Saw\___\Sawn

Any comments about the past participle? ;-)

tdol said:

Any comments about the past participle? ;-)

Click to expand...

It has been sawn.

Still is, isn't it? ;-)

tdol said:

Still is, isn't it? ;-)

Click to expand...

Still is sawn?

:wink:

Still is the past participle. ;-)

Clever, Tdol.

:wink:

Oops. ;-)

'sawn' is losing ground to 'sawed'. This is the way of language. The "new" rule [that's been around for centuries] that ENLs have in their brain is "the past tense is made by adding "ed". Irregular verbs, though still quite individually strong, are fighting a losing battle.

Results 1 - 10 of about 655 English pages for "have sawn".

Results 1 - 10 of about 9,850 English pages for "have sawed".

v. saw -sawed - sawed/sawn


This verb has two forms of past participle : sawed / sawn

As far as I remember I have always used "sawn", possibly because my former teachers of English preferred this form.




Regards,

see/saw/seen

but

saw/sawed/sawn


Have a nice day!

Sawed but that's not for sure.

I did't know, but according to the posts the correct is sawed...
I did confusion with the irregular verb "To see" :-?

Marco_BR said:

I did't know, but according to the posts the correct is sawed...
I did confusion with the irregular verb "To see" :-?

Click to expand...

It's an easy mistake to make.

I always used "sawn", maybe it's because I'm a Britisher, but sawn always feels more natural to me than sawed, I always the "-N" ending on past participles when applicable, because, as I said, they feel more natural to me.

Also the answers are a bit strange, they start with "See", then go to "Saw" (which is OK), but then goes to "Sawn"/"Sawed", the Saw that's the past tense version of "See" is different from the "Saw" that "Sawn" and "Sawed" come from.

The two are possible ''Sawed'' or ''sawn''

Knowledge is life said:

The two are possible ''Sawed'' or ''sawn''

Click to expand...

There are some interesting comments here. The question is about the simple past, not the past participle.

"I saw the piece of wood." present
"I sawed the piece of wood." <- The question relates to the simple past.
"I have sawn/sawed the piece of wood."

I tried out the past participle options and decided that the only way I'd say this is I have cut the board. Sawed and especially sawn​ feel unnatural to me.

The ngrams support my intuition that AmE uses the present perfect of to saw​ very rarely. It's an order of magnitude more common in BrE.

leesajohnson said:

sawed.
[strike]Think that bed-leg sawed off that a way.[/strike]

Click to expand...

Please don't give example sentences that are incorrect.

This is not the verb to see, but the verb to saw.