in the past
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Happened or existed before the present time
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
đã xảy ra hoặc tồn tại trước thời điểm hiện tại
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: within a previous period
Register: neutral
Examples
Japan has changed significantly in the past 50 years.Nhật Bản đã có những thay đổi đáng kể trong 50 năm qua.
Japan has changed significantly in the past 50 years.Nhật Bản đã thay đổi đáng kể trong 50 năm qua.
Tatoeba sentence #457570 (CC BY 2.0 FR, tatoeba.org, retrieved 2026-07-31)
Sources & notes
Everyday learner phrase (CEFR A1); level cross-referenced from published learner lists. Definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-01; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “in the past” mean?
Happened or existed before the present time Literally: within a previous period
Is “in the past” formal or informal?
in the past is generally neutral.