Current Events > Swum vs Swam

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Swim is an irregular verb; swam is the past tense of swim, while swum is the past participle. Swum is used after have, as in "I have swum in that pool before." Passing by a scenic lake on a road trip, a friend might point out that they have swam in its crystal-blue water.

English is dumb

language changes: swum sounds funny to the modern ear so it's fine to use "swam" instead.

Robot2600 posted...

language changes: swum sounds funny to the modern ear so it's fine to use "swam" instead.

It fucked me on a crossword puzzle

past participle rules in general are another thing that was artificially created by grammarians (a thing that doesnt exist anymore).

modern linguists are going to describe the grammar of a language.

grammarians prescribed what language should be.

most people were taught prescriptive grammar in school, and idea which carries no weight in linguistics or the scientific communities.

Done swimmed

i mean, "done swimmed" is fine too because you get the meaning across, but

"done swam" sounds much more natural

Had you drunk a beer before you swam? Had you swum some laps before you drank?

Sariana21 posted...

Had you drunk a beer before you swam? Had you swum some laps before you drank?

*Head asploads*