passed
part of speech
verb (pass, passes, passed, passing); also adjective (passed)
meaning for a pupil
1) (literal) went past; moved by something. tree →
2) (literal) succeeded in a test or exam. tree →
3) (literal) gave something to someone (passed the salt). tree →
4) (euphemism, polite, mostly US) died (short for passed away). tree →
5) (literal) time went by. tree →
sense in the lessons
In the death sense, Americans especially say «he passed» to talk about death gently; in all other senses it is an everyday verb. Everyday register; the death sense is polite, mainly USA, now spreading.
examples
- We passed the school on the way home. tree →
- She passed her maths test! tree →
- Can you pass the salt, please? tree →
- His dad passed when he was little. tree →
- Three hours passed before the rain stopped. tree →
- Grandma passed peacefully in her sleep. tree →
- He passed the ball to his teammate. tree →
- Many years passed by after this. tree →
note
Do not confuse «passed» (verb) with «past» (noun, adjective, preposition: in the past, walked past). «He passed» alone can mean died — check the context before saying «Congratulations!». Plain word for the death sense: died.
In the corpora
- A story passed from person to person is like a snowball rolling downhill: it picks up bits on the way.
- A rumour is a story passed around without proof; it is not a fact just because many people repeat it.
- A habit learned from others and passed on is a small piece of culture.
- And a body part that is stretched or hurt during a life is never passed on.
- "Passed away" means died; it is the polite, kind word.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «passed» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.