English made simple

There is no doubt that English is a tricky language.  What other languages claim in diversity of definite articles or the type of pronunciation that requires the removal of one's tongue, English more than makes up for in spelling variations, rule exceptions and, above all, word totals.  The language becomes a morass of confusion in which native and non-native speakers join forces to coin new words to suit 21st century needs, and where writing in particular is a breeding ground for self perpetuating mistakes.  Never is the tiny inner voice heeded, the one in the likeness of your third grade teacher, the one that says, "say now, that doesn't quite look right! Better look up the correct spelling/defin-"  Too late.  The "enter" key has been pressed, and we're on to whatever is next.

Let's rally ourselves and vow to make a better effort!  Let's hold ourselves as bloggers to a higher standard! Who's with me?!  Good!  Here we go:

Let's start with the verb to run.  Conjugated in the present tense, it looks like this:


                                                         Singular                                Plural                            
                First Person:                     I run                                   We run
                Second Person:              You run                                You run
                Third Person:             He/She/It runs                          They run


Easy, right?  The verb is run through the gauntlet of conjugation and only changes once, adding a single letter.  It's when we look at the past tense that things start to get tricky.

Present: I run
Past: I ran
Indicative perfect: I have run

Notice that the past participle, once aided by the auxiliary verb to have, reverts to its original form. If you write a sentence on your blog, then, that says, "I've ran two races before this one," or "I would have ran this weekend if I wasn't injured," then I'm afraid you are wrong.

You heard the dog.