What’s the past tense of “bring”?
Brung is sometimes mistaken as the past tense of bring, which is easy to see why: ring is rung as a past participle, sing becomes sang/sung, and swim turns to swam/swum. Bring is slightly trickier since it doesn’t follow this same verb conjugation pattern.
The simple past tense and past participle verb form of bring are both brought. Other verbs follow the same verb pattern as bring: buy switches to bought, seek becomes sought, find turns to found and teach, taught. So, when trying to remember the correct past tense of ‘bring‘, just think of these other verbs with the same form: bring/brought, teach/taught and seek/sought!
Verb tenses of bring
To provide a formal definition, the transitive verb, ‘to bring‘ is defined in the Cambridge Dictionary as “To take or carry someone or something to a place or a person, or in the direction of the person speaking: ‘Shall I bring anything to the party?”
| present | past | future | |
|---|---|---|---|
| simple | I bring | I brought | I will bring |
| continuous | I am bringing | I was bringing | I will be bringing |
| perfect | I have brought | I had brought | I will have brought |
| perfect continuous | I have been bringing | I had been bringing | I will have been bringing |
Tenses of ‘bring‘.
Brought vs. had/has/have brought
If brought is both the past tense and past participle of bring, when is it correct to use the participle form over the simple past tense? The answer is that it depends on what you want to communicate. Had/has/have brought form the “perfect” tenses in grammar:
Banks have brought trouble on themselves by lending rashly. (Present perfect)
If I had brought my glasses I could have helped you with your homework. (Past perfect)
To write in the perfect tense, we pair participles with auxiliary verbs (had/has/have). The present perfect tense describes actions that were completed at some point in the past but have a relevance or connection to the present. It’s formed with the auxiliary verb “have” (or “has” for third-person singular) and the past participle form of the main verb.
The past perfect uses the auxiliary ‘had‘ + the past participle verb form, and indicates that one past action was completed before another past action or point in time. The past perfect tense helps show the order in which past events took place.
Is bring a regular or irregular verb?
The verb bring is irregular. The difference between regular and irregular verbs is that regular verbs end in –ed in their past tense forms. Irregular verbs end in something other than –ed.
Obviously bring does not end in –ed in its past tense or past participle, and is brought in both cases. Here other irregular verbs that, like bring, have two forms.
| Present | Past | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|
| teach | taught | taught |
| buy | bought | bought |
| bring | brought | brought |
| catch | caught | caught |
| seek | sought | sought |
Brought: simple past & as a past participle
| Word | Sentence examples |
|---|---|
| brought |
Everyone brought their swimsuits to the pool party yesterday.
I didn’t bring the dog but I brought my children with me. The memory brought goose bumps to her arms. |
| brought (past participle) |
I’ve brought my lunch to work every day this week.
The package was brought to my doorstep by the delivery person. She had brought her own blanket to the picnic. |
Synonyms of bring
- carry
- fetch
- convey
- transport
- take
- deliver
- get
- import
- introduce
- present
- produce
- provide
Origin of the verb bring
Old English bringan “to bear, convey, take along in coming; bring forth, produce, present, offer” (past tense brohte, past participle broht), from Proto-Germanic *brangjanan (source also of Old Frisian branga “attest, declare, assure”.
Practice Questions: Brought or bought
Can you ___ your notes to the meeting?
She always ___ her lunch from home.
He had already ___ the book when I arrived.
Yesterday, I ___ a cake to the party.
If you ___ your umbrella, you won’t get wet.
Yash, D. "Brung or Brought: How to Use the Past Tense of Bring?." Grammarflex, Aug 24, 2025, https://grammarflex.com/brought-or-bought/.
