What’s the Past Tense of Spoil? Spoiled or Spoilt?

January 1, 2023

The preferred past tense in either case appears to be spoiled. In UK English, spoilt is also accepted as a past participle form.

Elan Yash

Elan is head of design and tech. He's also a contributor at Grammarflex.

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Spoil/spoiled in conversation. — *Spoil*/*spoiled* in conversation.

Contents

What’s the past tense of “spoil”?

The verb spoil (rhymes with boil), is more complicated than the standard past tense verb. The consensus, according to the internet, is spoilt is no longer. We might say spoilt is, well, spoilt. And now, the preferred past tense in either case is spoiled.

‍With that being said, UK English still uses spoilt, mostly as the past participial form of spoil. Spoilt still shows up in the dictionary as a past tense and participle of spoil—so while spoiled might be trending, it’s still acceptable to use spoilt as a past tense or participial form of spoil.

Forms of spoil

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	present	past	future
simple	I spoil	I spoiled/spoilt	I will spoil
continuous	I am spoiling	I was spoiling	I will be spoiling
perfect	I have spoiled/spoilt	I had spoiled/spoilt	I will have spoiled/spoilt
perfect continuous	I have been spoiling	I had been spoiling	I will have been spoiling

Tenses of ‘spoil‘.

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Quick Tip—Past tenses

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The meaning of the verb to spoil is “to destroy or reduce the pleasure, interest, or beauty of something: He tried not to let the bad news spoil his evening.” In other words, when something is spoiled, it’s no longer of the same value as it was prior to having been spoilt. Also, that sentence points to the distinction between spoiled/spoilt in its past tense and past participle forms: the past participle require the auxiliary verb, has/have, whereas the simple past tense does not.

base verb	past tense	past participle
lean	leant/leaned	leant/leaned
leap	leapt/leaped	leapt/leaped
learn	learnt/learned	learnt/learned
spoil	spoilt/spoiled	spoilt/spoiled
spill	spilt/spilled	spilt/spilled
deal	dealt	dealt

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British English uses the earlier, more ‘irregular’ English, which prefers irregular verb (and noun) forms. When in doubt, stick to the form that applies considering the geography. Also, for the most part, English speaking countries outside of the UK and the US use British/UK English (this is a rule of thumb, each country is difference.)

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Examples of the word spoil used in sentences

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1. I won’t tell you what happens in the last chapter—I don’t want to spoil it for you.

2. Don’t eat too many nuts—you’ll spoil your appetite.

3. Don’t let him spoil your evening.

4. Don’t let the bad weather spoil your trip.

5. I don’t want to spoil things for everyone else.

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Examples of the word spoilt used in sentences

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1. The performance was spoilt by the constant noise from the audience.

2. Our camping trip was spoilt by bad weather.

3. Have I spoilt the day?

4. The bad weather really spoilt things for us.

5. I’m sorry I spoilt the weekend but I’m having a crisis.

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Examples of the word spoiled used in sentences

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1. Her selfish behaviour completely spoiled the evening.

2. The whole park has been spoiled by litter.

3. The tall buildings have spoiled the view.

4. He really spoiled me on my birthday.

5. The fight spoiled the party.

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Practice questions: forms of “spoil”

Questions	Answer options:
1. True or false: “To spoil” can be a regular or irregular verb.	a. true b. false
2. True or false: “Spoil” looks the same in the present and past tense.	a. true b. false
Choose the correct verb form to complete each sentence:
3. Don’t let him ___ your evening.	a. spoil b. spoiling c. spoils
4. The whole park has been ___ by litter.	a. spoils b. spoil c. spoiled
5. I’m sorry I ___ the weekend but I’m having a crisis.	a. spoilt b. spoiling c. spoils
6. You’re ___ everything!	a. spoil b. spoils c. spoiling
7. I ___ my appetite if I don’t stop snacking.	a. spoil b. will spoil c. spoiling

Answers

Synonyms of spoil

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ruin
damage
wreck
harm
impair
adversely affect
corrupt
taint
contaminate
decay
decompose
go bad

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Origin of the word spoil

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From etymology online on spoil (v.):

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c. 1300, “to strip (someone) of clothes, strip a slain enemy,” from Old French espillier “to strip, plunder, pillage,” from Latin spoliare “to strip, uncover, lay bare; strip of clothing, rob, plunder, pillage,” from spolia.

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