Spell Bee Word: ate

Basic Details

Word: Ate

Part of Speech: Verb

Meaning: The past tense of eat. If you ate something, you put food in your mouth and swallowed it at some time before now.

Synonyms: consumed, devoured

Sounds like: eight (the number 8)

How to Spell Ate

Syllables: ate

Tricky part: Ate sounds exactly like eight, the number. Students mix up the two in sentences, writing eight when they mean the past of eat.

Watch out for: aet, ayt, aite

Memory tip: Ate is short and quick, like one quick bite. Eight, the number, is the long one with ei and gh, the same letters as in eighteen.

Usage Examples

Example 1: Bunty ate three gulab jamuns at the wedding and wanted a fourth.

Example 2: We ate our lunch on the steps of the old temple.

Example 3: The goat ate the flowers that Nani had planted.

Fun Fact

In British English, ate is often said like et, while most speakers in India and America say it to rhyme with gate. Both are accepted.

Practise the CREST Way

Word Cookie

Find the misspelt word in the sentence:

After the cricket match, the whole team aite hot samosas under the big banyan tree.

a) aite
b) banyan
c) samosas
d) match

Word Connection

Choose the synonym of the word: ate

a) served
b) consumed
c) cooked
d) bought

Spell-o-Spell

Choose the correctly spelt word:

a) tomatos
b) ate
c) vegetabel
d) brekfast

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which sentence uses ate correctly?

a) My sister is ate years old.
b) The bus comes at ate o'clock.
c) There are ate days left.
d) I ate two idlis for breakfast.

2. Ate is the past tense of which verb?

a) heat
b) eight
c) meet
d) eat