Writing for Business - A Whatis.com Blog » verbs

Sneaked or snuck?

Ivy Wigmore — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:11:49 +0000

Which is correct?
I’m cleaning up my Facebook account, unfriending people I don’t know and the ones I wish I didn’t know that have somehow ______ in.
a. snuck
b. sneaked

Answer: For formal writing, you want b.

Explanation:

According to Merriam-Webster, snuck arose in the late 1800s in America and has, at least in the US, become as acceptable as sneaked. Opinions differ, however. AP style calls for sneaked, which is the original and standard past and past participle form for the verb sneak.

I’m Canadian, which may explain why I was surprised to find that some other people were surprised to see sneaked used instead of snuck. Danny Sullivan wrote about his investigation:

Driving back from the airport this weekend after our vacation, I put on an audio CD for the kids, one of the Horrid Henry stories. In part of the story, he was said to have “sneaked” into a room. Sneaked? Surely he “snuck” into the room, I thought. But then I lost confidence. Have I been saying “snuck” all these years by mistake?

To reassure myself, I quickly tried to think of other irregular verbs ending in -eak where I would do this. I couldn’t think of any. Instead, I thought of examples where I don’t do this. For example, I wouldn’t say:

cruck rather than creaked
fruck rather than freaked
wruck rather than wreaked

It’s a really interesting post. Sullivan researches various authorities and also provides a handy refresher on past verb tenses.

That said, snuck sounds jocular and/or rural to me. The verb form it brings to my mind is drug, as the past form of drag, as in I drug myself out of bed and logged into Facebook. As far as I know, drug remains non-standard. But stay tuned…

In the meantime, let’s see if we can’t get fruck going as a past form for freaked. Here’s my contribution: I nearly fruck out when I saw Merriam-Webster said snuck was as acceptable as sneaked.

Follow me on Twitter @tao_of_grammar

Do you double the letter “L” before “ed” or “ing”? It depends.

Ivy Wigmore — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 19:56:52 +0000

Which is correct?
The phishing email warned that unless I updated my contact information, my eBay account would be ______________.
a. canceled
b. cancelled

Answer: It depends.

Explanation:
US style is canceled; British is cancelled. That’s the general rule for adding “ed” or “ing” to words that end in a single vowel followed by the letter “l.”

Here’s a list:
label:
labelled, labelling (British); labeled, labeling (US)
travel:
travelled, travelling (British); traveled, traveling (US)
shovel:
shovelled, shovelling (British); shoveled, shoveling (US)
cancel:
cancelled, cancelling (British); canceled, canceling (US)
equal:
equalled, equalling (British); equaled, equaling (US)
model:
modelled, modelling (British); modeled, modeling (US)

All bets are off, however, when the last letter is anything other than “L.” Some are always doubled, some never — and you pretty much just have to learn them case by case.

Literacy & Learning provides more information on when to double consonants before “ed” and “ing.”

Has lain or has laid?

Ivy Wigmore — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:03:44 +0000

Which is correct?
The United States has ____ out plans to standardize domestic smart grid development.
a. lain
b. laid

Answer: b.

Explanation:
Here are the rules for lie and lay:

LIE	first person	third person
present	I lie in bed.	She lies in bed.
past	I lay in bed.	She lay in bed.
perfect form	I have lain in bed.	She has lain in bed.
participle form	I am lying in bed.	She is lying in bed.

——-

LAY	first person	third person
present	I lay the book down.	She lays the book down.
past	I laid the book down.	She laid the book down.
perfect form	I have laid the book down.	She has laid the book down.
participle form	I am laying the book down	She is laying the book down.

Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty lays out the rules for “lay” and “lie” and reports on yet another multiple-rock star grammar fail:

What’s that I hear, music in the background? I know I don’t normally play music, but I love Eric Clapton, and his song Lay Down Sally can actually help you remember the difference between lay and lie… [record screeching sound] because he’s wrong.

To say “lay down Sally” would imply that someone should grab Sally and lay her down. If he wanted Sally to rest in his arms on her own, the correct line would be “lie down Sally.”

We don’t have to judge Clapton on his grammar; we can still love his music and at the same time know that it’s grammatically incorrect! In fact, that helps us remember, and we can love him more.

If you’re more of a Bob Dylan fan, you can remember that “Lay Lady Lay” is also wrong. The lyrics should be “Lie lady lie, lie across my big brass bed.”

The moral of our story is: “Enjoy the music, kids, but don’t look to rock icons — not even the biggest ones — for your grammar lessons.”

Writing for Business – dived, dove

Margaret Rouse — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:13:05 +0000

Which is correct?

As soon as I got the assignment, I ______ in.
a. dived
b. dove

Answer: Both A and B are correct.

Some grammar experts believe that the only acceptable past-tense form of the verb dive is dived. In recent years, however dove — which is commonly used in speech — has made its way into the dictionary and is deemed by most style guides to be an acceptable word choice for written English.

Writing for business – Simple past or present perfect

Margaret Rouse — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 02:05:32 +0000

Which is correct?

_________ the screencast yet?
a. Did you finish
b. Have you finished

Answer: b

Explanation:

Simple past tense (Did you finish) is used to express a completed action that occurred at a specific moment in the past. Present perfect tense (Have you finished) is used to express something that happened at an unspecified time in the past. Because there’s no mention of a specific time in this sentence, use the present perfect tense.