re: #416 UberInfidel67

“I know a kid who hung himself”. WTF? I should teach….really, I should.

The past tense of “hang” is actually one of the trickier ones in the English language. For instance, in this context, it is quite correct to say that “Several of the Nazi officials convicted of war crimes at Nuremberg were hung.” But in official U.S. government documents, that sentence would use the word “hanged” instead, following the traditional judicial usage, “This court orders you to be hanged by the neck until you are dead.”

By comparison, if I say, “I hanged a picture on the wall”, I just sound like an illiterate dolt.

English is in fact one of the simplest, and yet most expressive, languages ever conceived, with the capability to deliver more raw data in less word—count than any other language capable of being spoken by a human. But some of its more obscure rules can even confound experts in its use.

/I’m by no means an expert, but I got straight “A’s” in English throughout public school, and was not required to take any English classes in college after taking the entry exams.

cheers

eon