Learn how to spell the past tense of "occur" correctly with two Rs and an E. Find out why you need to double the R and avoid common mistakes with related words. Occurred is the past tense and past participle of occur, which means to happen or take place. See how to use occurred in sentences from the Cambridge English Corpus and other sources. Occurred or Occured – Which is Correct? by Sarah Thompson March 3, 2024 When it comes to the English language, there are countless words that can often trip us up with their tricky spellings and pronunciations. One such word that often causes confusion is “occur”. The correct spelling is “occur”, with two c’s. Correct spelling, explanation: occurred is a past participle of a verb occur. The past participle is generally created by adding a suffix -ed to a particular verb, but there are a few other rules.