# A grammar pet peeve: Hanged vs. Hung **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 28, 2013, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669 "2013-02-28T21:33:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669/41 "2013-03-01T07:09:54Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I could give a damn but I couldn’t give a damn. > > You’re really going to flip when you learn about contranyms. My favorite is with. Britain fought with Germany in World War II and Britain fought with America in World War II mean totally different things. for some reason that does not bother me at all. the so called idiom, however, brings my reading to a halt as my mind revolts against the abomination and insists on adding a “not” to the phrase. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669/42 "2013-03-01T07:11:23Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I could give a damn but I couldn’t give a damn. > > You’re really going to flip when you learn about contranyms. My favorite is with. Britain fought with Germany in World War II and Britain fought with America in World War II mean totally different things. I got a taste of this in high school French class (in Hawaii), circa 1968. We had to read a very abridged version of _La Tulipe Noire_. There was some passage in there about somebody being angry with somebody else. But in the phrase [somebody was] angry with [somebody], the French word for “with” was “contra”. The teacher explained that “contra” usually means “against”, but in this case it means “with”. I thought the French had it right the first time. Saying somebody is “angry against” someone actually makes a lot more sense that saying somebody is “angry with” someone. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669/43 "2013-03-01T07:58:44Z")
> [@Asimovian](#): > > I took it to mean “immeasurable.” Which is not to say that I think it’s a particularly intelligent phrasing. But I feel like I get what they were going for. I imagine they wanted to say “lashes so long that they defy measurement”, but realised that if the statement made sense, it would represent a claim that people might expect to be true. ---
**Author:** ![Stealth\_Potato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Stealth\_Potato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Potato)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669/44 "2013-03-01T08:30:51Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Second, I think there is a difference in meaning. If you’re hanging an outlaw vs. hanging a set of drapes, you’re not performing the exact same action but only on different objects; you’re performing two essentially different actions. One’s an act of execution, the other of decoration. I’d say the real distinction is that “to hang,” in the sense of hanging drapes, is a different word from “to hang,” in the sense of stringing someone up. This is seen by the observable fact that they use different lexemes for one of the inflections in their respective paradigms, despite being homonymic in all their other forms. The natures of the action, subjects, or objects used in the sentence don’t inform any kind of syntactic “rule” about hung vs. hanged – to suppose so unpardonably conflates syntax with semantics. Instead, they indicate which of the two words can be sensibly used in a sentence that would be understood by other English speakers. Although as **cochrane** pointed out, the verb whose preterite is written “hung” is fine to use for both types of action. (And “hung” in the sense of “having a large penis” is a separate word, being an adjective and not a verb.) ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669/45 "2013-03-01T11:16:50Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > argh, “I could care less” needs to die in a fire. it does not reflect well on the language to have both the positive and negative of the same construction of a phrase to mean the same thing! It does, really, it does. The problem is, I can’t decide if it’s flammable or inflammable… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669/46 "2013-03-01T12:45:59Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > argh, “I could care less” needs to die in a fire. it does not reflect well on the language to have both the positive and negative of the same construction of a phrase to mean the same thing! You must think you’re pretty hot, huh? Or maybe you’re cool. Or, to address it more directly, do you think you’re accurately understanding why the idiom works? Yeahhhh…SURE you are. No, you’re not. When there’s a positive and negative of the same construction of a phrase to mean the same thing, there’s a pretty good chance that one of the constructions is sarcastic. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669/47 "2013-03-01T12:53:19Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > Can I say, “I’m going to lay my body down?” That’s perfectly grammatically correct (not that that’s required for bluesiness), as is “Now I lay me down to sleep.” In both cases you’re laying something; there’s an object to the verb. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669/48 "2013-03-01T14:08:53Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > When there’s a positive and negative of the same construction of a phrase to mean the same thing, there’s a pretty good chance that one of the constructions is sarcastic. That is Steven Pinker’s take on the phrase. I’m not sure I completely agree, but he’s right that the intonation of “I could care less” is generally different from a straight reading. Most often, it’s “I could CARE LESS,” with a drawn out “care” and “less.” That said, I’ve heard it with a straight intonation, and I’m not convinced it’s an intentionally sarcastic phrase, either. I don’t think it matters, idiom is idiom, there’s no need to justify it or make sense of it. While searching for the original quote, here is [one critique of Pinker’s view](http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001207.html) that it is sarcastic intonation. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669/49 "2013-03-01T14:11:34Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > That said, I’ve heard it with a straight intonation, and I’m not convinced it’s an intentionally sarcastic phrase, either. I think people who say it that way are just being careless. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669/50 "2013-03-01T14:15:57Z")
I should _ **of** _ never opened this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669/51 "2013-03-01T14:26:39Z")
