# Sang or Sung?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sang-or-sung/786211
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 9, 2017, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sang-or-sung/786211 "2017-05-09T18:19:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2017, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sang-or-sung/786211/21 "2017-05-10T22:31:26Z")
> [@Weisshund](#):
>
> copied from elsewhere
>
> “Sang” is simple past: “She sang the national anthem at the football game yesterday.”
>
> “Sung” is past participle, requiring an auxiliary verb: “She has sung the national anthem at many sporting events throughout the greater Fargo area.”
>
> Simple past usually describes a completed action that happened one time, while past participle describes a condition or an action that happened several times.
That’s not quite how I use it. I would also use the simple past for action that is complete. “She sang the national anthem at many sporting events until she left town”. Or in an obit notice. Especially in an obit notice. Essentially, the simple past is the perfect tense (don’t let the names of the Latin tenses confuse the issue).
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### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2017, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sang-or-sung/786211/22 "2017-05-10T23:26:12Z")
> [@DrCube](#):
>
> Don’t forget the Supreme Leader Kim Il-sung!
_L’etat, c’est lui_:
There was never a warlord in Great Erinnes and Brettland, no, nor in all Pike County like you, they say. No, nor a king nor an ardking, bung king, sung king or hung king.
Plus, another one I like, which doesn’t have as a good a hook into the thread, except for being great:
Timple temple tells the bells. In syngagyng a sangasongue.
Two guesses for who wrote these… [James Joyce]
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2017, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sang-or-sung/786211/23 "2017-05-11T17:04:23Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#):
>
> That’s not quite how I use it. I would also use the simple past for action that is complete. “She sang the national anthem at many sporting events until she left town”. Or in an obit notice. Especially in an obit notice. Essentially, the simple past is the perfect tense (don’t let the names of the Latin tenses confuse the issue).
One of the differences between American English and British English is that Americans tend to use the simple past in situations where BE speakers will use the present perfect.
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