Bury past tense
Meaning of bury
to place (a dead body) in the earth, a tomb, or the sea, typically with funeral rites.
Infinitive
- 1. Every year, they bury time capsules in their school yard as a tradition.
- 2. She always buries her valuables in a safe place before going on vacation.
- 3. The gardener buries the seeds deep in the soil to ensure their growth.
Past Simple
- 1. They buried the time capsule in the backyard ten years ago.
- 2. The villagers quickly buried the treasure to keep it hidden from the invaders.
- 3. After the ceremony, we buried the beloved family pet beneath her favorite tree in the garden.
Past Participle
- 1. The treasure was buried deep beneath the ocean floor.
- 2. The old family secrets have been buried for decades.
- 3. My childhood keepsakes were buried in the backyard by my brother.
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Bare infinitive
- To describe a routine, habit, or general truth.Example. 'I always bury my toes in the sand when I go to the beach.'
Past Simple
- To describe an action completed at a specific time in the past.Example. 'He buried the time capsule in his backyard last year.'Example. 'They dug a hole, buried the chest, and marked the spot with a large stone.'
- To narrate a sequence of events or actions that happened in the past.Example. 'He buried the time capsule in his backyard last year.'Example. 'They dug a hole, buried the chest, and marked the spot with a large stone.'
Past Participle
- To form the perfect tenses (present perfect, past perfect, future perfect) indicating an action that was completed at some point in the past or will be completed before a specific point in the future.Example. Present Perfect. 'We have buried all the evidence.'Example. Past Perfect. 'By the time the detective arrived, the evidence had already been buried.'Example. Future Perfect. 'They will have buried the time capsule before the ceremony begins.'Example. Passive Voice. 'The treasure was buried on the deserted island centuries ago.'
- To be used in passive voice constructions.Example. Present Perfect. 'We have buried all the evidence.'Example. Past Perfect. 'By the time the detective arrived, the evidence had already been buried.'Example. Future Perfect. 'They will have buried the time capsule before the ceremony begins.'Example. Passive Voice. 'The treasure was buried on the deserted island centuries ago.'
Common mistakes
— 01
Form for Regular Verbs
A common mistake with the word 'bury' is using the wrong forms for its past simple and past participle. Being a regular verb, 'bury' follows a predictable pattern by adding -ed for both its past simple and past participle forms, becoming 'buried' in both cases. However, learners often mistakenly treat 'bury' as an irregular verb, leading to incorrect forms. For example, saying 'buried' correctly for the past simple but incorrectly using a non-standard form like 'burrowed' or 'bore' for the past participle, when 'buried' should be used in both scenarios.
— 02
Misuse in Perfect Tenses
Another common mistake is the misuse of 'bury' in perfect tenses. Since the past participle form is used in perfect tenses (have/has/had buried), learners sometimes mistakenly use the past simple 'buried' as if it were the base form, leading to incorrect sentences. For instance, saying 'I have buried it yesterday' instead of the correct 'I buried it yesterday' for past simple, or 'I had bury it before you came' instead of the correct 'I had buried it before you came' for past perfect.
— 03
Active and Passive Voice
The third mistake involves confusing the active and passive voice, especially with the past participle form. In passive constructions, 'buried' should be used with a form of 'to be' to indicate that the subject was acted upon. A common error is using the active voice incorrectly when the passive is needed, or vice versa. For example, saying 'The treasure was bury in the island' instead of the correct passive form 'The treasure was buried on the island,' or using the passive incorrectly in an active sentence like 'They were buried the treasure' instead of the correct 'They buried the treasure.'
Past tense quiz
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