# A-changin', a-flying, a-wooing **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 22, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-changin-a-flying-a-wooing/490373 "2009-03-22T20:07:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-changin-a-flying-a-wooing/490373/1 "2009-03-22T20:07:35Z")
“The times they are a-changin” - B. Dylan “I have my ship, and all my flags are a-flying” - S. Stills “The frog he would a-wooing go” - Anon What do you call the above construction – prefixing “a-” to a verb? Where does it come from? It doesn’t change the meaning at all: “The times they are changing” means exactly the same thing. (It does seem to give an archaic flavor to the phrase.) So when and why do writers decide to use it? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-changin-a-flying-a-wooing/490373/2 "2009-03-22T20:12:01Z")
Presumably to keep the cadence a-flowing smoothly. Read them without the “a-” and they sound sort of stilted. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-changin-a-flying-a-wooing/490373/3 "2009-03-22T20:25:36Z")
I think that the a- prefix used to be standard for gerunds, in an older version of English, but fell out of use for most situations. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-changin-a-flying-a-wooing/490373/4 "2009-03-22T20:28:40Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I think that the a- prefix used to be standard for gerunds, in an older version of English, but fell out of use for most situations. Yeah – If I’m not mistaken, Late Middle English or Early Modern English cognate to _ge-_ in German, descended more directly from Old English y-, as in “Sumer is y-comen in; lhude singe cuckoo.” ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-changin-a-flying-a-wooing/490373/5 "2009-03-22T23:24:52Z")
Really? I had thought that the y- prefix was past tense, as in “and the yonge sonne hath in the ram his halve course yronne”. The Sun isn’t running half of Aries; it already has run half of Aries. Oh, and I’m reasonably sure that your example is Middle English, not Old English, since it’s mostly intelligible to me. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-changin-a-flying-a-wooing/490373/6 "2009-03-22T23:41:06Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I think that the a- prefix used to be standard for gerunds, in an older version of English, but fell out of use for most situations. For present participles, not for gerunds, although the two have the same form in modern English. If you think of a participle as an adjectival form of a verb, the “a-” prefix is performing a similar function to that seen in forms like “awake”, “asleep”, “alive”, “afloat”. You are correct that Polycarp’s example is a past participle, not a present participle. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-changin-a-flying-a-wooing/490373/7 "2009-03-23T00:07:40Z")
“La La La La La.” I can’t hear you… Didn’t like that stuff back then, don’t like it now… :eek: - :: I went to Catholic school for 12 years. what’s your excuse? :: \* ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-changin-a-flying-a-wooing/490373/8 "2009-03-23T00:51:07Z")
You guys are right about my propensity to participlalize improperly. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-changin-a-flying-a-wooing/490373/9 "2009-03-23T00:53:39Z")
Thank goodness it was you saying that and not, say, Daffy Duck. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-changin-a-flying-a-wooing/490373/10 "2009-03-23T02:33:37Z")
_How do you know he isn’t?_