Often when I’m playing Scrabble, I’m testing every normally -ed word with the -t variant to see if I can make it fit, but only a small percentage of them gets accepted or is in the dictionary. Some seem self-explanatory, but others seem arbitrary, and feel like hangovers from an old mediaeval version of the language.
An example of a self-explanatory variation would be “burned” and “burnt”. One is the past particle of the verb to burn, the other is a description of the quality of having been burned. Although interchangeable, one generally feels more appropriate than the other in specific circumstances. I’m ok with that particular t/ed switcheroo. It’s stuff like the following that I’m confused about:
- Vexed/Vext
- Fixed/Fixt
- Flocked/Flockt
- Picked/Pickt
- Skinned/Skint (borderline case, “skint” has another meaning)
Those are all in the dictionary, but these aren’t:
- Backed/Backt
- Racked/Rackt
- Packed/Packt
- Fucked/Fuckt
I can’t for the life of me figure out the rule, if such a rule even exists.
Cheers!
The english language is a strange one. Not everything makes total sense. This is just one of those times.
If you really want to question your knowledge of the english language, play scrabble against someone who is very good at it and you’ll be constantly checking the dictionary saying “there’s no way that’s a real word” haha