Past tense of "to smelt"
Fab
what is the past tense and passive of "to smelt" (a verb meaning 'to melt or
fuse metal ore')?
a) smelt, smelt
b) smelted, smelted
c) any irregular form
...
TIA
Fab
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
B) smelted.
--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)
John O'Flaherty
Past tense: smelted.
Passive: the ore got smelted
Don't be confused by the fact that "smelt" is an alternate past tense
of "smell", a different word.
--
John
Fab
usually these online dictionaries offer what I need, but in this case my
collection of links was of no avail.
But I added your link now.
Thanks again.
Fab
> I was about to mildly chastise you for not using an English dictionary.
> Then I noticed that the on-line dictionaries do not help much, unless
> you luck into finding
>
> http://www.yourdictionary.com/smelt
>
> My advice is to buy a good dictionary; such as, The American Heritage
> Dictionary. These are relatively inexpensive. However, your library may
> provide access to the Oxford English Dictionary, which is the definitive
> reference.
>
Mark Brader
> I was about to mildly chastise you for not using an English dictionary.
> My advice is to buy a good dictionary; such as, The American Heritage
> Dictionary.
Ahem! http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/smelt
> However, your library may provide access to the Oxford English
> Dictionary, which is the definitive reference.
Not necessarily for up-to-date usage; it's updated too slowly.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | Bad news disturbs his game; so does good; so
m...@vex.net | also does the absence of news. --Stephen Leacock
Peter Moylan
>>
>> TIA
>>
>> Fab
>
> I was about to mildly chastise you for not using an English dictionary.
> you luck into finding
>
> http://www.yourdictionary.com/smelt
When I want an on-line dictionary, I usually go first to
http://www.onelook.com/
Indeed, the on-line dictionaries do not seem, at first sight, to answer
the question. In fact, they answer it by omission. Many dictionaries
give inflected forms of verbs only when the verb is irregular. If the
past tense and past participle are missing, you can safely assume that
the -ed forms are correct.
--
Peter Moylan, Newcastle, NSW, Australia. http://www.pmoylan.org
For an e-mail address, see my web page.
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
<inv...@peter.pmoylan.org.invalid> wrote:
>Murray Arnow wrote:
>> Fab wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> what is the past tense and passive of "to smelt" (a verb meaning 'to melt or
>>> fuse metal ore')?
>>>
>>> a) smelt, smelt
>>> b) smelted, smelted
>>> c) any irregular form
>>> ....
>>>
>>> TIA
>>>
>>> Fab
>>
>> I was about to mildly chastise you for not using an English dictionary.
>> Then I noticed that the on-line dictionaries do not help much, unless
>> you luck into finding
>>
>> http://www.yourdictionary.com/smelt
>
>When I want an on-line dictionary, I usually go first to
> http://www.onelook.com/
>
>Indeed, the on-line dictionaries do not seem, at first sight, to answer
>the question. In fact, they answer it by omission. Many dictionaries
>give inflected forms of verbs only when the verb is irregular. If the
>past tense and past participle are missing, you can safely assume that
>the -ed forms are correct.
You can use http://www.onelook.com/ to check for the regular form, in
this case "smelted". That will find the dictionaries that mention it.
http://www.onelook.com/?w=smelted&ls=a
That lists nine general dictionary entries, two of which say they don't
know the word. The other seven say that "smelted" is the past form of
"smelt".
Stan Brown
Without looking it up in the dictionary, I have always treated it as
a regular verb: smelt, smelted, smelted.
"Smelt" is one form of the past tense and past participle of "smell".
--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...