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What’s the Past Tense of Fly? Flew or Flown?

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Dalia Y

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Finish the sentence with the correct tense of "fly".
Complete the sentence with the correct tense of “fly”.

What’s the past tense of “fly”?

Simple Past Past Participle
“flew” past tense “flown” past participle
The aircraft is fully functional and fit to fly. She gasped and her hand flew to her mouth. A wasp had flown in through the window. The planes flew through the clouds.

The bird flew away.

He flew to Los Angeles.

He flew back to London.

They flew a route between Chicago and New York.

Examples with “flown” (past participle) in sentences

Word Form Examples
Other Personnel have to be flown in.

I’ve never flown before.

The year has flown by.

The relief supplies are being flown from a warehouse in Pisa.

The birds had flown, and their empty nests in the bare trees were filled with snow.

Idioms with “fly”

Phrase Meaning
to be like a fly in milk to be conspicuous or obvious
a fly in the ointment to detract from a positive situation
wouldn’t hurt a fly said of someone harmless/gentle or kind
to fly off the handle to be uncontrollably angry
you must lose a fly to catch a trout small sacrifices may are sometimes necessary for bigger gains
kill a fly with an elephant gun to take excessive means to accomplish a relatively small task; similar: to take a sledgehammer to crack a nut
fly by the seat of one’s pants said hyperbolically of one who is deemed so cold and indifferent as to be unable to cry tears
if pigs could fly meaning that something is impossible to accomplish or achieve
monkeys might fly out of my butt said when there’s no chance of something happening
tofly too close to the sun to take on something extremely ambitious that may lead to one’s undoing
run around like a blue-arsed fly to work quickly while taking on a large number of tasks
a fly on the wall to be an observer and quiet in a situation
birds of a feather fly/flock people with similar sentiments and attitudes stick together

Origin of the word “fly”

From etymology online on fly (v.):

“To soar through air; move through the air with wings,” Old English fleogan “to fly, take flight, rise into the air” rom Proto-Germanic *fleugan “to fly”.

Practice questions: forms of fly

Questions Answer options:
1. True or false:“Fly” is a regular verb. a. trueb. false
2. True or false:Regular verbs end in “ed” to denote the past. a. trueb. false
3. True or false:“Fly” is the same in the present and past tense. a. trueb. false
4. Choose the correct tense the sentence is in:I’ve flown that airline before. a. pastb. present perfectc. past perfect
5. Choose the correct tense the sentence is in:I’ll be flying to Greece next wednesday. a. future continuousb. present continuousc. past continuous
6. Choose the form of ‘fly’ to complete the sentence:She ___ frequently because of her job. a. has flown b. fliesc. flying

Answers

  1. b
  2. a
  3. b
  4. b
  5. a
  6. b

Learn more about verbs

Worksheet

Question 1 of 10

According to the post, what is the simple past tense form of the verb “fly”?

Which form of “fly” is the past participle and is typically used with auxiliary verbs like “have” or “had”?

Is the verb “fly” regular or irregular?

According to the post, which of the following sentences uses “flown” incorrectly?

Which sentence correctly uses the simple past tense of “fly”?

The birds south for the winter last month.

They have never in a helicopter before.

She was too scared to in the small plane.

The pilot the plane safely despite the storm.

I had for hours and was very tired.

FAQs

What is the past tense of ‘fly’?
+

The simple past tense of the verb ‘fly’ is ‘flew’. For example, “The planes flew through the clouds.” The post also notes that ‘flown’ is the past participle.

Is ‘fly’ a regular verb?
+

No, the verb ‘fly’ is irregular. Regular verbs form their past tense by adding ‘-ed’, but ‘fly’ uses ‘flew’ for the simple past and ‘flown’ for the past participle.

When should I use ‘flew’?
+

Use ‘flew’ for the simple past tense of ‘fly’. The post states this describes an action that was completed in the past, like “She gasped and her hand flew to her mouth.”

When should I use ‘flown’?
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Use ‘flown’ as the past participle of ‘fly’. The post shows ‘flown’ is paired with auxiliary verbs (like have or had), as in “I have flown that airline before” or “A wasp had flown in through the.

Why is ‘flown’ wrong alone?
+

The post explains that ‘flown’ is the past participle and needs an auxiliary verb (like have, had) to be grammatically correct in a sentence. Using ‘flown’ alone, as in “The pilot flown…”, is.

Yash, D. "What’s the Past Tense of Fly? Flew or Flown?." Grammarflex, Jun 26, 2025, https://www.grammarflex.com/whats-the-past-tense-of-fly-flew-or-flown/.

Sources

  1. Harper, Douglas. “Etymology of fly.” Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/word/fly. Accessed 21 January, 2023.

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