Do You Say “Dragged” Or “Drug”?

What’s the past tense of drag—dragged or drug? Let’s stop dragging our feet and find out!

In this article, we will examine the words dragged and drug as forms of drag, explain the difference between them, and provide examples of how they’re typically used in sentences.

Is it dragged or drug?

In what’s considered standard English, drag is known as a regular verb because both the past tense and past participle forms are dragged (formed by adding -ed, like other regular verbs). This means that dragged is the form of drag used in the past tense, the perfect verb tenses, and in passive constructions.

For example:

• He dragged the heavy bags through the dirt.
• They had dragged themselves out of bed before the alarm went off.
• The net was dragged across the water by a fishing boat.

In some American dialects, the word drug is used as a nonstandard past tense and past participle form of drag. In this case, drug is used in all the same ways that dragged is used.

For example:

• He drug the heavy bags through the dirt.
• They had drug themselves out of bed before the alarm went off.
• The net was drug across the water by a fishing boat.

When drug is used as its past tense and past participle form, drag is considered an irregular verb.

Still, most grammar resources consider drag to be a regular verb, meaning that the past tense and past participle form drug is considered nonstandard.

Remember that the word drug is of course also used as a noun and as a related verb (whose past tense is drugged).

To learn about another irregular verb pattern, check out our guide to drank vs. drunk.

Verbs similar to drag 

As a regular verb, drag follows the same pattern as other regular verbs: its past tense and past participle, dragged, ends in -ed.

When drag is treated as an irregular verb, the only verb that follows a somewhat similar pattern to drag is the word hang. The past tense and past participle of hang can either become hanged or hung depending on what specific meaning of hang is being used. Unlike dragged and drug, though, hanged and hung are not interchangeable.

Examples of dragged and drug used in a sentence

Let’s not drag this out any longer. Here are some example sentences that show how dragged and drug are often used. Remember, drug can be used in all the same ways that dragged is, but it’s usually considered nonstandard.

• The cat just dragged/drug her tail across my face.
• This process has dragged/drug on forever.
• The kids needed costumes so I dragged/drug out the old box from the attic.
• The newspapers dragged/drug his reputation through the mud.
• The towel was clearly dragged/drug across the grass.