Bid, bidded, bade?

[Tim+]

My daughter happened to mention that she'd "bidded" for something on eBay
which just didn't sound right. "Bade" doesn't sound right either (although
I think Chambers does list it a a valid past tense form).

What do other people say for the past tense of "bid"?

Tim

[Don Phillipson]

"Tim+" <timdow...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1878242569413392877.34278...@news.eternal-september.org...

We can rely on good grammars and dictionaries with confidence.
Bid/bade is standard English.

Steven Pinker has a hypothesis about age and language learning
and correct grammar (of regular and irregular verbs) in The Language
Instinct (1994.)

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

On Thu, 6 Feb 2014 15:25:22 +0000 (UTC), Tim+
<timdow...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

>My daughter happened to mention that she'd "bidded" for something on eBay
>which just didn't sound right. "Bade" doesn't sound right either (although
>I think Chambers does list it a a valid past tense form).

"Bade" is the past tense of a different sense of "bid" - to wish someone
something (from the OED):

bid, v.1

Forms: Pa. tense bad, bade, (bæd), bid. Pa. pple. bidden, bid.


9. In to bid welcome , bid adieu, bid farewell, bid good bye, bid
good morning, the original notion was probably that of ‘pray,’
‘invoke,’ or ‘wish devoutly’; the phrases are now used without
analysis, ‘bid’ being little more than = ‘say, utter, express’.

a1400...
1579 Spenser Shepheardes Cal. Sept. 1, I bidde her God day.
....
1711 R. Steele Spectator No. 27. ?4 He'll bid adieu to all the
Vanity of Ambition.
1844 Mem. Babylonian Pr'cess II. 311, I now..respectfully bid
the British public farewell.

This is the eBay sense of "bid":

3.
a. trans. To offer (a certain price) for, to offer as a price one is
prepared to give for. (Sometimes with dative obj. of person: ‘you
bid me too little.’)

¶In this sense the pa. tense and pa. pple. are now bid; Scottish
writers retain the past, bad, bade, used by Dr. Johnson.

Note that the entry was first published in 1887 and has not been
apparently updated since then. So unless you are a Scottish writer from
the 19th century, "bade" is not the past tense of "bid" in the auction
sense.

"bidded" is a perfectly good regular formation of the verb "bid" even
though it may not be in dictionaries. It is the sort of word a child
might produce when first learning the language by listening to other
people. The meaning is clear even though it is unfamiliar.

To me, the normal past tense and past participle of "bid" are "bid".

Perhaps "bidded" will catch on.

>
>What do other people say for the past tense of "bid"?
>
>Tim

--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.english.usage)

[Tim+]

Um, not according to Chambers which *does* include the auction sense.

bade /bad or (poetic) bād/ pat of bid1,2
bid1 /bid/
transitive verb (biddˈing; bade /bad, also (esp poetic) bād/ or bid;
biddˈen or bid)
To offer, esp to offer to pay at an auction
To propose (how many tricks one will win, eg in bridge)
To proclaim (eg the banns of marriage)

Tim

[Daniel James]

In article <ld0bcf$o2o$1...@news.albasani.net>, Don Phillipson wrote:
> We can rely on good grammars and dictionaries with confidence.

You, sir, are an incurable optimist!

> Bid/bade is standard English.

In some senses, yes. It's fine in:

It was my custom to doff my hat whenever I had occasion to bid
someone farewell, I therefore removed my hat with a flourish
and bade her farewell.

but you'd never say:

I was playing bridge with Clarence last week, and he bade two
clubs in response to my opening.

In that context you would always use "bid" itself as a past tense.

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (one of the very few that
actually is good, though not as good as its greater sibling, and even
that is not infallible) notes that "bade", "bad", and "bidden" are all
alternatives for "bid" in the past tense, but that they are obsolete in
the sense of bidding at an auction and never used in the sense of
bidding at cards.

Cheers,
Daniel.

[Django Cat]

Don Phillipson wrote:

> > My daughter happened to mention that she'd "bidded" for something
> > on eBay which just didn't sound right. "Bade" doesn't sound right
> > either (although I think Chambers does list it a a valid past tense
> > form). What do other people say for the past tense of "bid"?
>
> We can rely on good grammars and dictionaries with confidence.
> Bid/bade is standard English.

Who'd've thunk it?

DC

--

[jamesny...@gmail.com]

bidded sounds good

[Anton Shepelev]

jamesnyamaropa to Tim+:

>>My daughter happened to mention that she'd "bid-

>>ded" for something on eBay which just didn't sound
>>right. "Bade" doesn't sound right either (although
>>I think Chambers does list it a a valid past tense
>>form).
>>
>>What do other people say for the past tense of
>>"bid"?
>

>bidded sounds good

If 'bid' in the auctioning sense is the same verb as
the 'bid' that means to request then you just bade
farewell to correct spelling.

--
() ascii ribbon campaign - against html e-mail
/\ http://preview.tinyurl.com/qcy6mjc [archived]

[Peter Young]

It doesn't sound so good to me. In my BrE the standard past tense of
"bid" is "bid".

Peter.

--
Peter Young, (BrE, RP), Consultant Anaesthetist, 1975-2004.
(US equivalent: Certified Anesthesiologist)
Cheltenham and Gloucester, UK. Now happily retired.
http://pnyoung.orpheusweb.co.uk