The past tense of plead is not pled; it is pleaded. He pleaded guilty. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669/52 "2013-03-01T14:40:03Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > “Aren’t I?” It’s grammatically correct. It’s just. . . not _right_. But it’s all we have. > [@Senegoid](#): > > . . . Not really. “Aren’t” is a contraction of “Are not”. > “Aren’t I” would mean, then, “Are not I” ( == Are I not ), which clearly should be “Am I not”. > But we don’t have a good contraction for “am not” (Amn’t I?), so we colloquially say “Aren’t I”, but that really ain’t cromulent. . . . Well, [yeah, really.](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aren't) . > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > My pet peeve is people who don’t understand that language is idiomatic, not generated by logic gates. “I couldn’t care less,” “better than ever,” “literally” meant as “really,” and so on are totally fine usages, if you’re a human being and not an android. QFT. The most reliable account of [I could care less](http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ico1.htm). Absolutely no indication of sarcasm. It’s just a phrase that got shortened. I found in in newspaper headings in the late 1950s. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669/53 "2013-03-01T14:46:26Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > It does, really, it does. The problem is, I can’t decide if it’s flammable or inflammable… 😉 The prefix in- in this case means into, in, on or upon so inflammable means on+fire+capability. Capable of being set on fire. This is the same prefix that is found in words like inquire or inscribe. ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669/54 "2013-03-01T14:51:59Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > …Second, I think there is a difference in meaning. If you’re hanging an outlaw vs. hanging a set of drapes, you’re not performing the exact same action but only on different objects; you’re performing two essentially different actions. **One’s an act of execution, the other of decoration.** _My bolding_ Hanged on the gallows. Hung on the gibbet. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669/55 "2013-03-01T14:53:33Z")
> [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > I’ve noticed this is extremely common on dating websites. More often than not, the girl’s picture will be titled “My Sister and I” or “My Friends and I”, instead of “…and me” Years ago I was at a mall and leafed through Bill Clinton’s biography and was astounded that all the pictures were captioned with “Hilary and I,” “Mother and I,” etc. What’s up with that? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669/56 "2013-03-01T14:56:37Z")
> [@stpauler](#): > > I should _ **of** _ never opened this thread. Ah, that’s one that does get my goat a bit. More of a spelling/transcription error, but a grammar error, too. ---
**Author:** ![fjs1fs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9e8a1a/32.png) [@fjs1fs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fjs1fs)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669/57 "2013-03-01T16:33:10Z")
> [@freckafree](#): > > That one bugs me, too. > which also leads to such constructions as “between you and I.” Using “I” instead of me is probably the most common, and to me the most annoying misuse of grammar. “Educated” people even say things like “Set up a meeting with he and I.” Ugggggh ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669/58 "2013-03-01T17:06:15Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Years ago I was at a mall and leafed through Bill Clinton’s biography and was astounded that all the pictures were captioned with “Hilary and I,” “Mother and I,” etc. > > What’s up with that? Was there more to them than that, or was it _just_ “Mother and I”? Because, see Post #34: > [@Senegoid](#): > > If it’s just a picture title, like “My Sister and I”, I don’t know why either “I” or “me” would be better, since it’s just a phrase, not a whole sentence. So it’s not truly either a subject nor an object. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669/59 "2013-03-01T17:14:18Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Was there more to them than that, or was it _just_ “Mother and I”? Because, see Post #34: I can’t remember. I just recall that it didn’t look right at the time. ---
**Author:** ![sbunny8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@sbunny8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sbunny8)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669/60 "2013-03-01T19:03:39Z")
My dad used to joke that if we conjugate swim-swam-swum and sing-sang-sung then it should be hing-hang-hung. So “hung” should be the past perfect of the verb “to hing”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-grammar-pet-peeve-hanged-vs-hung/651669.md?page=4)