spelled or spelt? Which past participle should I use?

For those teachers who asked me this on the verb course last week, I have now done a little research around the subject.

In British English, you can use either 'spelled' or 'spelt' as the past participle.  As we thought, this is the same as the 'burned/burnt' and 'learned/learnt' participles that were on the Irregular English Verbs sheet. 

American English uses 'spelled' as the past participle because, in America, 'spelt' is more commonly used to refer to a type of wheat.

Hope that helps!

Transitive and intransitive verbs

We have considered different sentence constructions using the five sentence elements S,V,O,C,A but, if you try to create some of these constructions using any verb, you will find that sometimes it can't be done.

For example, if you try to use the verb 'take' in a SV sentence, it will not make sense: He takes.  This sentence requires an object, informing the reader what has been taken.

Similarly, if you try to use the verb 'arrive' in a SVO sentence, it will not work:  The train arrives ...  If we want to add more information, we have to use an adverbial after this verb, e.g. at the station, on time, but cannot add another noun or noun phrase as an object.

Why is this?

When only one person or thing is involved in a sentence, this person/thing fills the subject position and is followed by an intransitive verb. 

When a second person or thing is affected by the action of the subject, this person/thing fills the object position in the sentence and a transitive verb is required.

There are some verbs which are normally used intransitively and some normally used transitively; however many verbs can be used in both ways.  For example, the verb 'pass can be used intransitively in the sentence 'Ships pass in the night.' and transitively in 'She passed the salt.'

The following table provides some examples of each.

Examples of verbs used intransitively and transitively
Intransitive verbs	Transitive verbs	Verbs which can be used intransitively and transitively
ache	avoid	blow
arrive	blame	call
bleed	carry	change
blush	cut	drive
die	damage	fly
disappear	design	follow
faint	discover	hurt
fidget	enjoy	lose
fall	fill	manage
happen	get	miss
kneel	give	move
quiver	make	pass
sleep	need	play
sneeze	put	run
throb	remove	stand
wait	take	study
weep	want	win

 

Sentence elements in English word order

We often think of English as having a Subject (S), Verb (V), Object (O) word order and this is frequently the order that children start off with in early writing.

The boy kicked the ball.      The dog chased the cat.       Daddy drove the car.

However, there are five sentence/clause elements in our language: 

S – subject

V – verb

O – object (which can be direct or indirect)

A – adverbial

C – complement (see link for more on complements)

Most usual sentence constructions are:

SV             The sword vanished.

SVO           The sword cut the tree.

SVC           The sword was heavy. 

SVOC        The sword cut the tree open.

SVOO        The sword gave the knight a nasty gash.  ('the knight' is the indirect object, 'a nasty gash' is the direct object)

As a very flexible sentence element, adverbials can be added in various positions in these constructions. Try adding one of these adverbials to the sentences in different positions to explore how these can be used.  'in a flash'       'unfortunately'     'with one strike'

In particular, using adverbials in different positions can create different effects for the reader by emphasizing certain information in the sentence.  When using adverbials in different positions, punctuation should also be considered.  Commas will be needed to make sure meaning is clear.

With one strike, the sword cut the tree open.     (A,S,V,O,C)

The sword, with one strike, cut the tree open.    (S,A,V,O,C)

The sword cut the tree open with one strike.      (S,V.O,C,A)

Problems with past participles

It seems to me that many people are getting themselves in a real muddle over verb forms in the past tense.  Undertaking Key Stage 2 writing moderation at the moment, I see many examples of children getting confused with simple past/past participles forms, especially those commonly used in dialects, e.g. she done, he swum, etc.  But I’ve also become aware of the problem in the media.  On Springwatch this week, I heard one of the presenters talking about an eagle that ‘he had rung’.  Not long ago I heard Jeremy Vine using ‘he pled guilty’.  So what’s going on and why is it important for primary teachers to be aware of this?

In the Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 English grammar, punctuation and spelling test frameworks for 2016 (p.14) it states very clearly that only British English conventions will be credited and attention is specifically drawn to the British English variations of irregular past tense forms, including past participles.

There appear to be two separate areas of confusion around past participles: the way verbs with more than one meaning use a different form and the influence of American English.

Languages change over time. As a Germanic language, verb forms in English originally depended on whether they were weak or strong verbs and, although modern English retains many of the irregular forms from earlier usage, new verbs form their simple past and past participle by adding the weak verb suffix –ed.  This also occurs to existing verbs when they develop a new meaning.

So in the example above where the Springwatch presenter used the term ‘he had rung’, he was confusing the meaning of ‘ring’.  There are two definitions of this verb.  One meaning is making a clear resonant or vibrating sound and the verb forms for this word would be ‘he rings, he rang, he has rung’.  The other meaning seems to be more related to the noun ‘ring’, where something is encircled, e.g. a crowd or a bird’s leg.  The forms of this version would be ‘he rings, he ringed, he has ringed’.

English is such a flexible language and it is possible to create verbs from other word classes.  Any word that comes into modern English as a verb now has the –ed ending for both simple past and past participle forms.  Recent additions I have heard include ‘yellow-carded’, ‘facebooked’, ‘blogged’, ‘friended’, ‘defriended’, etc.

We must also note the influence of American English when using the past participle to create the perfect form of the verb.  The following examples show differences between some British English and American English past participles:

Simple present tense	Simple past	Past participle (British)	Past participle (American)
I plead	I pleaded	I have pleaded	I have pled/pleaded
He gets	He got	He has got	He has gotten
They prove	They proved	They have proved	They have proven/proved
She saws	She sawed	She had sawed	She had sawed/sawn

It should be noted here that, just as the American English permits either past participle to be used, British English also has its verbs with two acceptable versions of the past participle: burned/burnt, dreamed/dreamt, learned/learnt are just three examples of past participles with alternative forms and interestingly these can also be used as alternatives for the simple past form too.

• ·         I dreamed last night.
• ·         I dreamt last night.
• ·         I have dreamed often.
• ·         I have dreamt often.

These alternative versions are likely to indicate a transitional period in the verb due to language change.  Because of the predominance of the –ed version, many of the irregular past participles have developed regular counterparts and, until the older version becomes archaic, both versions are acceptable.  The difficulty for us is that British English and American English verbs have evolved in different ways, since languages also change when they are separated geographically. 

It’s a tricky area, but one that we do need to be aware of.  I’m sure there will be more to come from me on this!