[QUOTE=Rysto]
I believe that in this case, sneaked is the older form.
[/QUOTE]
Same with “pleaded,” I think.
Really? Because I’d had the impression that “pleaded” was taking over from “pled,” especially in the media. Are we returning to old ways or bringing in something new? Either way, I prefer “pled”. Guess I’ve just got a thang for those strong, manly verbs.
[QUOTE=pulykamell]
Not only that, it’s used commonly enough in more formal forms of English, like the press. Doing a quick search through the AP archives on ap.org, “snuck” appears 513 times, and “sneaked” appears 1460 times. So “snuck” is certainly less preferred, but it’s hardly rare, making up over a quarter of the instances of the past tense of “to sneak.”
[/QUOTE]
But to be fair, you’d have to go through those uses of “snuck” and see how many times its use was tongue in cheek, was in a quotation or a letter to the editor, or was otherwise not the intentional choice of an AP staff writer. I would hazard a guess that “serious” uses by professional writers (at AP and elsewhere) are much, much rarer than that 513/1460 ratio would suggest.
Don’t forget the wonderful “shat”.
I’ve always read that “sneaked” is correct and “snuck” isn’t, (in fact, my spell checker is redlining it even as I type). But “snuck” has always sounded more natural to me. I don’t know why that is. “Dove” in place of “dived”, on the other hand, does make sense by analogy with the past tense form “drove”.
American English does seem to prefer a few past tense forms now considered obsolete in the UK, like ‘spit’ instead of ‘spat’, ‘shit’ instead of ‘shat’, and so on. OTOH, I think UK English favors “shone” (intransitive) while Americans say “shined”.
I have a hard time with this. Snuck sounds more natural to my ear, in the same way that “hung” sounds more natural than “hanged”, even though I know “hanged” is proper–I have to make a conscious effort over it.
[QUOTE=Mk VII]
We don’t have ‘veterans’ (unless they’re cars) we have ex-servicemen.
[/QUOTE]
I bet the ones with ovaries would be bummed to hear that.
[QUOTE=NajaNivea]
I have a hard time with this. Snuck sounds more natural to my ear, in the same way that “hung” sounds more natural than “hanged”, even though I know “hanged” is proper–I have to make a conscious effort over it.
[/QUOTE]
You know it’s only “hanged” when it refers to the execution of a human being. Everything else is hung.
[QUOTE=commasense]
You know it’s only “hanged” when it refers to the execution of a human being. Everything else is hung.
[/QUOTE]
Well, yes, I know–which is largely why I have to make a conscious effort to remember that the low-down hornswoggler and generally dirty varmint got hanged, and not hung, like the side of beef did.