How to Use the Past Tense of Feel (Explained, Usage & Quiz)

What's the past tense of "feel"?

The simple past tense of feel is felt, and the past participle is also felt. Use felt for both simple past and past participle forms.

Definition of feel

The Oxford English Dictionary defines feel as "to perceive, examine or search by touch; to be aware of or affected by; to experience an emotion or physical sensation." It's used in both literal and figurative senses, from physical sensations to emotional experiences.

• The past tense of feel is felt.

• The past participle of feel is felt.

Verb forms of 'feel'

Note: We avoid the past continuous (was + feeling) with stative verbs, since these verbs have no clear start or finish as dynamic verbs do. Stative verbs (which represents mental processes, feelings, or internal states of existence), use the simple past conjugation or past perfect tenses or aspects.

Is "feel" a regular or irregular verb?

Note: Regular verbs end in -ed in the past tense. Any other verb ending is considered irregular.

While an irregular verb, 'feel' shows a highly common verb-conjugation pattern. Similar to other verbs like sleep/slept, feed/fed, and speed/sped, feel uses one form for all past tenses (and in the present perfect).

When to use "felt" (past) vs. "felt" (participle)

She felt happy this morning.

I've felt this way before.

The participle form of a verb (shown in the second sentence) uses the auxiliary verb have as a contraction, I've.

When auxiliaries like have or had appear in the same sentence as a past participle verb form, this indicates that the verb's aspect is in the present or past perfect, and not the simple past tense.

Remember, a participle always uses a helper verb to form the complete tense or aspect. Simple tenses, on the other hand, can stand on their own.

Sentence examples: feel, felt, felt

Synonyms & nearby words

Practice: “Feel” conjugations