Linguistics and Jim

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Past Tense and Past Participle

What non-standard past tense or past participle forms have you heard or seen? Every now and then I catch myself saying, "I should boughten that before." I have heard a few other people say "boughten," but it's always after "should have" or "could have." It's also not a Kansas or Midwest thing, as the others I have heard say it are not from the Midwest.

posted by Jim Scofield at 3:45 PM

4 Comments:

  • Off the top of my head and at the spur of he moment it is a real challenge to recall some really good one's but I did find one although I haven't heard it in a while I used to hear it frequently and that is "You shouldn't had oughta done it".

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at Thursday, May 24, 2007 6:11:00 PM  

  • Blog contribution: I have heard several non-standard uses of past tense over
    the years. The last two are ones I heard while in the Navy. I put what I
    believe to be the more standard form in parenthesis.

    I learnt about that last year (learned)
    I smelt my mother's cooking. (smelled)
    My clothes had shrucken in the dryer (shrunk)
    I dived after the basketball (dove)
    I sneaked out of the class (snuck)


    I lighted a match (lit)
    The ship had sank and victory was declared. (sunk)

    Doug

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at Tuesday, May 29, 2007 8:54:00 AM  

  • I haven't been too successful listening for improper tenses. I think if I knew my tenses better, it would be easier. My colleague was using the word "swell" incorrectly yesterday in our meeting. Instead of saying "swollen" he would use "swell", i.e. "become swell" instead if "become swollen".

    lisa

    By Blogger Sokkrgrrl, at Thursday, May 31, 2007 9:43:00 AM  

  • All I have to do is ring up my adorable daughter-in-law, who was brought up in rural southeastern Idaho, to hear any number of grammatical indiscretions, i.e., "I shoulda went to the store," and "Adam, you didn't ought to do that." Honestly, she is the sweetest wife and a wonderful mother, but I shudder to think that my granddaughters may grow up to speak like this.
    Judith

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at Thursday, May 31, 2007 3:02:00 PM  

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