# What is the past tense of "cast"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 3, 2014, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-past-tense-of-cast/694744 "2014-08-03T23:13:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2014, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-past-tense-of-cast/694744/21 "2014-08-04T07:46:39Z")
> [@Obeseus](#): > > I’ve had disagreements with people regarding forecast / forecasted. If I explain that we are running low on parts, because we have customer orders for 12,000 units, but we were forecast to sell only 8,000, everyone I work with seems to think I should say, “we were forecasted . . .” “Forecast” evolved from the same root as the “cast” we’re talking about here, but usage is everything. “Forecasted” has been established as a valid word due to usage, but still, I think “forecast” is used as the past tense a lot more often than “forecasted”, though it varies with the subject matter. I myself prefer to stick with “forecast” as the past tense except in special cases. One special case would be where’s it’s turned into an adjective in a phrase like “forecasted demand”, where the inflection helps to resolve ambiguity, and resolving ambiguity should always be a virtuous principle in language. In modern times “casted” is just not a word. That much is not debatable. (The medical usage noted earlier I’d just regard as a specialized colloquialism.) “Forecasted” is. Makes no sense, you say? Welcome to English! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2014, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-past-tense-of-cast/694744/22 "2014-08-04T11:56:39Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > OED generally refers to the Oxford English Dictionary, which offers several examples using “casted” as the past tense from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. But it has no examples from later than that… If you extend your search to quotations for other headwords, you’ll find that “casted” has indeed been used later than the sixteenth century, albeit only in compounds and other derived forms. _Load_ has quotations referencing “load-casted current markings” and “load-casted ripples”, from 1957 and 1972, respectively. And of course there’s “forecasted”, which is listed as a past participle of _forecast_, with a quotation from 1882. That said, the Google Ngram Viewer shows that [use of “casted” has risen sharply since 1960](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=casted&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1;,casted;,c0). Language change in progress, perhaps. ---
**Author:** ![brainstall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@brainstall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainstall)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2014, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-past-tense-of-cast/694744/23 "2014-08-04T12:23:33Z")
I hear “had went” all the time on Judge Judy. Just because lots of people say it, doesn’t make it correct (or any less cringe inducing). ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2014, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-past-tense-of-cast/694744/24 "2014-08-04T12:37:41Z")
Who the hell says “casted”? ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2014, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-past-tense-of-cast/694744/25 "2014-08-04T12:58:29Z")
> [@brainstall](#): > > I hear “had went” all the time on Judge Judy. Just because lots of people say it, doesn’t make it correct (or any less cringe inducing). Actually, whether or not an expression is “correct” is pretty much determined by whether “lots of people” are saying it. Much of what you’re writing now would be cringe-inducing, or even complete gibberish, to English speakers of times past. You think “went” shouldn’t be the past participle of “go”, but once upon a time nobody thought it should be the simple past tense of “go” either. (“Went” was the past tense of a completely different verb, “wend”. But gradually people started using it as the past tense of “go”, until by the 16th century it was more or less standard.) ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2014, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-past-tense-of-cast/694744/26 "2014-08-04T13:41:21Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > That’s because you’re using the noun form of _cast_ and then verbing it. Believe it or not, the noun _cast_ was originally produced by someone taking the verb form and nominalizing it. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2014, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-past-tense-of-cast/694744/27 "2014-08-04T13:52:35Z")
As it happens, I have the Shorter OED to hand, and _casted_ does not appear at all. The past tenses always use _cast_ or _casting_ as appropriate. And _caste_ is only mentioned as a noun, not a verb. Cite: Shorter OED, 6th edition, pp 357-8 ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2014, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-past-tense-of-cast/694744/28 "2014-08-04T14:47:14Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > Actually, whether or not an expression is “correct” is pretty much determined by whether “lots of people” are saying it. Much of what you’re writing now would be cringe-inducing, or even complete gibberish, to English speakers of times past. You think “went” shouldn’t be the past participle of “go”, but once upon a time nobody thought it should be the simple past tense of “go” either. (“Went” was the past tense of a completely different verb, “wend”. But gradually people started using it as the past tense of “go”, until by the 16th century it was more or less standard.) Not quite. People have to both say it and believe it is correct. An obvious example would be “ain’t,” which has been in use since the 18th century but is still not considered “correct.” It may be used for stylistic reasons, but it’s still not considered proper English. “Have went” doesn’t even have that distinction. It has a long, long way to go before becoming “correct.” ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2014, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-past-tense-of-cast/694744/29 "2014-08-04T14:58:42Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > Believe it or not, the noun _cast_ was originally produced by someone taking the verb form and nominalizing it. Yip. I believe it refers to the meaning of casting something into a mold. Which is a bit odd, since no such mold is actually used. But it does use the classic molding material Plaster of Paris. (I tried to find some citations to confirm the etymology of this particular definition, but I could not.) ---
**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:** [August 4, 2014, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-past-tense-of-cast/694744/30 "2014-08-04T15:30:34Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > I’m not particularly educated. I just have access at work to the Oxford English Dictionary online. Protip: libraries, even vanilla public libraries subscribe to a number of databases and often they include the online OED. If you have a library card, more likely than not, you can get into the OED through your local library’s online research portal. > [@BigT](#): > > Not quite. People have to both say it and believe it is correct. An obvious example would be “ain’t,” which has been in use since the 18th century but is still not considered “correct.” It may be used for stylistic reasons, but it’s still not considered proper English. Excepting production errors, I think it’s safe to say that if a person says it, they believe it to be correct. And proper english is an arbitrary standard. The proper variety of english for a given situation is going to depend on who the listeners are, what relationship the speaker wishes to cultivate with the audience and the geographical location of the exchange. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2014, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-past-tense-of-cast/694744/31 "2014-08-05T11:28:43Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > Believe it or not, the noun _cast_ was originally produced by someone taking the verb form and nominalizing it. Sure. Had to have something to call the objects that were cast. “I’m going to cast your arm.” “Look at my cast.” “His arm was casted.” Makes perfect sense. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2014, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-past-tense-of-cast/694744/32 "2014-08-05T11:50:21Z")
> [@Obeseus](#): > > I’ve had disagreements with people regarding forecast / forecasted. If I explain that we are running low on parts, because we have customer orders for 12,000 units, but we were forecast to sell only 8,000, everyone I work with seems to think I should say, “we were forecasted . . .” Actually, I think either one sounds a bit weird in this context. I’d use ‘predicted’ or ‘anticipated’ instead. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-past-tense-of-cast/694744/33 "2014-08-06T00:45:28Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > That’s because you’re using the noun form of _cast_ and then verbing it. No, casting a leg is little different than casting a bronze. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-past-tense-of-cast/694744/34 "2014-08-06T00:52:50Z")
In my variety of English (which is Hiberno-English), the past tense of forecast is “forecast”. As in “last week, I forecast that we would lose the game, and today we did.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-past-tense-of-cast/694744.md?page=1)