by Peggy Robin
It’s been my practice in this space to avoid dealing with weighty
national issues but to stick to local matters and also tackle some quirky but
inconsequential little matters that only a curmudgeon would find worth
pondering. Like the past tense of “to kneel.” While others are debating the deeper
meaning conveyed when a football player choose to “take a knee” during the
playing of the national anthem, I’m in a dither over the “kneeled” versus “knelt.”
The Washington Post wrote, “After players of several NFL teams kneeled….” [Sept
24, 2017], while the New York Times wrote, “Colin Kaepernick may forever be
known as the quarterback who knelt for the national anthem…”
[Sept 7, 2017].
Why can’t we all just agree? Because sometimes both sides
are right. Here’s how the Grammarly Blog gives props to each past tense.
Kneeled and knelt
are interchangeable. Knelt is more common in British English than in American
English. One ending is enough for most verbs. However, some verbs have a
regular and irregular ending in the past tense. To kneel is to bend down or
rest on one or both knees. Let’s take a good look at the past tense of “to
kneel.”
Kneeled Examples:
“Some men kneeled
down, made scoops of their two hands joined, and sipped, or to help women, who
bent over their shoulders, to sip, before the wine had all run out between their
fingers.”
―Charles Dickens,
The Complete Works of Charles Dickens: The Tale of Two Cities
“The one time
Richard had kneeled, unavailingly, was when he returned from Ireland and bowed
his knee to Mother England herself, begging the very ground to sustain him
against his enemies.”
―Meredith Anne
Skura, Shakespeare the Actor and the Purposes of Playing
Knelt Examples:
“She walked down to
one of the front pews and knelt, genuflecting in long, sweeping movements from
her head to her chest to each shoulder.”
―Robert Hicks, A
Separate Country
“I patted down the
summit and knelt on it, time seemed to stand still. I opened my arms wide and
in the instant that lasts forever, a gust of wind gently nudged me forward and
I toppled into the void.”
―Mark Brook,
“Climbing Mountains: Day Eight and Summit”
What’s the
Difference Between Kneeled and Knelt?
Languages change
over time. In English, knelt is slowly giving way to kneeled. This trend is not
limited to this verb; there are a few others that are losing their irregular
past tense forms―or gaining an -ed form, at least. If knelt were a caterpillar
making a transition into a butterfly, it would still be in the cocoon. Right
now, both forms exist. They are both still acceptable. In American and British
English, knelt is still the most common of the two. British English speakers
don’t use kneeled as much as Americans do, but it is also gaining in popularity
in that version of English. Though both forms are correct, one or the other may
look more natural to you based on what you learned in school or where you live.
So the underlying question is, do you want to be part of the
trend toward promoting the regular “-ed” ending? Or do you want to be one of
those holding the line for the odd, irregular form, and insist on “knelt”? It
helps, I think, to look at what other past tenses of “ee”-sounding verbs we’ve
kept (not keeped!) and see whether we’ve learned (not learnt!) from the
plethora of examples.
Creep – can be “creeped” or “crept,” with “creeped” on the
rise. In the phrase, “that creeps me out” the past tense can ONLY be creeped –
as in “that creeped me out.”
Deal – can’t be anything but “dealt”
Dream – can be “dreamed” (more typically American) or dreamt
(more typically British) – but “dreamt” does seem to be fading, even in the UK.
Feel – can’t be anything but “felt.”
Keep – can’t be anything but “kept.”
Kneel – equally acceptable as “knelt” and “kneeled”
Leap – can be “leaped” (more typically American) or “leapt”
(more typically British).
Learn – “learned” is now standard on both sides of the
Atlantic, but “learnt” is still in use in the UK
Leave – Can’t be anything but “left”
Mean – can’t be anything but “meant”
Sleep – can’t be anything but “slept.”
Smell – “smelled” has become standard on both sides of the
Atlantic, but “smelt” is still in use in the UK.
Sweep – can’t be anything but “swept”
Weep – While I did find one dictionary, Wiktionary.org [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/weep]
that accepts “weeped” as well as “wept, ” I have never heard anyone use it….and
if I did, I might very well weep!
Here’s the count: Eight of the fourteen verbs on this list have
just one acceptable past tense, the irregular form. If the “-ed” form has crept
up in usage, it certainly hasn’t swept out the odder, older forms. So I come
down on the side that says “Knelt” should be left alone.
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Still Life with Robin is published on the
Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.
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