Verb forms
Base form
/luːz/
Past Simple
/lɔːst/
Past Participle
/lɔːst/
Example sentences
Base form · lose
- I always lose my keys when I'm in a hurry.
Past Simple · lost
- They lost the match by a single point.
- He didn't lose anything at the meeting.
- Did you lose it before lunch?
- I lost it as soon as I possibly could.
Past Participle · lost
- He has lost ten kilos since January.
- I have already lost it more than once.
- She has just lost the very same thing.
- By the time we arrived, they had lost everything.
Common collocations
lose weight
to become lighter
lose track
to stop being aware of something
lose your temper
to suddenly become angry
Key tenses
| Present Simple | Past Simple | Present Perfect |
|---|---|---|
I lose he / she / it loses | I lost | I have lost |
| Present Continuous:I am losing · he / she / it is losing | ||
Grammar guide
The verb "lose" follows the ABB pattern: the past simple and past participle share one form ("lost"), while the base form ("lose") is different. ABB is the most common pattern among English irregular verbs — roughly half of all irregulars fall here, so mastering this group pays dividends across the whole language.
Use the past simple "lost" to talk about a completed action or event at a definite moment in the past. It stands alone as the main verb — no auxiliary is needed. Common accompanying time expressions include yesterday, last week, ago, and when: "She lost the whole report by herself." The action is seen as finished and anchored to a specific past time.
The past participle "lost" always works together with an auxiliary verb. It appears in: (1) the present perfect with have/has — "I have lost this several times before"; (2) the past perfect with had — "By the time we called, they had already lost"; (3) passive voice — "The decision was lost by the board." Never use "lost" as a standalone past-tense verb without an auxiliary.
Memory tip: because "lost" and "lost" are the same, you only need to memorise one past form. Many ABB verbs follow recognisable sound shifts — a large group ends in -ought (bring→brought, buy→bought, catch→caught, fight→fought, seek→sought, teach→taught, think→thought), and another group shows a vowel shift plus -t (feel→felt, keep→kept, leave→left, mean→meant, sleep→slept). Identifying which sub-group "lose" belongs to can make the form easier to remember long-term.
Quick quiz
Which sentence is correct?
Conjugation pattern
The past simple and the past participle share the same form.