Grimmer girl here. I'm in Yonfuckery. This week I have a quick and dirty tip about lit

versus lighted. A clarification about jury rigged and jerry rigged. And a meaty middle about

what makes words like hearty with a T and hearty with a D sound the same when some people

say them. On to the quick and dirty tip. Have you ever wondered why we have two past tense

forms of the verb to light? Should you say squiggly lit citronella candles or squiggly lighted citronella

candles? Maybe you've even wondered whether one is wrong. Lighted sounds kind of weird in that

sentence, right? Well, both words are correct. Light is one of those rare English words that

has two acceptable past tense forms. Lighted is what we call a regular verb because you make it past tense

by adding E D to the end. And lit is what we call an irregular verb because you change the spelling to make it past tense.

You don't just add E D. In the past, English had a lot more irregular verbs, but over time many changed

form and became regular, making English simpler. But for reasons nobody seems to be able to explain

light took the opposite route. Long ago, people used the irregular verb saying they lit candles.

And for a time, the verb acted like many others and moved toward becoming a regular verb. In other

words, people started saying they lighted candles instead of saying they lit candles. But

and this is the thing that makes the verb unusual. Around 1900, people switched back to using lit

as the past tense. And that's still the more common form today. As a verb, lit is currently much

more common than lighted in both British and American English. Of course, lit and lighted can also

be adjectives. For example, you can say you entered a lit hallway or you entered a lighted hallway.

And the story here is a little different. Lit appears to be more common as an adjective in British

English, just like the verb. But in American English, lit and lighted seem to be used with about

equal frequency as adjectives. And that's your quick and dirty tip. Lit and lighted both currently

exist as fully acceptable past tense forms of the verb to light and as adjectives. But lit is used

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