“Can you point out the grain that attacked you, ma’am?”
These two pairs have long troubled me gently, and it came to a head last week when someone impertinently commented on Facebook (where, for reasons you need not worry about, I was talking about ‘commonly misspelt words’) ‘”Misspelt”?! “Misspelled”, please.’
To deal with spell first, here’s the thing. The Guardian style guide specifies spelled for the past tense and spelt for the past participle, The Times prefers spelt in both instances, The Economist says spelled is American English and spelt is British English and healthfood shops tell us spelt is a more primitive form of wheat. Then there’s the OED, which says both are fine but lists spelled first, and Collins, which agrees but lists spelt first.
Is learn any simpler? Nope. Now, my first chief sub told me to spell it learnt, so as not to confuse it with the adjective learned, as in ‘he’s a learned man’. The Guardian style guide, however, says not to write learnt ‘unless you are writing old-fashioned poetry’. The Economist says learnt is British English and learned is American English and The Times prefers learnt in both instances. Collins and the OED agree that either spelling is fine, and both list learned first.
Fowler, in a rare show of tolerance, acknowledges both learned and learnt, spelled and spelt, though he notes that the -t endings are more common in British English, and that learned is more common as the past form.
Right then. That’s as clear as mud. So, what do people actually do? I asked the question on Twitter, and discovered that they do all kinds of things. There was a slight preference for -t endings (most of my followers are British, so that makes sense), a lot of confusion and a few preferences, but none of the usual tubthumping. Basically, we’re all a bit unsure.
Do I have an answer? Not really, beyond that if someone starts throwing ‘?!’ combinations at you on Facebook, you’re well within your rights to tell them to bugger orf.
As a general rule, it seems that -t endings are a trait peculiar to the British, and as such have some connotations of old-fashionedness. If you’re writing for an international audience, you may wish to switch to -ed, but otherwise, as you were. Pick your preference and defend it to the death, or at least until someone comes up with a sensible argument for changing it.
What’s your preference?
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Update 28/11/2012
This just in from my colleague Kathy:
I found the thing wot I was talking about yesterday: the -t endings that have now fallen away include: curst (as in that fine Brighton band, The Curst Sons), dropt, husht, kist, stopt and whipt. The ones where the -t ending is now the only formation include: crept, dealt, felt, kept, left, meant, slept, swept. And those that have preserved both alternatives include: bereave, burnt, dream, kneel, lean, learn, smell, spell, spill and spoil. Because I know you won’t have been able to sleep.
I think I’ll just go with the -ed forms.
Actually I’m tempted to dig out my old schoolbooks and check which form they taught us – I learned English as a second language starting 1989.
Comment by Anke Wehner — December 13, 2011 @ 7:16 pm |
Always ‘t’ for me. ‘-ed’ is definitely American. They’re both Germanic (aren’t they?), so the ‘t’ ending makes sense. Same with smelt, felt etc. I suppose ‘-ed’ might be better aesthetically, if you’re into that stuff, and I reckon in time all the ‘t’ endings will be switcht to ‘-ed’. So I’ve been tellt. Which would be a shame.
Comment by Pablo — December 14, 2011 @ 10:53 am |
Well, I can tell that I haven’t traveled British circles. Solid western U.S.
“ed” usage for me.
Comment by Talk to me...I'm your Mother — December 14, 2011 @ 3:19 pm |
I tend to switch regularly between the two as they both look wrong most of the time. I just try to stick with one variant per piece of writing so as not to upset the readers.
Comment by Krissie — December 15, 2011 @ 1:09 pm |
You see? You see? We’re all over the place!
Comment by substuff — December 16, 2011 @ 10:24 am |
I don’t care: all that matters to me is which one the style guide tells me to use. It’s the past tense of ‘dream’ that I feel uncomfortable with. Whichever way I look at it, ‘dreamt’ does not leap happily from the printed page, yet no-one says “I dreamed all my clothes disappeared”.
Comment by Alistair Dabbs — December 20, 2011 @ 3:39 pm |
I was taught that -t is British and -ed American for those verbs, and as a young college student I made the mistake to mix both, as I was taught that either version was right. My, then, English teacher explained then that I shouldn’t mix both and use what ss appropriate for the audience. I live in England now and consider -ed to be incorrect for British English and try to avoid, when writing, mixing American and British.
