What's with Americans not knowing that there's a past tense for the words shit and spit? It sounds odd every time they say something like. A: I saw that Russell Brand yesterday. B: Oh really? What did you do? A: I spit on him. Instead of. A: I saw that Russell Brand yesterday. B: Oh really ? What did you do? A: I spat on him. Spit = Present tense Spat = Past tense. Or when you hear Americans talk about burping a baby and they say "The baby spit up", that's so grammatically incorrect it makes my head spin. It's like finishing a 26mile race and saying "I just run a marathon". Just a pet peeve of mine, rant over.
So how would you say spit in the past tense? A simply phrase could be.. 'I spat on it' or 'he spat on me' Obviously 'I spit on it' or 'he spit on me' wouldn't get your point across if telling someone a story about a past event.
Seems odd as it doesn't seem to work for me in the past tense but I have grown up with the word spat in my vocabulary so I guess it's just what your used to.
Like the spit/spat thing this also makes no sense to me but I suspect some other Americans may know what your going on about?
no it's not, you twat, it's spit. it's like moose... there is no mooses or meese... the passed tense doesn't translate in most instances anyway. I've no clue what bfun's on about lol
American English is dictated by the public, it has been for years. Old words always 'disapeer' from the dictionary and so should 'spat'
How about we just abolish all of the Queens English and let the Americans rephrase it in they're own way?
If I say the word moose am I talking about a single moose or multiple moose? You just got to figure it out.
You obviously take it in context with the whole sentence/conversation just like you do with everything else. It's been like that forever in the US and we never had a problem with it. If say spat or shat in the America, you'd probably get beat up.