Hanged/hung

[conuly]

So, like I said, we visited today. I spent a lot of time with Deniz.

At one point, she takes out one of her little stuffed animals, a keychain stuffed animal, and hangs it up, and then promptly turns to me and announces that "Now I've hanged her!"

*winces*

Normally, an irregular verb like this, I'd've ignored it. Kid won't be talking like that forever, after all. But this is really a little morbid, saying you've hanged your doll.

So I correct her - not hanged, hung, always hung.

Except that's not really true. So I start trying to explain...

"Y'see, sweetie, if you hang your doll, and then she dies, you can say you've hanged her. But if you hang your doll, and she's still alive, she doesn't die, then you say you hung her. You understand?"

Even as I said it, I knew this was one of the sillier things I've done, but I couldn't stop myself. I know I was talking over her head, I know it's hardly a distinction she'll have a chance to use often in her life, I know it's a distinction many people simply don't make, but I just had to keep talking!

I'm a failure as a budding descriptivist. And a baby-sitter.

Comments

[deceptica]

Hey, that's cool, I didn't know that. For some reason I always assumed that hanged and hung were used for the transitive and intransitive form of the word respectively, since that's how we use the two different past tense forms for the German word "hängen". You learn something new every day...

[conuly]

I'll tell you, it's not a distinction many people remember to make nowadays. First of all, because it's weird, and secondly, not many people die from hanging anymore.

So when in doubt, you're always safe saying hung.

[pne.livejournal.com]

You know, I never thought about that. But yes, I'd use "Ich hing" and "Ich hängte" in different circumstances... and "Ich habe gehangen" and "Ich habe gehängt".

[carlanime.livejournal.com]

One of my favourite things about toddlers is how they seem to learn grammar faster than they increase their vocabulary--I'm expressing that badly, but what I mean is, they do things like put "ed" and "ing" endings on words at the wrong times, but they do it the way that would be logically consistent if English didn't have so many exceptions.

[conuly]

Yeah, I know what you mean. In fact, I remember reading that children often first get their tenses correct - hung, brought, went. Then they figure out rules, and get them incorrect because, hey, that's what the rules say!

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

This is _so_ the kind of conversation I would have... :)

[conuly]

*giggles*

It was a complete waste of time, of course.

[deceptica]

Hey, that's cool, I didn't know that. For some reason I always assumed that hanged and hung were used for the transitive and intransitive form of the word respectively, since that's how we use the two different past tense forms for the German word "hängen". You learn something new every day...

[conuly]

I'll tell you, it's not a distinction many people remember to make nowadays. First of all, because it's weird, and secondly, not many people die from hanging anymore.

So when in doubt, you're always safe saying hung.

[pne.livejournal.com]

You know, I never thought about that. But yes, I'd use "Ich hing" and "Ich hängte" in different circumstances... and "Ich habe gehangen" and "Ich habe gehängt".

[carlanime.livejournal.com]

One of my favourite things about toddlers is how they seem to learn grammar faster than they increase their vocabulary--I'm expressing that badly, but what I mean is, they do things like put "ed" and "ing" endings on words at the wrong times, but they do it the way that would be logically consistent if English didn't have so many exceptions.

[conuly]

Yeah, I know what you mean. In fact, I remember reading that children often first get their tenses correct - hung, brought, went. Then they figure out rules, and get them incorrect because, hey, that's what the rules say!

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

This is _so_ the kind of conversation I would have... :)

[conuly]

*giggles*

It was a complete waste of time, of course.