beat or beated or beats

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Anonymous

#540629 Sun, 13 Jul 08 06:32 AM

Hi there, Do I put beat/beats/beated in the following sentence? Thank you

He almost beat me. Is it past tense or present tense?

Anonymous

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Tanit

#540644 Sun, 13 Jul 08 08:18 AM

Hi,

Here is my take:

past simple: He almost beat me.
present simple: He [always/usually/often/...] beats me. (I may be wrong, but I don't think in this sentence "almost" works with the present simple).
present perfect: He has almost [beat/beaten] me. (I am writing this one just to use the past participle. As far as I know, "beat" and "beaten" are the only possible alternatives. I haven't found "beated" in the dictionaries, neither as past simple, nor as past participle).

Tanit

Joined on Mon, Jul 31 2006

In the middle of the Mediterranean Sea

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Past simple, Present perfect, Present simple

Philip

#540780 Sun, 13 Jul 08 03:09 PM

Anonymous
Hi there, Do I put beat/beats/beated in the following sentence? Thank you

He almost beat me. Is it past tense or present tense?

In the case of the 3rd-person singular, there is no cause for ambiguity: beat ~ beats. In other cases, such as 3rd-person plural, there could be some ambiguity: they almost beat us yesterday, they almost beat us every time we play. Context would normally make it clear.

Philip

Joined on Thu, Jun 23 2005

USA Pacific Northwest (Seattle)

Veteran Member (6,181)

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Past tenses, Plurals, Present tenses, Tenses