Meaning & use
found out
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“found out” is a form of “find out”.
Meanings
verbphrasal verb
Past tense and past participle of find out: learned a fact by looking, asking or investigating.
Grammar: Takes a that-clause or wh-clause, or about: she found out the truth.
Patterns
- found out about something
- found out that something happened
I found out the train times online.
She found out that the shop was closed.
They found out about the party from a friend.
verbphrasal verb
Past tense and past participle of find out: discovered that someone had done something wrong or secret.
Grammar: Often passive: he was found out.
Patterns
- found someone out
- be found out
The thief was found out when the cameras were checked.
She felt nervous, afraid she would be found out.
The teacher found him out after he copied the answers.
Word forms
| base form | find out |
|---|---|
| third person singular | finds out |
| -ing form | finding out |
Common combinations
- found out the truth
- He found out the truth too late.
- found out about
- We found out about the move last week.
- found out the hard way
- They found out the hard way that the road floods.
- was found out
- The cheat was found out by the referee.
- found out too late
- She found out too late that the bank had closed.
Synonyms and how they differ
- discovered
- Discovered is more formal and can describe finding something never known before.
- learned
- Learned is neutral and says nothing about the effort of searching.
- uncovered
- Uncovered suggests revealing something buried or hidden.
- realized
- Realized refers to sudden understanding, not obtaining information.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: found out or founded? found out or find out / look up?
found out vs founded
Founded means established, as in the school was founded in 1900. Found out is about discovering.
found out vs find out / look up
Look up means to check in a source; find out is the wider idea of learning.
Practice
She was nervous that her teacher would ___ about the missing homework.
Choose one answer.
After 'would', the base form 'find out' is needed. 'Found out' is past tense, so it does not fit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “found out”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.