Passed and Past?

[KatyMac]

I am never quite sure on these 2

I ride passed parked cars but when I am stood at traffic lights cars whizz past me?

Is that right? and if so why/why not?

No, you ride past parked cars too. However you could have been standing on the road when the cars passed you

So are they interchangable?

Or just awkward?

passed is a verb or a participle (clue is -ed ending which suggests a verb) so you can replace it with other verbs / participles, say avoided: "when the cars avoided you" - still grammatical.

If I go back to your OP sentence and write "I ride avoided parked cars..." it doesn't sound right.

past is a preposition, so can try replacing it with other prepositions such as alongside or next to: "I ride alongside parked cars..." sounds grammatical.

Which exams have you passed? -> Which exams have you avoided? (still grammatical, even if meaning different)

Which exams have you past? -> Which exams have you alongside? (nonsense)

(past is also a noun and adjective, in the sense of opposite of future, but that's a totally different meaning).

Well, not a totally different meaning, because the past refers to time that has passed - which shows why this can be confusing!

I wonder if my problem is that I say them the same?

I wonder if my problem is that I say them the same?

Well yes-so does everyone else.

The car that passed us back there has just sped past a red light.

You would pass the shop on your bike.
You would ride past the shop on your bike.

I passed my exams in the past.

Thank you for that excellent explanation. I have just copied and pasted it to save it as despite dong English at Uni that one always makes me doubt myself!

Pass/passing/passed is a verb.
(You can test it by seeing if you can replace it with overtake/overtaking/overtook and still get a sensible sentence.)

Past is a preposition or an abstract noun.
(So try replacing it with "beyond" for a preposition, or "history" for the noun, to test for sense.)

They sound exactly the same. DadDadDad's explanation is perfect, especially the idea of substituting 'alongside' to see if it makes sense. Are you a language teacher by any chance, DadDadDad?

Oh i didn't see dad's (much better) explanation before I posted

I was a teacher once, but my subject is Maths. I do take an interest in language and enjoy reading linguists (eg languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/ - some of that's quite technical and beyond me, but there's plenty of interest).

It probably appeals to my mathematical mind to take a scientific approach to grammar - eg the idea of showing that a word is a verb because it does verb-y things like have tenses, or takes endings like -ed or -ing.

@DadDadDad, great explanation.

I think it's because time passes

so half past an hour

I don't teach (well not that sort of teaching - under 3s) and tbh it has always fuddled me

Thank you

This is helpful. I thought one referred to time and the other to place? I'm uneducated and diagnosed dyslexic. I managed to use these words appropriately but have never thought about the reason.

Incidentally, "when I am stood" is grammatically incorrect and should be "when I am standing". The same goes for "when I was stood" which should be "when I was standing". The same also goes for sat/sitting.

I hope it's ok to point this out as it is Pedants' Corner!

Yes but that's also a regionalism @UnaCorda so it's polite to let it pass unless you are correcting your own children.

@DadDadDad v helpful explanation

it's polite to let it pass unless you are correcting your own children.

Really? Even in a thread about grammar in pedants’ corner?

I didn’t think it was a regionalism either it would have thought OP would appreciate the correction if she had posted on here

It’s like “I was sat...” instead of “I am sitting...”

So is "Yesterday I was sat by a lake" wrong?

You could say “yesterday i sat by a lake” or “yesterday i was sitting by a lake*

I note PP said it’s a regional thing. I hear a lot of people say it but consider it to be incorrect

With a capital “I” of course 😬

KatyMac - I wouldn't say wrong, but it's certainly frowned upon in standard British English (in formal writing). However, I believe it's grammatical in some regional dialects (I can hear "I was sat..." being said with a Yorkshire accent).

(I can hear "I was sat..." being said with a Yorkshire accent)

I’m from Yorkshire and I hear it frequently!