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I recently wrote the sentence, "I saw the deadline was a month passed," and have confused myself over whether it should be past or passed.

I believe it is passed—perhaps as an adverbial past participle?—because I am not referring to the past month, specifically, but that a month has passed. Also, if I take out "a month" I am left with, "I saw the deadline was passed" which I believe is more the meaning I seek (even if awkward) than "I saw the deadline was past". I am not confident, though.

Potentially relevant previous questions:

  1. "Past due" or "passed due"
  2. date has already passed OR date has already past? — This question, though, is simply a matter of the poster not knowing the meanings of past and passed, and was closed.
Mari-Lou A
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Unrelated
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  • General reference. M-W, for instance, gives 'ago' as a synonym for 'past' in the sense used in 'I saw the deadline was a month past' ['started working on this project 10 years past']. It does miscategorise this usage as 'adjective' ('past' is actually a postposition here).. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 16 '19 at 10:49
  • Closed for general reference three years after being asked and disagreeing answers? What does this gain? – Unrelated Jul 28 '19 at 15:02
  • It is requested at the Help Center that both questions and answers contain evidence of reasonable research / linked and attributed supporting references. But no such research is shown. The M-W examples essentially explain the usage. Closing the question is an attempt to discourage similarly inappropriate posts. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 28 '19 at 15:13

2 Answers2

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It seems to me that the sentence is incorrect with passed. It would say that the deadline was a month passed, but the deadline does not equate in any obvious way to a month passed. It does seem, however, that one could say that the deadline was a month past, if one considers a month past equivalent to a month ago. Colloquially, that would locate the deadline in time, which is acceptable.

So, the answer to your question is:

"I saw the deadline was a month past."

A few obvious ways to avoid the problem:

  • I saw that the deadline had passed. (not was)

  • I saw that the deadline had passed a month ago.

  • I saw that I was one month past the deadline.

  • I saw that I was past the deadline by a month.

If I try to stay as close as possible to your structure:

  • I saw that the deadline had been one month exceeded.
  • I saw that the deadline had been exceeded by one month.
Richard Kayser
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  • I'm sorry but I don't follow your logic for it seems you are claiming the invalidity if all non-tautological statements. Would you then also say that we could not say "The deadline was a month gone-by" or "The deadline was a month ago" or even "The deadline was yesterday"? Could you please expand upon your reasoning? – Unrelated Sep 02 '16 at 03:07
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    @Unrelated I didn't intend to claim that, so I may need to refine my answer. Your 2nd and 3rd examples here are fine, because they're statements about where the deadline is located in time: colloquially, I can equate "deadline" to "a month ago" or "yesterday". In your original example, I wouldn't have objected to "The deadline was a month (or a day) ago." I do object to replacing "ago" with "passed" or "past", but I don't have the command of grammatical terminology necessary to explain why. I have a similar issue with "a month gone-by" -- it doesn't mean the same thing to me as "a month ago". – Richard Kayser Sep 02 '16 at 03:39
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    @Unrelated I revised my answer based on our exchange. Thanks for engaging. – Richard Kayser Sep 02 '16 at 04:09
  • @Unrelated With new thinking in hand, "a month gone-by" seems fine if one considers it equivalent to "a month ago". It locates the deadline in time. – Richard Kayser Sep 02 '16 at 04:32
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It should be a month past with due being implied. Otherwise you'd need to make it more clear that the deadline had been passed, like the 'deadline had been passed'.

I understand what you mean and it could be considered correct but it's ambiguous. The deadline was passed by a month is what you mean, but you're setting the operative word in a place that begs interpretation even if the result is the same.

I understand your thinking, but a better option would be "the deadline was a month exceeded".

John
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  • What if I were to use a different noun than deadline though? The celebration was a month past? – Unrelated Sep 02 '16 at 02:52
  • @Unrelated, Your original statement works, but with respect to expectations in time past is more clear. The time for you to return the letter is past. The conversation is a month passed. The moment I raised the ante was 3 minutes passed. It's just a little awkward. – John Sep 02 '16 at 03:02
  • "The celebration was a month past" is incorrect for reasons I provided in my answer. You could make any number of other statements that are correct: "The celebration took place a month ago." We are one month past the celebration." "One month has passed since the celebration." Et cetera. – Richard Kayser Sep 02 '16 at 03:08
  • @John You're kidding, right? – Richard Kayser Sep 02 '16 at 03:42
  • @RichardKayser, of course. What are you talking about? – John Sep 02 '16 at 03:54
  • @John The time for you to return the letter has passed, not past. – Richard Kayser Sep 02 '16 at 03:55
  • @RichardKayser, amazingly bad on my part. Thank you. It's past my bedtime. :) – John Sep 02 '16 at 03:57
  • @John I get it. It's late here in Maryland, but ELU SE is addictive. Have a good night. – Richard Kayser Sep 02 '16 at 04:11
  • With new thinking in hand, "The celebration was a month past" is fine if one considers "a month past" equivalent to "a month ago". Colloquially, it simply locates the celebration in time. – Richard Kayser Sep 02 '16 at 04:35