PSA (Pirate Service Announcement)

[tzikeh]

TO: All of Pirates of the Caribbean Fandom
FROM: Anal-Retentive Memo Department (Which Has Seen This One Too Many Times Already)
RE: Execution of Priates

Pirates are hanged for piracy. Not hung. They can be hung in other ways, and well-hung at that - but if you're talking about them dangling from a rope around their necks until they are dead, that's hanged.

Thank you.

Comments

Oops.

[jmtorres.livejournal.com]

I knew that, really.

Re: Oops.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

LOL - it is *not* just you. Since the fiction started appearing this has been driving me crazy.

Re: Oops.

[jmtorres.livejournal.com]

Maybe, but I should have known better. I mean, I *did* know that and I made the mistake anyway. And I usually *am* as anal as anything about stuff like that.

I feel so ashamed!

Re: Oops.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I suggest you have Jack punish you for your error.

Re: Oops.

[jmtorres.livejournal.com]

Which will definitely encourage me not to make such errors in the future. Right.

[prillalar]

Clearly you're right, but...doesn't the movie itself use "hung" in that context? Which doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to be more correct than the writers, but that maybe in this instance we should cut those scurvy, flea-bitten dogs of the sea some slack.

Grammar's more like guidelines anyway. Arr!

[jmtorres.livejournal.com]

When does it use "hung" like that? Do you recall specifically?

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Jack says it at one point - and we all muttered "hanged" both times I saw it in the theater. ;)

[jmtorres.livejournal.com]

*amused*

My only call-out was "Clap your hands if you believe in fairies!" when he got stabbed.

[prillalar]

I won't swear to this, but I thought that it was used at the end when they were preparing to hang Jack, by whomever was reading out the charges.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Oh, you know, I think you're right. I think that's when it is. But I think the camera is on Jack when it's said.

[amilyn.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

This drives me nuts every time I hear it done incorrectly. I shout at the TV, at movies (sorry), at news, at people, whether they can hear me or not. Grr.

I do admit that I hate the regular/irregular verb pairs though. German, annoyingly enough, does this too, so I've got it from both my languages, and in German the reg/irreg is also tied to transitive/intransitive, though there's a rule to govern how the reg/irreg ones work and which is which in German...what a shocker.

I've spent the past 2 years getting the lay/lie set down pat in English, and much of that was learning that the "i in the word equals intransitive and irregular" rule for German actually works for this English verb. Of course, now that bothers me too, and lay/lie is used incorrectly more than it's used correctly in English, leading me to wonder if it matters at all anymore, since the usage clearly has changed utterly.

So...hang/hung/has hung for the transitive "to hang something on the wall"?

The thing that bugs me here is that hang/hanged/has hanged is also transitive (so that part clearly doesn't work with this English verb). The hang/hanged/was hanged form is, I think, used in the passive voice more than the active.

[/nattering]

I agree with tzikeh. Hanged.