Hang, Hanged... or, Hung?
When I was about eight years old, I found out that the past tense of "hang" was not only "hung" but "hanged" as well. I don't remember the details, but it was in the course of a conversation with my late father. He said something about someone being hanged. And I asked if he did not mean to say that the person was "hung". He said, no, he did not mean to say "hung" because it would not, in this case be correct. Not correct? Why? I asked, a bit confused. I was certain I had not heard or read the word "hanged" before. My father just said that when used in reference to the act of hanging a human being, the correct tense was "hanged". I wondered if that applied to animals too. He laughed and said I needed to find that out for myself.
I accepted it but my curiosity was not fully satisfied then, nor is it now and, even after trolling through different internet explanations, I still do not know if it would be "hanged" if referring to the act of killing an animal by hanging. "The dog was hanged from a tree" or "the tom-cat's owner wound the dangling end of the rope around the cat's neck and hanged him". I wonder, if I de-animated the monkey or the cat by substituting "it" for "him", can it be "....and hung it"?
Nor, till today, did I come across a possible explanation for WHY there would even be TWO forms of "hang".
I admit it does sound weird saying "the mob hung the man" - more because I KNOW the correct tense to use, I think and less because I really believe it is weird.
The different sites I visited in the course of my research agreed on one thing - when it is the act of hanging a HUMAN by a rope to die, the past tense of "hang" would be "hanged", while the act of hanging up a non-human/inanimate object will take the past tense "hung", as in, "They hung up the painting".
Again, I ask, if the object is non-human but animate, will it be "hanged" or "hung", since it seems it is the act itself that determines the choice of tense to use. I am yet to find an answer to that!
A website - http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/hanged-versus-hung - I found gave me the answer:
It seemed curious to me that there would be two past-tense forms of the word hang that differ depending on their meaning, so I did a little research and found out that in Old English there were two different words for hang (hon and hangen), and the entanglement of these words (plus an Old Norse word hengjan) is responsible for there being two past-tense forms of the word hang today (1) - See more at: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/hanged-versus-hung#sthash.reEtkWM2.dpuf
So, "The former King was hanged" does sound better than "The former King was hung", especially as the latter statement would bring an entirely different scenario to mind, considering how "hung" is used in reference to and association with male genitalia!
I accepted it but my curiosity was not fully satisfied then, nor is it now and, even after trolling through different internet explanations, I still do not know if it would be "hanged" if referring to the act of killing an animal by hanging. "The dog was hanged from a tree" or "the tom-cat's owner wound the dangling end of the rope around the cat's neck and hanged him". I wonder, if I de-animated the monkey or the cat by substituting "it" for "him", can it be "....and hung it"?
Nor, till today, did I come across a possible explanation for WHY there would even be TWO forms of "hang".
I admit it does sound weird saying "the mob hung the man" - more because I KNOW the correct tense to use, I think and less because I really believe it is weird.
The different sites I visited in the course of my research agreed on one thing - when it is the act of hanging a HUMAN by a rope to die, the past tense of "hang" would be "hanged", while the act of hanging up a non-human/inanimate object will take the past tense "hung", as in, "They hung up the painting".
Again, I ask, if the object is non-human but animate, will it be "hanged" or "hung", since it seems it is the act itself that determines the choice of tense to use. I am yet to find an answer to that!
A website - http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/hanged-versus-hung - I found gave me the answer:
It seemed curious to me that there would be two past-tense forms of the word hang that differ depending on their meaning, so I did a little research and found out that in Old English there were two different words for hang (hon and hangen), and the entanglement of these words (plus an Old Norse word hengjan) is responsible for there being two past-tense forms of the word hang today (1) - See more at: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/hanged-versus-hung#sthash.reEtkWM2.dpuf
So, "The former King was hanged" does sound better than "The former King was hung", especially as the latter statement would bring an entirely different scenario to mind, considering how "hung" is used in reference to and association with male genitalia!
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