Past Tense of “become”
The past tense of become is became; the past participle is become.
Why “become” behaves this way
"Become" descends from Old English "becuman," a compound of the prefix "be-" plus "cuman" (to come) — historically it meant something closer to "to arrive" or "to come to be," and it shares its irregular conjugation directly with "come" (come/came/come), since the two verbs are built from the identical Germanic root with only a prefix separating them.
Because "become" is transparently "be-" plus "come," its ablaut pattern has stayed perfectly aligned with its base verb across more than a thousand years of independent sound change — a genuine rarity, since prefixed compound verbs in English often drift away from their base verb's conjugation over time (compare "understand," which no longer looks anything like a simple compound of "under" plus "stand" in meaning, even though it still shares the identical conjugation). "Become" and "become of" both trace back to the same compound, but the fixed question form "what has become of..." developed its own specialized idiomatic life centuries ago, independent of the verb's ordinary linking use in everyday sentences describing a change of state.
The common confusion
The form itself gives little trouble, since it tracks "come" exactly; the real usage nuance is that "become" is one of English's core linking (copular) verbs, always followed by a noun or adjective describing a resulting state ("become a doctor," "become anxious"), never by a direct object the way an ordinary transitive verb would take one.
How it's actually used
"Become" is one of a small set of linking verbs (alongside "seem," "appear," and "grow" in its figurative sense) that connect a subject to a resulting state rather than describing an action performed on an object, which is why "become" is never used with a passive voice construction of its own (you can't say something "was become," the way you'd say something "was broken"). The fixed rhetorical question "what has become of..." is a common way to ask about someone or something's current fate or whereabouts, often carrying a note of concern or nostalgia that a plainer question ("where is...") doesn't convey. "Become" also survives in a narrower, more formal adjectival sense meaning "suitable" or "flattering" ("that color becomes you," meaning it suits you well), a genuinely separate usage closer to the word's old sense of fittingness than to its everyday meaning of transformation. Legal and bureaucratic writing sometimes uses "become" in the passive-feeling construction "it has become necessary to...", a hedging phrase that introduces a requirement without directly naming who is imposing it, common in formal notices and policy documents.
Across the tense system
"Has become" in the present perfect frequently introduces a gradual, ongoing transformation still relevant to the present moment ("the city has become unaffordable"), distinct from the simple past ("the city became unaffordable last year"), which pins the change to a specific, more clearly bounded period.
Common real mistakes
Because "become" tracks "come" so closely, there's little independent conjugation error, but learners occasionally follow "become" with a direct object as though it were an ordinary transitive verb, producing awkward constructions instead of the correct noun or adjective complement pattern. A separate, subtler error is using "become" where "turn into" or "turn" would sound more natural for a sudden or dramatic change ("the milk became sour" is grammatically fine but "the milk turned sour" is the far more idiomatic everyday choice). A further subtlety many learners miss is that "become" cannot be followed directly by a bare noun without an article where one is grammatically required ("become doctor" is wrong; "become a doctor" is correct), an easy slip for speakers of languages that don't require articles before profession nouns.
Examples
- She became a doctor after eight years of training.
- He has become increasingly confident over the years.
- They became close friends during college.
- We had become used to the noise by the second week.
- The sky becomes darker as the storm approaches.
- What has become of the old house on the corner?
- It's becoming harder to find good help these days.
- She's become someone I barely recognize.
Memory trick
Remember "become" is simply "be-" plus "come" with the identical ablaut pattern preserved intact — if you can conjugate "come," you can conjugate "become" the exact same way, just with the prefix attached throughout.