Jun. 10th, 2006 12:07 am
Getting stronger all the time
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Here's a question for you English etymology mavens: How many verbs can you name which were not strong in Old English but are in the modern language?
I'll take dive off the list since (a) dove is considered by many to be an Americanism and (b) it's the only one I knew about before I started researching the question. That still leaves three more indisputable cases I've unearthed plus one that's more arguable. Do you know what they are?
I'll take dive off the list since (a) dove is considered by many to be an Americanism and (b) it's the only one I knew about before I started researching the question. That still leaves three more indisputable cases I've unearthed plus one that's more arguable. Do you know what they are?
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How about dig/dug?
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hmmm...
Two questions-- what about wake/woke? That one always bothers me. The end of To Kill a Mockingbird sounds so wrong, and yet, in a way, it's also right.
The other one is drink/drank. I know that it should be drink/drunk, but because drunk tends to be an adjective, drank seems to have taken over as the pp. That one might be interesting, because while it was already strong, it changed forms to another irregular, you know?
The obvious one is spit/spat, though.