By Mignon Fogarty

Sometimes you know a word has two forms， but youre not sure which one is appropriate to use in the situation at hand. This happens a lot with verbs， where past-tense forms can compete for acceptance and supremacy1 with language users. Here are ten verbs whose past tense can be confusing， along with some tidbits2 about their history and related linguistic phenomena.

1. creep3

move slowly； in the case of people or animals with the body near the ground

Creeped or crept？ Crept is the past tense， but creeped is popping up because of its presence in the phrasal verb creep out， the past tense of which is indeed creeped out.4 Exceptions like this can often be accepted in certain contexts. With time， these specific instances can slowly reach the mainstream.

2. dwell

inhabit or live in； be an inhabitant of

Dwelt or dwelled ？ Unlike several entries on the list， in the case of dwelt the unusual form predates the one ending in -ed.5 Dwelled is popular in the United States， while dwelt is dominant in Britain.

3. hoist6

raise or haul up7 with or as if with mechanical help

Hoist or hoisted ？ Hoist as a past tense form is what linguists would call a zero-derived8 form： Nothing changes on the surface， but on some level it has to be marked as “past.” There was a verb hoise used primarily in nautical context， and it is thought that its past tense， hoist， was mistaken for a root.9

4. plead

appeal or request earnestly

Pleaded or pled ？ The grammar guides geared towards lawyers were once insistent that pleaded was the correct form， but the persistence of pled has caused the usually adamant attorneys to accept both.10 There may be more going on here， because“he pled guilty11” sounds much better than “he pleaded guilty，” but “she pled with the judge”sounds awful to many ears， while pleaded sounds fine there.

5. knit

make by needlework with interlacing yarn12

Knit or knitted ？ Like plead， these two forms are both accepted nowadays and are in a virtual statistical dead heat in terms of usage.13 Knitted is more popular in its adjectival use. In other words， people more often say “a knitted hat” than “a knit hat.”

6. shrink14

wither， as with a loss of moisture15

Shrunk or shrank ？ A grammar mavens least favorite movie： Honey， I Shrunk the Kids.16 The movie title gets the past tenses confused： Shrunk is past participle and shrank is simple past.17 Technically， it should be Honey， I Shrank the Kids.

7. grind18

reduce to small pieces or particles by pounding or abrading19 Ground or grinded ？ Like creeped above， grinded is gaining acceptance over the traditional past tense ground because of the other uses of grinded. Grinded has become a hard-nosed sports term： It is often said of football players， particularly running backs， that “they grinded it out today.”20

8. dream

experience while sleeping

Dreamed or Dreamt ？ Dreamt is more popular in Britain， but both of these forms can function as the past tense. Some sources claim that dreamt is correct for “had a dream while asleep” while dreamed concerns only “hopes and aspirations while awake，” but there is no solid evidence for this.

9. burn

destroy by fire

Burnt or burned ？ Each variant21 is acceptable in the simple pasttense form. The preference for one over the other seems influenced by cultural concerns， as the British prefer burnt. Idiomatic uses also come into play.22 Someone who has ruined all his relationships on purpose is said to have burned his bridges. Burnt might sound strange there.

10. dive

a headlong plunge into23 water

Dived or dove？ This is probably the most often cited instance of two past-tense forms. In this case， it is interesting to note that dove arose as a form much later than dived， another case of the regular，-ed form coming before the “unusual” form.

1. supremacy： 主要地位，最高地位。

2. tidbit： 趣聞，花邊新聞。

3. creep： 緩慢（或悄悄地）行進，匍匐。

4. crept是動詞creep的過去式，但creeped的出現(xiàn)是因為動詞短語creep out的過去式為creeped out。pop up： 冒頭，突然出現(xiàn)。

5. entry：（詞典的）詞條；predate： 在日期上早于（或先于）。

6. hoist： 提起，升起。

7. haul up： 舉起。

8. zero-derived： 零派生的，形式沒有改變的。

9. 過去有一個詞hoise，主要用于航海情境中，而據(jù)說hoist作為它的過去式，卻被誤認為是詞根了。nautical： 航海的，海上的。

10. 專門適用于律師的語法書曾堅持pleaded是正確的形式，但由于pled持續(xù)被人們使用，所以向來固執(zhí)的律師們不得不同時接受兩種形式。gear towards： 適用于，面向；adamant： 固執(zhí)的，堅定不移的；attorney： 律師。

11. plead guilty： 認罪。

12. needlework： 針線活，縫紉；interlacing：交織的；yarn： 紗線。

13. 像plead一樣，knit的兩種過去式同時存在，并且根據(jù)統(tǒng)計數(shù)據(jù)來說，它們的使用頻率不相上下。dead heat： 不分勝負。

14. shrink： 收縮，縮小。

15. wither： 枯萎；moisture： 水分，濕氣。

16. maven： 內行，專家；Honey， I Shrunk the Kids：《親愛的，我把孩子縮小了》，1989年的一部美國科幻喜劇片。

17. past participle： 過去分詞；simple past：一般過去時。

18. grind： 磨，磨碎。

19. particle： 顆粒，微粒；pound： 重擊；abrade： 研磨。

20. grinded成為了固定的體育用語：它常用來形容橄欖球運動員，尤其是跑衛(wèi)，說“他們今天跑出了一場勝利”。hard-nosed： 頑固的；running back：跑鋒，跑衛(wèi)，是美式足球（橄欖球）持球跑動進攻的球員。

21. variant： 變體。

22. idiomatic： 慣用的；come into play：發(fā)揮作用。

23. plunge into： 投入，跳進。