Grinded vs. Ground

[CalBishForNow]

"He was grinding his still-clothed crotch against her ass when his wife came into the room with her .38."

I think you mean "when his wife cummed into the room with her .38."

 

[RocketGrunt]

I think you mean "when his wife cummed into the room with her .38."

No, that would be "his wife had cummed into the room with her .38." The verb "to cum" only goes to "cummed" as part of the past perfect. Simple past is still "came."

 

[TheArsonist]

Yes, 'hang' is another example. 'Swam' and 'swim' isn't, because one is simple past (I swam) and the other is perfect (I have swum): lots of verbs have two different forms here. I can't think of an appropriate technical term for the 'hanged'/'hung' and 'shone'/'shined' distinction.

You also have lighted/lit, dived/dove, sneaked/snuck, slayed/slew, etc.
(Cases like "ring," where you have two completely separate verbs that merely look the same – to ring a bell, to form a ring around something – should probably be considered apart. And let's not get into the lie/lay/laid mess.)

The linguist Steven Pinker argues that the co-existence of a regular (weak) and irregular (strong) conjugation usually comes from verbs that are so rare that many users don't know/remember the irregular form, causing them to be regularized over time (the ones with two forms being in transition). That explains more uncommon words like cleaved/clove, but doesn't really work for the examples mentioned (especially cases like "dove", where the irregular form is newer than the regular one). English speakers do sometimes coin irregular forms jokingly (like yeet/yote), and some may stick around.

He also points out that when verbs are created from nouns, they are always regular even if similar or identical to an irregular verb. So that if I coin the verb "to undrive" for taking the hard drive out of a computer, the past tense would be "undrived," not "undrove," and we talk about a time curve having "hockey-sticked," not "hockey-stuck." That probably accounts for shined/shone (with "shined" meaning to have "put a shine" on something).

 

[SimonDoom]

"ground" is grammatically correct, and is the word I'd probably use, as in "he ground his hips into hers as they lay together on the bed."

But--this is my personal take--I think leeway is allowed in spelling and grammar in describing erotic encounters, because I believe it's OK to use words in a way that the characters in your story might plausibly use them, or as a way of connecting with your readers, who might like the use of the deviant word better in that setting. So, for instance, if people want to write "I'm cumming!" I'm fine with that.

 

[TheLobster]

Damn, we're on the 4th page now... I wouldn't have thunk this is such a complicated topic!

 

[SimonDoom]

Damn, we're on the 4th page now... I wouldn't have thunk this is such a complicated topic!

On AH threads, the length of the thread and number of comments aren't necessarily proportional to the intrinsic interest or importance of the topic.

 

[Dodola]

Cases like "ring," where you have two completely separate verbs that merely look the same – to ring a bell, to form a ring around something – should probably be considered apart.

I'm usually not one to nitpick, but ring a bell - ring is a verb
Form a ring around something- form is the verb, ring is a noun

 

[BeechLeaf]

TheArsonist meant the first verb 'ring' as in 'I ringed the advertisement in the paper, and later I rang the number'. 'Form a ring' was an explanation of the meaning, not an actual use.

 

[Dodola]

TheArsonist meant the first verb 'ring' as in 'I ringed the advertisement in the paper, and later I rang the number'. 'Form a ring' was an explanation of the meaning, not an actual use.

Thank you.
My coffee is still brewing. I should never comment before coffee.

Edit: ground coffee, becoming coffee grounds

 

[BeechLeaf]

Then of course there's 'I wrung out the towel', at which point the foreign learner has hysterics and has to be sedated.