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I saw this sentence on the internet.

i know being spit on is probably not what you need right now

In this sentence, spit is past participle form of verb, spit. I know past form of spit is spit, spitted, spat and past participle is spit, spatted, spat Is this right? Why should I use spit in stead of spatted, spat?

3 Answers 3

1

Colins Dictionary says

spit

past tense, past participle spat

In American English, the form spit is used as the past tense and past participle.

So both spit and spat are fine in your sentence.

I know being spit/spat on is probably not what you need right now.

0

I spit.

Yesterday I spat.

In the past week, I have spat.

"I spitted (something)" means that "I passed a long metal rod with a crank at the end through the centre of a piece of meat, so as to roast it over a fire by winding the crank."

That is, "to spit" (transitive) means "to mount on a spit", and its past tense is "spitted".

So "spitted" and "spat" are completely different words, from a completely different usage of the word "spit".

There is no such word as "spatted" (at least in this context).

A "spat" (noun) is a "trivial fight between cats, little girls and celebrity wives". Hence "spatted" could possibly mean "had a spat", but I've never seen that.

And to answer your question, "I have spat" is better than "I have spit", although it is possible that "I have spit" is correct. Hence I would say "I have been spat on" rather than "I have been spit on".

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  • just a small one: "in the past week" mans past so present perfect "I have spat" is not grammatically correct.
    – gomadeng
    Jan 19, 2021 at 18:29
  • 2
    @Brandon - past present perfect "I have spat" is perfectly OK. Jan 19, 2021 at 19:47
  • We can't use present perfect with an explicit "past tense implier"(according to my intellect and knowledge which have been being formed from school.
    – gomadeng
    Jan 23, 2021 at 16:36
  • @Brandon Your English teacher may not be as clever as he thinks he is, or at least, not as clever as you think you are. Jan 23, 2021 at 21:27
-1

The verb "spit"—when used to mean "throw out saliva from the mouth"—has three forms of conjugation for tense.

  1. spit-spit-spit

  2. spit-spitted-spitted

  3. spit-spat-spat

Three of them are correct for your example sentence.

But no. 1(spit-spit-spit) is not that much used compared with no. 2 and 3.

In American English, no. 1 is often used.

For 'spat', spat is also a noun and a verb as well, which means a trivial fight or have a trivial fight. As a verb, the word 'spat's past and past participle are "spatted". So it's a totally diffrent word from the 'spit's conjugations above of no. 1, 2, and 3.

After Edit

The verb "spit" has 3 kinds of past and past participle as below.

  1. spit-spit-spit

  2. spit-spitted-spitted

  3. spit-spat-spat

Both no. 1 and 3 are correct for your example sentence but 2 is wrong. In case of No. 1 and 3 conjugation, it's when they mean "throw out saliva from the mouth"

In case of no. 2 conjugation, it's when it means "to pierce something like a meat"

For 'spat', spat is also a noun and a verb as well, which means a trivial fight or have a trivial fight. As a verb, the word 'spat's past and past participle are "spatted". So it's a totally diffrent word from the 'spit's conjugations above of no. 1, 2, and 3.

So, no. 1 and 3 are correct and no. 2 is wrong for your example sentence. But "spit-spat-spat" is more frequently used than "spit-spit-spit"

In American English, 'spit-spit-spit' is often used(not that much used).

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  • 1
    2 sounds completely wrong here. "Spitted" is the past tense of the word "to spit" (transitive) where "spit" means "to spit a piece of meat for roasting on a fire". But when used as the past tense of "to spit saliva from the mouth" it sounds like the sort of thing a young child would say before being corrected by an adult. Wiktionary agrees. Jan 19, 2021 at 20:05
  • Thx for advice. My bad. The original answer has now edit version after accepting your comment.
    – gomadeng
    Jan 19, 2021 at 20:59

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