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Past participles

12 replies

niadainud · 16/06/2024 15:55

What is happening to past participles? Examples of erroneous ones I have read or heard recently include:

I have drove
She has ate
They have went
You have dove (is this one American?)
He has drank
I have wrote

I suppose I'm being prescriptionist here, but I really hate this misuse and it seems to be becoming increasingly common.

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ASighMadeOfStone · 16/06/2024 18:34

Prescriptivist.

And no, you're not. You're pointing out mistakes. Prescriptivism is when you insist that there is only one correct version (accent, for example)

You may be right about US English using different past participles, but in that case, you not liking it would definitely be prescriptivist. And wrong, obviously.

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niadainud · 16/06/2024 18:46

Ah yes, prescriptivist. Thanks.

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Deedeeee · 16/06/2024 19:03

Possibly ;-) Interesting and vaguely correlated observation, lacking detail since I’ve just had a huge Sunday lunch and too much booze. But have you noticed that the past tenses you refer to are all those lacking an -ed? That the problem words are all pesky irregular verbs?

The lack of the -ed is because to get the past tense in old English, when drawing on Germanic strong verbs, you’d take a word, and switch a vowel, rather than add an -ed. Eg run-> ran. Drink -> drank. Sing -> sang.

Go to almost any really important basic verb and you might find a vowel swap, rather than an -ed, to get a past tense. I suppose maybe it’s comforting to know people aren’t writing ‘I drinked’ or ‘I runned’. Silver linings eh, OP.

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niadainud · 16/06/2024 19:09

@Deedeeee - yes, that has gone through my mind. Thanks for that interesting info about Old English.

I guess this is connected to people saying "I text him" instead of "I texted him" (even though that's not a past participle).

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Deedeeee · 16/06/2024 19:15

The text thing, ug. That makes zero sense to me. I taxt him would be better 😆

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ExitPursuedByABare · 16/06/2024 19:16

Is it text or texted?

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Deedeeee · 16/06/2024 19:20

@ExitPursuedByABare I suppose because it’s a modern action, a new activity, it’s open doors, language is fluid and always evolving. However, officially, an -ed is necessary to get the past tense. This is how you (normally) create a past tense in English.

see https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/texted

texted

1. past simple and past participle of text 2. to send someone a text message by…

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/texted

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caramac04 · 16/06/2024 19:26

I think it should be texted not text but my dc laugh at me. I text you, I text him doesn’t make sense when referring to a prior action.

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ExitPursuedByABare · 16/06/2024 19:34

I agree but texted does sound clunky.

I prefer ‘I sent a text’.

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RadioBamboo · 16/06/2024 19:45

I mean if we reinvent the verb as "to tex" it kind of works Hmm

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Teapot13 · 18/06/2024 16:13

I’m American. “Dove” is the simple past we use. She dove into the water. The participle is dived (same as UK) but I must admit it sounds wrong to me—i guess it’s don’t hear that verb used as past participle much.

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greengreyblue · 18/06/2024 16:20

Haha was just teaching Year 2s past tenses this morning. They wanted to add an ‘ed’ to draw. Don’t think the explanation regarding Germanic etymology would sink in somehow!

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