More Complex than I Thank

No wonder our English Language is notorious for its irregularity: one wonders how any child brought up in an English-speaking family can master all its quirky anomalies.

Verbs, for instance, need to be recognisable in their present, past and 'perfect' tenses. That is, the equivalent of 'write', 'wrote' and 'has written'. How does that little sequence help the young learner ? Well, if the youngster discovers the verb 'to smite', then he or she can deduce - quite correctly - that the verb 'to smite' will have past and perfect tenses 'smote' and 'has smitten'. Beyond that, analogies fail. They might hear the verb 'to fight' and deduce that its past and perfect tenses are 'fote' and 'has fitten'.

'Drink. drank, has drunk'; but not 'think, thank, has thunk'. 'Take, took and has taken'; but not 'bake, book and has bacon'. 'Fly, flew and flown'; but not 'try, trew and trown'. 'Catch and caught'; but not 'match and maught'. The single syllable 'groan' is identical in sound with 'grown'; and 'break' with 'brake'.

And we have two verbs 'to lie'. One, meaning to tell fibs, has past and perfect tenses 'lied'. But the other verb 'to lie', meaning to be extended on the floor or a bed, has past tense 'lay' and perfect tense 'has lain'. To complicate this, we also have a verb 'to lay' with past and perfect tenses 'laid'. Quite a lot of adult English-speakers get these verbs confused.

And if you think that is just about all that is to be said on the matter, try compiling a list of the past tenses of common English verbs like come, go, know, grow, speak . . . . And appreciate the huge capacity of the young brain to manage it all.

More Complex than I Thank