)  My Mum taught me "E for envelope..E for stationEry". 

I before E, except after C.

Ah - it all comes flooding back! :-)

[THECORBYLOON]

That works too acw. I've replied to yir invitation by the way.

[jno]

Once upon a time most merchants went round the country with fairs. But some set up permanent stalls in markets etc - stationary shops. Presumably because booksellers did this a lot, 'stationary goods' came to mean the stuff that this particular sort of merchant sold. And then this meaning of stationary changed its spelling to stationery. So, like past/passed, this is one word that came to have two spellings, really for no good reason at all.

[Clanad]

"I before e, except after c" ; I know Keith did not seize the codeine, nor in his leisure either... but he was so accused by his freind who is in the foreign service... weird...

[Quizmonster]

As I'm sure you know, Clanad, the complete rule is "I before E except after C when the sound is EE." Thus thief, belief grief etc as opposed to receive, deceive, conceive etc.
Mind you, I can see why Americans would have some problems here! You yourself use the word 'leisure' above which is pronounced lejure in British English whereas it's pronounced leejure in American English. Presumably, therefore, by rights you should change the spelling to liesure'! Cheers

[jno]

If it were written liesure, then it'd be pronounced lyejure, QM?

[Quizmonster]

It was a joke, Jno! Besides, you don't pronounce 'grief' as 'gryfe', to rhyme with 'knife', do you?