Re: irregularities

>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

Reply