posted
Maybe a grammar savant can help me figure this out. I have a question about the use of past tenses of "show." Which of these are correct or incorrect or can they all be used interchangeably?
"You have shown me this." "You had shown me this." "You have showed me this." "You had showed me this."
And if there is a rule for the word "show" does that same rule apply for the past tenses of "shine"? (shone and shined)
Posts: 326 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote:Originally posted by kojabu: One of those makes me quiver. But I'm not actually sure which, I keep changing my mind.
That's because all of the sentences are incorrect. They use variations of "show" correctly, but this is what they have to look like to be grammatically correct.
"You have shown this to me" "John has shown this to me" "You will show this to me" "Bill showed this to me"
That "to" really has to be in there to make it grammatical.
edit: Sorry about being vague. I can't remember the exact rule that says that. Basically, you have two nouns in the sentence. "This" and "Me". There has to be something there to seperate the two nouns.
Posts: 3003 | Registered: Oct 2004
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You don't need a "to." In the above phrases, "this" is the direct object and "me" is the indirect object. It doesn't require a preposition and works fine as is.
Posts: 1068 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
BunnV: Showed is the correct simple past form, and both showed and shown are correct as past participles. Thus, all your example sentences are correct. Dante is also correct in saying that you don't need to phrase it like "this to me." Indirect objects can go with a to, but they don't have to.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
Speakers of black English use the first one, but I've never heard the second one. Of course, I'm not an expert on black English.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
It's also important to point out that "have shown" is a totally different tense than "had shown."
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
I think BunnV was asking which ones were correct, the first two or the last two. I also forgot to point out that the same thing holds true with shined and shone: both are correct, but there may be regional differences in usage.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
BunnV, Jon Boy's always right about these things, about grammar questions. And since he confirms exactly what I said in all particulars, my already high confidence in him is now even higher. Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
Since pretty much forever? It's divided usage. In fact, Bartleby uses it as an example of divided usage for past participles.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Tatiana: BunnV, Jon Boy's always right about these things, about grammar questions. And since he confirms exactly what I said in all particulars, my already high confidence in him is now even higher.
*beams*
Jonathan: You have much to learn, my young padawan.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
For questions like this, it never hurts to check a dictionary. If you go to www.m-w.com and look up a word, you'll see a list of inflected forms. The first is the simple past ("I showed"), the second is the past participle ("I have shown"), and the last is the present participle ("I am showing"). When there's more than one option, they list the most common one first. This is what it looks like:
quote:showed \shod\; shown \shon \; or showed; show·ing
The "or" there means that "showed" is an alternate form for the past participle. For shine, this is what you get:
quote:shone \shon, especially Canadian and British shän \; or shined; shin·ing
For this one, it doesn't list separate simple past and past participle forms. This means they're the same, and there's also variation in both of them between shone and shined.
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