went
- 01 A1 Beginner
the past tense of 'go'; you use this to say that you moved from one place to another in the past.
the irregular simple past tense of 'go'. It functions as the preterite for all senses of 'go', including physical movement, change of state, and the passage of time.
Simple“We went to the beach last Saturday because the weather was so warm.”
In context“After the meeting concluded, the entire department went to a nearby restaurant to celebrate the successful launch of the project.”
UsageThis is an irregular past tense form; it does not take the '-ed' ending.
PitfallI have went to the store already. I have gone to the store already.In standard English, 'went' is only for the simple past. Use 'gone' after 'have', 'has', or 'had'.
Usage went back · went ahead · went viral
Originally the simple past and past participle of wend, but now the past of go due to suppletion. While wend is akin to wind, compare typologically Russian смота́ться (smotátʹsja), сма́тываться (smátyvatʹsja), умота́ть (umotátʹ), ума́тывать (umátyvatʹ) (akin to мота́ть (motátʹ)).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.