Snuck?

[FreeThinker]

I've been accused of having a stick up my ass when it comes to tradition and rules, but I am genuinely wondering about this particular issue. I've read an article in Writers Digest about this point and I am almost converted. I catch myself all the time using "snuck" in conversation, but when writing, I always stop and feel guilty using it instead of "sneaked." I know Shakespeare took wild and entertaining liberties with English and of course there is the famous video of Stephen Fry telling us language-Nazis to get over ourselves, but what is the Awesome Dude consensus on the battle of Snuck v. Sneaked? I noticed just now as I typed this that the Chrome-spell-checker doesn't like it. What about y'all?

[DesDownunder]

Let's make it worse. I notice many American authors, when describing dragging, use the word, drug, as past tense in "I was the one who drug the cat into the house."

In my part of the world 'drug' is only used to describe a medicine or narcotic substance.

We would say,
I dragged the cat into house where I gave it the drug I got from the vet.

As for snuck and sneaked, my dictionary treats them as interchangeable, with primary preference for sneaked.

I agree that snuck is common in conversation, but in descriptive prose I would use sneaked.

[Cole Parker]

Does this help:

First recorded in writing toward the end of the 19th century in the United States, snuck

has become in recent decades a standard variant past tense and past participle of the verb sneak.

Example: Bored by the lecture, he snuck out the side door. Snuck occurs frequently in fiction and in journalistic writing as well as on

radio and television: In the darkness the sloop had snuck around the headland, out of firing range. It is not so common in highly formal or belletristic writing, where sneaked is more likely to occur.

For the record, I have no idea what belletristic writing is. But I have it on good authority only a sneak would indulge in it.

C

[The Pecman]

I'd go for "sneaked."

But I'm concerned about FreeThinker having a stick up his ass. Please, see a doctor and get rid of it!

[DesDownunder]

From Wordweb:

belletristic: Written and regarded for aesthetic value rather than content

and pec, it's not polite to look at other people's sticks.

[Merkin]

I'm quietly luffing at that maneuver with the sloop.

[Cole Parker]

So he snuck the sloop past the bluff with a luft, and sneaked the snoop as a bluff that was fluff. I get it.

C

[Merkin]

When the wind gave a huff the seas became rough: he fell hard on his duff and uttered a muf-
fled cry.

[colinian]

This illustrates two things about the English language:

1. It's always changing.

2. Things that are reviled as new aberrations are revealed as long-ago standards.

Ya gotta love a language like that!

Colin

[Camy]

I notice many American authors, when describing dragging, use the word, drug, as past tense in "I was the one who drug the cat into the house."

In my part of the world 'drug' is only used to describe a medicine or narcotic substance.

We would say: I dragged the cat into house where I gave it the drug I got from the vet.

As for snuck and sneaked, my dictionary treats them as interchangeable, with primary preference for sneaked.

I agree that snuck is common in conversation, but in descriptive prose I would use sneaked.

Ditto.

Also annoying is the use of 'dove' instead of 'dived.' As in: 'Drooling, he dove onto Roger's woody.'

[DesDownunder]

Ditto.

Also annoying is the use of 'dove' instead of 'dived.' As in: 'Drooling, he dove onto Roger's woody.'

Thanks Camy, I now have the image of a white feathered bird drooling on Roger's woody.

[Mihangel]

Dove is understandable - in Britain it's used in some dialects. What always brings me up sharp is Americans saying fit where we say fitted (it fit him like a glove). The OED, which covers American just as much as British English, doesn't even mention it as an alternative past tense. Is it a recent innovation?

[Chris James]

Vast quantities of reading is something I'm sure we all share. A writer is nothing if he doesn't read a lot of books. I have found a descriptive phrase in which the author describes a voracious reader as a 'word person.' Fancy that if you will.

All this business of a history vs. an history, sneaked rather than snuck, only tells me what most of us already know...these things can be avoided if desired. The arrangement of words in a sentence is never fixed or iron clad because we have too many choices.

Unfortunately an author can only change his own words on the page when oftentimes what I see in a book leaves me with a desire to yell at the author who owns such disastrous aberrations of language. Oops, too late by then, but hell, at least they went to print with it.

I love finding the errors in a popular book and passing along my forgiveness. After all, if the bastard has sold 20 million copies and been published in thirty different languages you would think someone found the error along the way and corrected it. Or perhaps not. Still, he has money in the bank so he may not care. Better luck next time.

[Cole Parker]

Sorry, it's my nature to quibble and make mountains of molehills, but I can't get Camy's woody out of my mine.

And not of the reasons you're all thinking.

See, everyone knows a woody is an old American station wagon, a car no longer built but popular in the 50's: a longish sedan with wood paneling on the sides. And so, that being the case, I simply have to correct Camy. Drooling or not, he would have dove or dived 'into', not onto Roger's woody, as these cars were not provided with seat belts on the exterior.

Ah, I feel better now that that's cleared up.

C

[Lugnutz]

See, everyone knows a woody is an old American station wagon, a car no longer built but popular in the 50's: a longish sedan with wood paneling on the sides. And so, that being the case, I simply have to correct Camy. Drooling or not, he would have dove or dived 'into', not onto Roger's woody, as these cars were not provided with seat belts on the exterior.

Ditto. Woodie car porn FTW.

[Merkin]

Ah, yes, I remember when all the neighbors came round to stare at my dad's woody. Some stroked it, others wanted a ride. Dad was a generous soul and tried to accommodate all requests.

[Cole Parker]

There's a good story title for you, James. Polishing my Dad's Woody.

C

[JamesSavik]

I once had to sneak into a closet and stay there until his hubbie left the next morning.

Another time I had to sneak onto a three story roof, climb down a trellis and hop a fence.

For a while there if I didn't sneak away fast, I would have gotten shot.

Who says sex isn't a lot of exercise?

[Cole Parker]

James, if you ever write an autobiography, I'm buying a copy.

C

[ChrisR]

So if sneak is the present tense and snuck is past tense, does that mean if we do it today it's known as feaking?

[DesDownunder]

ChrisR, you have me all tensed up about eating a Snickers chocolate bar whilst I get snookered.