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 |
1. To bring is present tense: I always bring a water bottle with me to the gym.
2. Brings is third-person present singular: He brings a book with him everywhere he goes.
3. Bringing is the present participle: I’m bringing chips and dips to the party.
4. Brought is past tense: She brought her new boyfriend to the party last Friday.
5. Brought is also the past participle: My coworker had brought donuts for the office.
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 |
Examples of the word bring (present tense) used in sentences
1. Bring me a glass of water, please.
2. I’ll bring the book back to you tomorrow.
3. You can bring a date if you want
4. It wasn’t necessary for him to bring an umbrella.
5. Please bring me the check.
Examples of brought (past tense, in sentences)
1. Everyone brought their swimsuits to the pool party yesterday.
2. I didn’t bring the dog but I brought my children with me.
3. The memory brought goose bumps to her arms.
4. The conversation ended and neither of them brought the subject up again that night.
5. I brought you something to eat.
Examples of brought as a past participle (in sentences)
1. I have brought my lunch to work every day this week.
2.The package was brought to my doorstep by the delivery person.
3. She had brought her own blanket to the picnic.
4. The flowers were brought inside to protect them from the rain.
5. They were impressed with the ideas he had brought to the meeting.
Synonyms of bring
- carry
- fetch
- convey
- transport
- take
- deliver
- get
- import
- introduce
- present
- produce
- provide
Origin of the verb bring
From etymology online on bring (v.):
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,” Middle Dutch brenghen, Old High German bringan, German bringen, Gothic briggan).
Sources
- Merriam-Webster, definition of bring.
- Etymology online, origin of bring.
