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I'm not a native English speaker, so sorry if this is a very basic question. Is broadcast a verb? If it is, what is the simple past and past participle: broadcasted?

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  • Good question. I've heard both "broadcast" and "broadcasted" being used for the past tense of the verb.
    – Jez
    Commented Jul 7, 2011 at 16:27

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Yes, broadcast is a verb, and Dictionary.com says either broadcast or broadcasted is acceptable as the simple past and past participle.

However, this Ngram shows that broadcast is by far the preferred version.

A study on this very issue can be found here.

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  • Besides the words mentioned in the article, I think that this little quirk also applies to telecast. But it curiously does not seem to have the same effect on forecast.
    – coleopterist
    Commented Oct 29, 2012 at 19:21
  • -1 for stating that broadcast is the "preferred version". To be aware that you are using a word and prefering it requires you to be aware of at least one more option. Not everyone can be said to have preferred the use of "broadcast" to "broadcasted".
    – user123647
    Commented Jun 1, 2015 at 11:32
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    @DrOtka - Any native speaker of English has an intuitive understanding of the use of the "-ed" suffix, so there is no way they could not be aware of that option.
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Jun 1, 2015 at 11:41

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