The meaning of “steal”
The word steal, defined by the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, is “to take something from a person, shop, etc. without permission and without intending to return it or pay for it.” Steal is a homophone in English, which are words that have the same pronunciation though mean different things. Steel, which sounds the same as steal), is a type of iron metal with carbon that is used commercially.
To steal is the present tense from of the verb, stole is the past simple, and stolen is the past participle form of the verb. This makes the verb, to steal, both irregular, and a part of the class of verbs with 3 forms (like steal/stole/stolen). See the chart:
| base verb | past tense | past participle |
| wear | wore | worn |
| tear | tore | torn |
| swear | swore | sworn |
| steal | stole | stolen |
| break | broke | broken |
Those familiar with Proto-Germanic languages may note the ablaut, which is present in the ‘pulling sound’ of such Germanic-originated ‘irregular’ verb patterns (which, evidently, was quite regular as a verb form in the original German). The ablaut is audible in the verb forms of speak/spoke/spoken, write/wrote/written; hide/hid/hidden, and steal/stole/stolen.
Conjugations of the verb steal
| present | past | future | |
| simple | I steal | I stole | I will steal |
| continuous | I am stealing | I was stealing | I will be stealing |
| perfect | I have stolen | I had stolen | I will have stolen |
| perfect continuous | I have been stealing | I had been stealing | I will have been stealing |
Steal is in the present tense: He wanted me to steal your necklace.
Stole is the simple past: If she stole something from you, I’ll return it.
Stolen is the past participle: My wallet was stolen.
Which is correct: stole or stolen?
Past tense: He stole a car from the parking lot of a mall.
Past participle: He discovered that his car had been stolen.
The simple past tense form is stole, and does not use an auxiliary verb (like had). Stolen is the past participle form of the verb (steal) and is used with auxiliary verbs, like had or was. In this case, the auxiliaries ‘had been‘ pair with the past participle ‘stolen‘ to complete the tense and aspect of the verb (and form the passive voice, which takes a sentence object).
Examples of steal in the present tense (in sentences)
1. He didn’t steal me from you.
2. Why would she steal them back later?
3. We found out he’d been stealing from us for years. (present participle)
4. He wanted me to steal your necklace.
5. I’ll report you to the police if I catch you stealing again. (present participle)
Examples of stole in the past tense (in sentences)
1. He stole a car from the parking lot of a mall.
2. She stole a glance at Cynthia.
3. British bands stole the show at this year’s awards.
4. If she stole something from you, I’ll return it.
5. They stole thousands of dollars’ worth of jewelry from the store.
Examples of the past participle stolen (in sentences)
The following sentences show the correct use of past participle stolen in context. Sentence examples are from Oxford Learner’s, stolen:
1. Those ideas were stolen from me.
2. I had my wallet stolen.
3. He was charged with possession of stolen property.
4. My wallet was stolen.
5. He discovered that his car had been stolen.
Synonyms of steal
- ransack
- loot
- kidnap
- swindle
- burglarize
- pilfer
- theft
- poach
- embezzle
- run off with
- snitch
- shoplift
- peculate
Idioms with steal
- Mean enough to steal a penny off a dead man’s eyes
- Steal the show/the spotlight/the thunder (to divert attention to oneself)
- Like stealing acorns from a blind pig (something that’s extremely easy to accomplish)
- Beg, borrow or steal (to accomplish something by any means necessary)
- Steal a march on something or someone (to get an advantage over someone or something)
- Steal a glance (to look at someone)
Origin of the word/verb steal
From etymology online on steal (v.):
Old English stelan “to commit a theft, to take and carry off clandestinely and without right or leave” from Proto-Germanic *stelanan.
Other commonly confused verb tenses
- What’s the past tense of spread?
- What’s the past tense of lead?
- What’s the past tense of choose?
- What’s the past tense of fly?
- What’s the past tense of lay?
- What’s the past tense of drive?
- What’s the past tense of draw?
Sources
- Wikipedia. 2023. “Indo-European ablaut.” Wikimedia Foundation. Last modified January 10, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_ablaut.
- Harper, Douglas. “Etymology of steal.” Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/word/steal. Accessed 15 January, 2023.
