Ran

How to spell ran

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce ran

What does ran mean?

1. verbPast tense of 'run': moved quickly on foot, or operated, managed, or extended in some way.

Ran in a sentence

• She ran to the station to catch the early train.

• The engine ran smoothly for hours before it overheated.

Where does ran come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past tense of 'run', which descends from the Old English verb 'rinnan', meaning 'to flow' or 'to move quickly'. It belongs to the old Germanic family of strong verbs, the kind that mark the past by changing the vowel inside the word rather than adding an ending such as '-ed'; that pattern, called ablaut, is exactly why we say 'ran' and not 'runned'. The same vowel-shift system gave us pairs like 'sing' and 'sang', or 'swim' and 'swam'. The early forms were tangled, with related verbs in Old English and Old Norse influencing one another, which is part of why the modern set 'run', 'ran', 'run' looks slightly irregular. The spelling stayed short and simple over the centuries, so the only real trap is remembering that the past tense changes the vowel to 'a' rather than keeping the 'u'.

How the word is built

• ran (irregular past tense of the verb 'run', formed by an ancient vowel change rather than an added ending)