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Past tense of “hang”

🖼️ To fix something at the top so it goes down freely.

Number 72 of 175 by frequency — common in reading and television, less so in your own speech, and the past and the participle are both hung. Recognising it is the priority.

Do not confuse it with…

Objects are hung; people who were executed were hanged. The second form exists purely for that one grim meaning, and using it otherwise sounds wrong.

Phrases you will actually hear

These are worth learning whole. A verb sticks far better inside a phrase somebody would really say than on its own in a table.

Only the vowel moves

The consonants stay exactly where they are and the vowel changes underneath them: hang → hung, a → u. Nothing is added and nothing is dropped.

The past simple and the past participle are the same word, hung. Half the work disappears: learn hang · hung and you have the whole verb. What is left is telling the two jobs apart — She hung the picture above the sofa. is the past simple, Your coat has hung there all week. is the perfect, and have does all the signalling.

This is worth hearing rather than reading. Say hang and hung one after the other — the shape of your mouth changes, the word does not.

The same pattern — twins — runs through 73 verbs: