Posted on 07/03/2008 3:04:25 PM PDT by occamrzr06
When hang means, as it generally does, "to suspend," then hung is the correct past-tense and past participial form of the verb: "Yesterday, I hung a picture on the wall"; "I have hung many pictures on many walls." When hang means "to put to death by hanging," however, hanged is the correct past-tense and past participial form: "We hanged the horse-thieving varmint yesterday"; "We've hanged nigh unto forty horse thieves this year." Given that hanging has become a fairly infrequent means to a fairly infrequent end, you might think that this is an unimportant distinction. But, because of a colloquial use of hung that we blush bright yellowish green to mention here, you can end up embarrassing yourself if you use hung as an adjective to describe a male historical figure executed by hanging. History records that John Billington was hanged at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1630; whether Mr. Billington was hung, history does not record.
Torturing terrorists at Guantanimo.
Before I forget...
People are hanged; meat is hung.
Doesn’t
“well” go in front of one of those words toward the end of that paragraph?
Yes, I know. They're a pet PEEVE of mine, too.
And yet the PEAVES keep piling up.
The intelligent spell correction was no help.
My peeves are not always spelled correctly.
Thanks for noticing.
I also am by no means an English scholar, but I also have pet peeves.
You singled out one of them. Another one that annoys me is the use of the word "gender" when referring to the sex of a human. The word gender refers to grammar, not human sex.
Yet another is when one says they "got" married. They did not get married; they married.
The worse, and it is virtually everywhere, is something "for" free. It is not for free; it is just free.
When I was a young man, I might not have known the correct pronunciation of a word I read for the first time. Then, one day, I would hear it used by a radio commentator and learned the correct pronunciation and the proper grammar. Today, television news people’s grammar is terrible and should be avoided as a learning tool.
Um, er uh....
I’ve been to Guantanamo.....that’s the proper spelling, since everyone is a critic.
We did not house any ‘gay’ people there.
Arabs have a ‘gay’ all their own, but they don’t want to talk about that.
Kinda like on purpose, instead of purposely
or, on accident as oppose to accidentally, or
or until instead of til?
1. Sorry about the spelling.
2. When I suugested that William Hung be used to torture terrorists, I meant that he should sing to them.
Plural of cannon is cannon! Deer, not Deers... etc.
Ah... similar to our old sailor’s argument about lamps and lights being “lit” or “lighted”. As in: “Now the smoking lamp is lighted”.
Lamps are lighted. Things illuminated ~by~ the lamp are “lit”. As in: “The aircraft was lit up by the searchlight” or “a lit cigarette”.
That’s my understanding of it, but I could be completely wrong.
I prefer the phrase 'they committed matrimony'...
Free Gift. Sexual Orientation (preference didn’t make the cut).
Speaking of “got married”, here’s an interesting tip from a good 60s etiquette book, (a handy tome to have btw, it’s full of common-sense stuff that everyone can use to good effect regardless of station in life, etc, but prior to everything useful being expunged during the Great Purges.
To the groom, “Congratulations” is in order, but not the Bride! “Best Wishes” is suggested, because congrats can imply a sort of “well, you finally snagged somebody, at least”. Now, I’m not necessarily signed on to all of that, but *knowing what is expected* is never a bad thing, particularly in public.
I thought plural of cannon was Battery, and plural of Battery was Battalion, as in,
“BATTALION 3 ROUNDS”
Sheesh, Fort Sill taught me wrong.
See, we are back to what would the fags do.
I just don’t like hanged vs hung.
Why do we have to get fags involved?
Sure, but they’ll say “Divers discovered 12 cannonS on the sea floor”; and that ain’t right!
Were the hanged or hung from the sea floor?
huh? Hanged has always, always been correct speech, Non Disputanum Carborundum.
LOL!!!
Could be. Conservative radio talk show hosts do fairly well.
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