Re: irregularities

Interesting...I would say
I burnt the toast but...
He burned at the stake
I would never say I burned ...
What's more I would display it differently
orthographically in the two examples I gave.

James
--- "Douglas Koller, Latin & French"
<latinfrench@...> wrote: > >Andreas
Johansson wrote:
> >
> >  > Now, what about "burnt"/"burned"? Both
> spellings are considered correct,
> >>  right? For some reason, /b@(r)nd/ sounds wrong
> to my (non-native) ears - I
> >>  say /b@(r)nt/. What about you natives?
> >
> >To me, some of these irregular forms sound best as
> adjectival participles.
> >Thus I have contrasts like the following:
> >
> >   I burned/*burnt the cake.
> >   The cake is burned/burnt.
>
> I agree with Matt here:
>
> "burnt toast" (I wouldn't classify "burned toast" as
> ungrammatical,
> but I don't think I'd say it either)
>
> but, "I burned the toast." ("I burnt the toast"
> sounds dreadful to my ear)
>
> >Similarly, "dreamed" is fine only as a past tense
> verb ("I dreamed that I was
> >rich"), whereas "dreamt" works either as a past
> tense verb or as an adjectival
> >participle ("I dreamt that I was rich", "He has
> undreamt-of wealth").
>
> "Dreamed" and "dreamt" are in free variation for me
> as a verb (though
> "dreamed" probably wins out statistically, don't
> know what factors
> are involved). As an adjectival participle, "dreamt"
> is where it's at.
>
> Kou

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