Comment by Olga — February 5, 2012 @ 8:44 am |
Lifelong Mercan here. Never used the “t” versions of any of those listed, except that second group Kathy listed, where only the “t” version seems to exist at all.
Comment by kitchenmudge — December 2, 2012 @ 7:54 am |
I have always used whatever spelling I feeled like at the time.
Comment by Alistair Dabbs — December 2, 2012 @ 2:15 pm |
I have always favoured “t” and as a stubborn old dyslexic I shall continue to
Comment by kosmicklown — December 5, 2012 @ 11:14 pm |
It’s just occurred to me there’s a parallel with Dutch here (your colleague Kathy’s list helped me make the connection). Verbs whose stem ends in any of the consonants found in the mnemonic “soft ketchup” add -t in the past participle and -te in the imperfect, while those ending in other letters take -d and -de. Example: stoppen (to stop) becomes ik stopte/ik ben gestopt (I stopped/I have stopped), wandelen (to walk) becomes ik wandelde/ik heb gewandeld (I walked/I have walked) etc. Obviously there are lots of exceptions, but it’s pleased me no end to make this link!
Comment by sallybtipper — January 29, 2013 @ 3:42 pm |
Both -t and -ed violate the Kiss principle (Keep It Short and Simple), -ed being long and simple (2 letters -ed, but only one -ed rule to learn, handy in a nation of immigrants like the USA with lots having to learn English as a second language) while -t is short and efficient but complicated (one letter -t, but 2 rules to learn, -ed and -t). Just blame it all on the stupid cunned who invented English spelling
Comment by Theloh Slobus — March 18, 2013 @ 10:21 am |
Firstly, one person didn’t invent the spelling of the English language, but a few hands/heads helped record it. At the time, they were a bunch of very learned fellows indeed. However, their teachers/tutors/preachers and mothers thought some ridiculously absurd things, so we can’t rely on homosapiens too much now. And, they wrote with quills and ink, drank to much and didn’t have a dictionary….. because they were writing it (Mr Johnson we’re talking about you)!
We really mustn’t be blind to the beauty of what is a truly rich, and ever evolving language….. yes, we have ‘stolen’ or integrated words from different languages…. changed spellings, created inconsistencies and developed one hell of a crazed pronunciation game for non-native speakers and foreigners. But may we all remember, when the Americas were a bountiful land of many a indigenous tribe, The British Isles or lil’ol Blighty, had been a land of immigrants for several hundred years, a melting pot of languages and dialects from all over…. and that was just the start.There are lot’s of similarities with Germanic languages…. which is just one of English’s influences.
Furthermore, there is the whole regular/irregular verb thing, which a few of you got a little confused over on this page (telled???? is that supposed to be funny/clever????). Shakespeare- was known to spell his name in different ways- used ed and t…. Steinbeck talked about a ‘lighted’ lamp…. but Dickens used these so called ‘Americanisms, too…. though he did travel a lot in the States.
Then you have the so called ‘rule’ of the ed pronunciation- a verb ending with a voiced sound eg. serve ‘vvvv’ has a ‘d’ pronunciation, a verb ending in an unvoiced sound eg. like ‘kkk’ has a ‘t’ pronunciation and all verbs ending in a t/d sound eg. want/need have an ‘id’ pronunciation….. then you go and look at the word learn (which I spell, learnt, in both past forms) and it should (according to the ‘rule’) be learned, along with spelled, spilled, spoiled, bereaved, burned and so on…… So, it makes sense to the non-native speaker to adopt this rule….. but then liked, asked, looked, chucked, noticed, typed, etc should be spelt with a ‘t’ for consistency and ease, no? This is not what the English language stands for, ease, schmease…. Please! Not on your nelly! As for the verb ‘creep’…. creeped, no way, you try and say it….. ‘crept’ all the way, mate! But you wouldn’t think twice about ‘peeped’….. and it goes on and on…. anon anon.
A language with over 100 languages within it/having affected it… we are sure to find many anomalies, frustrations, and surprises that we could ponder over until the end of time and it wouldn’t really consolidate things (linguists try though) ya get me?
I think the idea is to read, absorb, interpret and don’t be lazy, or a complete numpty and forget to spell-check. Look in a dictionary every once in a while, too.
Comment by AnnoyinglyuppityAngloEnglishteacherwithagrowingpassionforunderstandingmoreabouttheseeminglyincomprehensible — May 17, 2013 @ 12:22 am |