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It snowed last night vs. it snew last night


Sky Cutter

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(edited)

which sounds like it should be past tense of snowing? snowed or snew?

 

and any other words you think are wrong? like stupider?

 

personally i think it should be snew instead of snowed

Edited by Sky Cutter
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im pretty sure its snowed. But personally if I can avoid that emphasis i will do it. Also due to my way of saying thing in Norway i usually put it out like "oh wow its frosty/white on the ground, the snow really must have been falling last night." And if i have to use it i will say it like "oh it looks like it snowed last night, it must have been cold"

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(edited)

It's "snowed". Think of it this way: if the past tense of snow is snew, then the past tense of flow should be flew. Then again, that assumes consistency in English.  :lol:

 

 

but it's going to blow up; it blew up   it's going to grow, it grew  
Exactly what I meant about consistency. Why isn't the past tense of flow flew? It seems rather arbitrary, but hey, English. Edited by Frith is Magick
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"snew" reminds me too much of that episode of Futurama, with the phrase "Death by Snu snu"that one of the Amazonian women said.

 

It's snow,

 

 

but it's going to blow up; it blew up

 

it's going to grow, it grew

 

i know, i knew

 

 

Just like "It's going to rain. It has rained"

 

"Rain and "snow" are nouns, whereas "grew" and "knew" are not.

 

 

I think because they're nouns, it's different.

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The past tense of the verb "snow" is most definitely "snowed".

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but it's going to blow up; it blew up

 

it's going to grow, it grew

 

i know, i knew

It might be because the word Snow comes from a different origin than the rest of these words, resulting in different grammatical rules. This is very common considering English is essentially a mish-mash of various languages and grammar.

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(edited)

I don't think "snew" is an actual word.

snow (v.)

c.1300, from the noun, replacing Old English sniwan, which would have yielded modern snew (which existed as a parallel form until 17c. and, in Yorkshire, even later), from the root of snow (n.). The Old English verb is cognate with Middle Dutch sneuuwen, Dutch sneeuwen, Old Norse snjova, Swedish snöga.

 

Also þikke as snow þat snew,

Or al so hail þat stormes blew.

[Robert Mannyng of Brunne, transl. Wace's "Chronicle," c.1330]

Source: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=snew

 

Also see here in Wiktionary.

 

So it seems that it once was an actual word, and it was conjugated as such. But in modern Enghlish it was replaced by the regular conjugation, perhaps from the very same reason all such "modern" forms come from: most people don't respect orthography and grammar rules and don't understand them. I see it all the time all over the world. See how many YouTube comments are there where one says "I am not aloud to use it" instead of "I am not allowed to use it", or confusing "too" with "to". I guess when enough people will make such errors, they become "official" forms of these words, too.

Edited by SasQ
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snow (v.)

c.1300, from the noun, replacing Old English sniwan, which would have yielded modern snew (which existed as a parallel form until 17c. and, in Yorkshire, even later), from the root of snow (n.). The Old English verb is cognate with Middle Dutch sneuuwen, Dutch sneeuwen, Old Norse snjova, Swedish snöga.

 

 

Also þikke as snow þat snew,

Or al so hail þat stormes blew.

[Robert Mannyng of Brunne, transl. Wace's "Chronicle," c.1330]

Source: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=snew

 

Also see here in Wiktionary.

 

 

Haha, okay okay, you got me. ^^

 

But I can honestly say I've never heard the word until now, so I have you to thank for adding another word to my vocabulary! ^^

 

However, I still don't think it's "snew". ^^"

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No offense, I wasn't trying to "catch" you, not even particularly you ;)

 

I think I've seen the "snew" version before somewhere, in some British (Scottish?) English book or poem. I can't remember now. But I'm sure I did. This is an obsolete form (but still valid in some regions of UK I guess), similar to these Old-English "thou", "thee", "hath", "fix'd" etc., used only occasionally for stylistic/poetic effects.

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If the past tense of snow was snew, then the past tense of flow would be flew.  But flew is the past tense of fly.  So that means that snew must be the past tense of sny, which isn't a word.  So I guess that wraps everything up in a neat little package.

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  • 5 years later...

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