Posted on 01/24/2012 4:36:31 AM PST by SoothingDave
The Oxford English Dictionary online defines ‘lit’ as “lighted, illumined” and ‘lighted’ as “kindled, illuminated”. It also defines ‘illumined’ and ‘illuminated’, both meaning either to shed light upon or to set alight. So either is proper, according to that.
Either way, I put charcoal in the grill, lit/lighted it on fire, added some oak wood for smoke and put the damn chicken on to cook...
Emily Miller is counting :)
Shhh, don’t give away my sources.
Yes, either is proper, but I prefer “lit.” I also don’t like when they say on TV that someone “pleaded” in a court. “Pled” works for me.
“Pled” is what my attorney says. I’ve never paid that much attention, but “lighted” is just what I’m used to saying. A few weeks ago, my British neighbor and I were talking about what should happen to John Edwards, and she pointed out that I said I’d have him “hanged”-British English-rather than “hung”-American English. I honestly never noticed any difference-that is the way I talk, and I was brought up in south central Texas-”hanged” and “hung” are both past tense of “hang”...
“Pled” is what my attorney says. I’ve never paid that much attention, but “lighted” is just what I’m used to saying. A few weeks ago, my British neighbor and I were talking about what should happen to John Edwards, and she pointed out that I said I’d have him “hanged”-British English-rather than “hung”-American English. I honestly never noticed any difference-that is the way I talk, and I was brought up in south central Texas-”hanged” and “hung” are both past tense of “hang”...
That hanged/hung conversation reminded me of a film shown in a class on effective management I attended 15 years or so ago-the film was about meetings, and had all British actors, for whatever reason.
John Cleese was dreaming he was a judge, wig and all, presiding over the trial of a real life employee whom he thought called too many meetings in his department. The guy was asked several times by another employee’s lawyer why he held a meeting on each day of the week, he replied every time that it was the regular meeting for that day, and everyone in the courtroom groaned and rolled their eyes. When the guy was asked for the 5th time and started to give the same answer, Cleese banged his gavel several times, leaned forward, pointed and shouted at the witness “If you say that once more, I shall have you hanged”! Everyone in the class just howled-it was one of the funniest things ever.
Nope. I did’t tell you about the time a fellow parishioner followed me all around the church promoting Hillary to me? Claiming she would NEVER support abortion. My mouth was hanging open...I was in shock. The guy had a communications degree. I told him numerous times to knock it off, finally his wife gave him the evil eye and he shut up. This was in a Catholic church. If they are teachers, they are dem, doesn’t matter if they are Catholics as well.
Sounds good. Now I am hungry.
I don’t think hanged/hung is an American/British distinction. Not that I am aware of, anyway. I always understood “hanged” to be the past tense only for the act of hanging a human being (to death). Pictures are hung on the wall. Traitors are hanged at dawn.
I didn’t think it was, either, but after she said that, I became aware of how many times I heard “hung” pertaining to humans-even on TV.
Well, lots of people are ignorant nowadays. That doesn’t make it accepted “American.” At least not in my book.
The chicken and veggies were yummy-when I went out to take the chicken off the fire, it was deizzling and fog was starting to roll up from the water. Now it is so thick that I can barely see across the road.
I have a real problem when I hear bad grammar on
TV used by people who should know better-that perpetuates the improper use. My daughter, who will get her masters in June, complains that half the people in class with her who are younger by 10 years or so say stuff like this is so fun, I seen that, we was going to do that, etc, and only those over 35 or so even cringe.
I might be guilty of a “so fun” myself, but not the others.
“Ain’t” is my favorite grammar sin...
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