Speak, spoke, spoken / Prove, proved, proven. . .

What’s are the differences between the verbs speak, spoke and spoken? Prove, proved, and proven? A whole mountain of difference. And why doesn’t spoke have a spoked?

Prove is the present tense and proved is the past tense of the verb “to prove”. Proven is the participle.

She proves she caught the biggest fish.
However, she proved it too late.
Now she has proven she was right.

Speak is the present tense and spoke is the past tense of the verb “to speak”. Spoken is the participle.

He speaks too loudly after a beer.
She spoke too wildly when she scolded him yesterday.
The two have not spoken since.

The “en” words are participles, which require auxiliary (or helping) verbs.

The world has proved it is warming.
The geologists have spoken.

Now, try to figure out what the heck a participle is! And where can you find one? Perhaps you could get the real skinny in my book, The Anarchist's Guide to Grammar. Or did you know there is a book? I can prove it. Go to Amazon.com and place your order. The author has spoken!

In-TENSE-ive Verbs

Remember when Miss Miller showed you a list of “irregular verbs”? They are the ones that do not follow the standard way of making a verb past tense (add “ed”). These will trip you up. Notice the different spelling in the following sentences that include irregular verbs:

The teacher came to the end of his rope. The teacher had come to the end of his rope.
The student taught her teacher patience. The student had taught her teacher patience.
We all broke things we loved. We all have broken things we loved.
Was it you who shrank your jeans? Was it you who had shrunk your jeans?
I would not do such a thing. I would not  have done such a thing.

Notice the slightly different meaning (and spelling) when you add an auxiliary verb (have, had). Take a look at these verbs in your dictionary. They (irregulars) are shown in three forms: Present, Past, and Past Participle.

Regular verbs look like this:
          PRESENT               PAST              PAST PARTICIPLE
          walk                          walked              (have) walked
           rake                          raked                 (have) raked
           step                          stepped              (have) stepped

Irregular verbs look like this:
            go                             went                 (have) gone
            break                        broke               (have) broken
            come                        came                 (have) come
            teach                        taught               (have) taught

And here’s a clue as to why this matters. The verb “fly” has many meanings. Only the one pertaining to baseball uses the regular “ed” form: John hit a fly ball; John flied out twice. BUT: A bird can fly; The bird flew.

I agree! There is no sense to it — at all. Which is one of the reasons for keeping a dictionary on hand at all times when you’re still catching on to these idiosyncrasies.

Keep Your Thoughts to Yourself

Someone says this phrase every three seconds, somewhere in the world: “I was thinking to myself…” When I hear it, my innards quake, my teeth take on an edge, my toes curl, and my head goes dizzy.

Who else do you think to? I must ask. When you think, it’s completely your secret. Thinking occurs inside your head. When have you heard someone say, “I was thinking to Harry…” or “I was thinking to Mary…” or “I was thinking to you…”?

You have to ask why it seems necessary to add “to myself” to your thinking. Is this narcissism? a mental defect? a cry for help? Wha…???