4 ms·

> Not only is the irregular class losing members by emigration, it is not gaining new ones by immigration. When new verbs enter English via onomatopoeia (t

> Not only is the irregular class losing members by emigration, it is not gaining new ones by immigration. When new verbs enter English via onomatopoeia (to ding, to ping), borrowings from other languages (deride and succumb from Latin), and conversions from nouns (fly out), the regular rule has first dibs on them. The language ends up with dinged, pinged, derided, succumbed, and flied out, not dang, pang, derode, succame, or flew out. I'd love a quick straw poll. Who says flied out? I've only ever heard flew out - I've never heard anyone say "I flied out yesterday."

Cushman 12y ago
Context is a fly ball in baseball, a noun. No relation to the common holiday activity.
akavi 12y ago
People on planes "flew out". Baseballs, however "flied out".
- panic 12y ago
  Baseballs have still "flown out", since they fly through the air in the normal sense; it is their hitters who have "flied out".
  - Cushman 12y ago
    In fact, if I understand the rules of baseball, it's only players whose balls fail to fly out who, themselves, fly out!
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GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
It's a baseball term.
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sparky_z 12y ago
It's not referring to air travel. It's a baseball term (which I only know because he mentioned it earlier in the essay). "In baseball, one says that a slugger has flied out; no mere mortal has ever "flown out" to center field."
- bhrgunatha 12y ago
  It seems I skimmed the whole thing a bit too quickly. I didn't realise it was a baseball term. It sounds so wrong to me.
  - ezequiel-garzon 12y ago
    Same here, but as a non-native speaker fairly common expressions (in the US) such as "I should've went" and "I should've came" sound way worse!
    - toothbrush 12y ago
      Those sound awful by any account.
vorg 12y ago
Does anyone else say "I've pung that IP address" ?
- defen 12y ago
  Honestly "pang" (past tense) and "pung" (past participle) don't sound terrible to me, in analogy to sing/ring. Native English speaker from USA, if that matters.
- lotsofmangos 12y ago
  Heh, yep.
jschwartzi 12y ago
I have heard and used both flew out and flied out in the past.

Cushman 12y ago

Context is a fly ball in baseball, a noun. No relation to the common holiday activity.

akavi 12y ago

People on planes "flew out". Baseballs, however "flied out".

panic 12y ago
Baseballs have still "flown out", since they fly through the air in the normal sense; it is their hitters who have "flied out".
- Cushman 12y ago
  In fact, if I understand the rules of baseball, it's only players whose balls fail to fly out who, themselves, fly out!

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GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago

It's a baseball term.

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sparky_z 12y ago

It's not referring to air travel. It's a baseball term (which I only know because he mentioned it earlier in the essay). "In baseball, one says that a slugger has flied out; no mere mortal has ever "flown out" to center field."

bhrgunatha 12y ago
It seems I skimmed the whole thing a bit too quickly. I didn't realise it was a baseball term. It sounds so wrong to me.
- ezequiel-garzon 12y ago
  Same here, but as a non-native speaker fairly common expressions (in the US) such as "I should've went" and "I should've came" sound way worse!
  - toothbrush 12y ago
    Those sound awful by any account.

vorg 12y ago

Does anyone else say "I've pung that IP address" ?

defen 12y ago
Honestly "pang" (past tense) and "pung" (past participle) don't sound terrible to me, in analogy to sing/ring. Native English speaker from USA, if that matters.
lotsofmangos 12y ago
Heh, yep.

jschwartzi 12y ago

I have heard and used both flew out and flied out in the past.