A sneak preview of my next project:
a baby's jumper (sweater, pullover, jersey) for my next-door-neighbour
in Sublime Cashmere Merino Silk DK. Pattern from Sublime.
Yesterday three women chatted as they watched their daughters at Soccer training. One a fabulous knitter ("Mum, she's the fastest knitter I've ever seen"), one an English-as-a-foreign-language teacher at a French school and myself (general dogsbody, taxi driver, linguistics grad).
The question of the afternoon was "What is the past tense of 'to knit'". There was some muttering about irregular verbs and the like but we agreed that, somehow, "knitted" as in "I knitted a pair of socks" sounded all wrong. But was "I knit a pair of socks" any better? Perhaps it should be "I knat a pair of socks"?
Back home I consulted my trusty Macquarie Dictionary.
To Knit is, indeed, an irregular verb. The simple past tense of Knit is traditionally Knit. But that sounds horrid and could be confusing. Luckily the Macquarie provides options:
knit verb (past tense: knitted or knit)
So, in another fabulous example of people power, the once irregular verb knit has been brought back to the fold and given a regular past tense by popular demand.
Just don't say knat.
10 comments:
I would say 'knitted' - that is, if I ever were to get to the point where I refer to something I have crafted in the past tense!
A bit like fitted and fat.
"The dress fitted her perfectly." NEVER "the dress fat her perfectly"
I like knut.
I knut it up real quick.
Coz I talks like that.
I loooved irregular verbs at school. Or did I?
In Finnish schools we are taught knit - knitted - have knitted. Or at least I was taught that way - light years ago.
Tracey: And, yet, "The dress fit her perfectly" is in common use too.
Stacey: I like Knut too. Has a certain ring to it plus it is also useful as a descriptive term for those who knit. "The Knutty Knitters knut all day long".
Knot(ed)
You sure you weren't the fabulous knitter?
Oh yeah, linguistics; knitted, knit knat.
My two year old has many clothes and one cloe.
I love and simultaneously am confused by the irregular verb. Swim, swam, swum. I remember repeating that over and over in grade school. I still love the way they sound together.
My grandmother says growed instead of have grown. "You have growed so much this year!" Which was the correct way when she was in grade school in the 1920s.
I prefer knat. Though I also like Stacey's knut.
Given the general awfulness of my knitting the past tense is definitely for me is definitely
knot or knotted
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