Snuck / Sneaked

[Tomisimo]

Do you use snuck or sneaked as the preterit of to sneak? (I am actually in disagreement with someone on this)

[gatitoverde]

David, you have a true go, go, gadget forum. ¿Cómo se dice gadget?

[Iris]

I use both ,David. I would say snuck is more colloquial.
A gadget is un cacharro, un aparato.

[poli]

I agree with María Jose because I interchange sneaked and snuck, but I prefer snuck as a simple past tense verb and sneaked as past participle ( I snuck, I have sneaked). There are certain phrases that work better with
sneaked (I sneaked in) but I usually prefer sneaked for the past perfect

[Tomisimo]

Any more opinions on this? ... The person I was arguing with about this prefers sneaked as the simple past tense (preterit) and I prefer snuck.

[Marsopa]

I would say that I use snuck more with the first person and sneaked with the third.

[Marcos]

I have always been partial to 'snuck'. Sneaked just sounds odd to me.

[LaGata]

The misuse of this word is one of my pet peeeeeeves!!!! It really is "sneaked". However, much like "drug" for "dragged", the word "snuck" has sneaked its way into acceptability in English usage, at least in the U.S. Grrrr....It's okay...I'll get over it

[Rusty]

I have always used snuck. I got scared when I consulted the dictionaries, because sneaked was always listed first as the past tense. However, I found this usage note in the American Heritage Dictionary:

Snuck is an Americanism first introduced in the 19th century as a nonstandard regional variant of sneaked. Widespread use of snuck has become more common with every generation. It is now used by educated speakers in all regions. Formal written English is more conservative than other varieties, of course, and here snuck still meets with much resistance. Many writers and editors have a lingering unease about the form, particularly if they recall its nonstandard origins. And 67 percent of the Usage Panel disapproved of snuck in our 1988 survey. Nevertheless, an examination of recent sources shows that snuck is sneaking up on sneaked. Snuck was almost 20 percent more common in newspaper articles published in 1995 than it was in 1985. Snuck also appears in the work of many respected columnists and authors: "He ran up huge hotel bills and then snuck out without paying" (George Stade). "He had snuck away from camp with a cabinmate" (Anne Tyler). "I ducked down behind the paperbacks and snuck out" (Garrison Keillor).

I feel better now.

[gatitoverde]

The change is interesting because I can't think of any analagous -eak or, for that matter, -eek words--- not leak, squeak, peek, creak, seek, reek or anything.

An interesting variant of squeezed used all over Utah is squoze, which drives me batty. It's even extended to the past participle, squozen.

[Marsopa]

I think that although I say snuck, if I had to write it I would put sneaked.

[poli]

¿Well, Dave, what's the veredicto?

[Jane]

Originally Posted by Marsopa

I think that although I say snuck, if I had to write it I would put sneaked.

Same here.

[gatitoverde]

Originally Posted by Marsopa

I think that although I say snuck, if I had to write it I would put sneaked.

Likewise.

[Tomisimo]

Originally Posted by poli

¿Well, Dave, what's the veredicto?

Well, I don't know. I would personally use snuck, but I have seen sneaked, especially in writing.

Rusty and LaGata's information is quite interesting. I would be interested in hearing more about how this irregular form was introduced. Was it an invented form that then caught on? It is normal that over time irregular verb are regularized in a language, but the opposite is not often true.

[Escarabajo]

Soy enterado de que la norma es "sneaked" pero éste no se oye bien en mis orejas. Elegí "snuck". Pero al escribir elegiría "sneaked".

[LaGata]

Here is an article I came across regarding the sneaked/snuck topic.

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/inde...?date=19981221

BTW, the poll results are a little scary...lol.

[Tomisimo]

Originally Posted by LaGata

Here is an article I came across regarding the sneaked/snuck topic.

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/inde...?date=19981221

BTW, the poll results are a little scary...lol.

Very interesting article Gata.

I recommend reading the entire article. Here are a few quotes I especially liked.

"He grubbed ten dollars from de bums an den snuck home." This and other examples suggest that snuck was limited to the speech of uneducated, rural Americans.

Since the 1950s, snuck has been found with increasingly frequency in neutral contexts--used as a standard past form in written sources without any suggestion of humorous intent. In present-day English, snuck is extremely widespread throughout the country, even among educated speakers, and in the speech of younger people it is the dominant form.

Snuck is fully standard in American English.

In British English sneaked remains the usual past form, with snuck appearing only in humorous or nonstandard use.

[LaGata]

I'm in denial, David, with regard to that third quote. Cheers!

[Tomisimo]

Yes, I liked the third quote, because it reinforces what I personally think is right. I guess I'm what the article calls a new generation who thinks that snuck is right, and hasn't even heard sneaked. Although I have seen it in writing.

But the article also makes a good point that in British English, sneaked the correct form across the board. I'll have to remember this for my future travels across the pond.