Someone on FB asked about these. This is from my new book that is coming out this fall: Word Pares, Pears, Pairs. It will be some 3,000 pairs defined with examples.
passed
Past tense and past participle of to pass
Always part of the verb
VB: go by …passed all but one car in the race…
VB: distribute ...was passed from one table to the next…
VB: succeed, do well …passed the exam with flying colors…
VB: decline …passed on going with us
VB: omit …passed over for promotion…
past
Never part of the verb
N: earlier time, time before now …is all in the past now… …past keeps coming back to haunt her…
ADJ: preceding, gone by, earlier point in time …because of her past experience… …within the past week…
ADJ: one time …past president of the organization… …one of her past loves…
ADV: later than a particular time …her time was past…
ADV: by …walked past several times… …drove past later…
PREP: on the far side of …just past midnight… …past the fence…
PREP: beyond …am past understanding…