Past Tense of “redo”
The past tense of redo is redid; the past participle is redone.
Why “redo” behaves this way
"Redo" joins "re-" (again) with "do," inheriting do's ancient three-part irregular conjugation (do/did/done) completely unchanged. The compound has meant "to do again" since Middle English, and it has stayed remarkably literal and transparent across the centuries — unlike "outdo" or "overdo," which developed distinct competitive or excessive connotations, "redo" simply means repetition, with no added figurative weight beyond that core sense. Academic grading policies at many schools formally define what counts as an acceptable "redo," specifying deadlines and conditions under which a student may resubmit work for a new grade.
In computing specifically, "redo" became a standard technical term alongside "undo" starting in the era of early word processors and graphic editors, where a "redo" command reverses an "undo" action, restoring a change the user had just reversed. This computing pairing ("undo/redo") is now so ubiquitous in software interfaces that many people encounter this specific sense of "redo" daily without necessarily thinking of it as related to the older, more general "do again" meaning. Interior-design and renovation shows have popularized "redo" as a near genre-defining verb ("kitchen redo," "backyard redo"), often used as an informal noun as much as a verb in casual home-improvement conversation.
The common confusion
The confusion mirrors plain "do" exactly: writers occasionally reach for "redid" where the participle "redone" is required ("I've redid the kitchen twice already" instead of the correct "redone"), the same do/did/done substitution error that shows up across every compound built on "do."
How it's actually used
"Redo" spans home renovation ("we redid the bathroom"), computing (the undo/redo command pair), and general revision of work ("redo the report," "redo your homework"), with the home-renovation sense especially common in everyday conversational English. In education, students are frequently offered a "redo" on an assignment, a specific classroom-policy sense of the noun that has become common enough in school vocabulary to need almost no further explanation. Board games and puzzle apps sometimes offer a limited number of "redos" per session, treating the word almost as a countable resource rather than a freely repeatable action. Even simple household chores sometimes need a full redo when a first attempt goes visibly wrong. Even professional contractors sometimes have to redo a job for free when a client rightly points out a mistake, and reputable ones rarely argue about it. A rushed first attempt at wallpapering almost always needs at least a partial redo along the seams. A patched pothole often needs a full redo within a single winter if it was rushed the first time. A hasty paint job often needs a careful redo along every single edge and corner.
Across the tense system
Every perfect-tense construction needs "redone": "has redone," "had redone," "will have redone" — the simple past "redid" is reserved strictly for plain past-tense narration without an auxiliary verb. Software changelogs frequently list "redo" as a named feature alongside "undo," treating the word almost as a fixed technical label rather than a freely conjugated verb in that specific documentation context.
Common real mistakes
The dominant error, as with every "do" compound, is "has redid" instead of "has redone." This mistake shows up constantly in casual home-improvement and DIY writing, where the perfect tense appears often ("we've redone three rooms this year"). A further nuance: "redo" implies starting a task over, distinct from "revise," which implies adjusting an existing version rather than starting again from the beginning.
Examples
- They redid the entire kitchen over the summer.
- She has redone her resume at least five times this year.
- He redid the calculation after spotting an error.
- The software lets you redo an action after undoing it.
- The teacher offered a redo on the quiz after most of the class struggled.
- He had to redo the entire spreadsheet after a formula error corrupted the totals.
- The app allows exactly one redo per level before locking the score.
Memory trick
Same family as "outdo" and "overdo": do/did/done becomes redo/redid/redone — this one keeps the meaning simplest of the three, just "to do again."