So it’s the time of the semester I’m grading longer assignments, and I see a lot of sentences resembling these, which tells me maybe a grammar note might help a lot of students:
“I was suppose to go to the party.”
“I use to live in Arkansas.”
The correct sentences would use “supposed” and “used.”
Lots of students leave off the “d” of past tense words like these, words with a silent “e” at the end. (we pronounce them something like “suppowz” and “yewz” – no “e” sound at the end). Maybe you’re one of them. If you are, the likely reason is you’re writing like you speak.
Many dialects don’t pronounce the “d” of these words in the past tense. It takes a little more effort to flick that “d” in so the principle of least effort results over the years in a simplication. Instead of saying “I was ‘suppowzdto’ go.” Yuck. Who would come up with that awful clash of consonants?
No one, really. English dropped pronouncing the “ed” is what happened. Once upon a time you would have said “ed” like the name “Ed,” giving a little bit of space between consonants – “suppowz-Ed to.” (Today, New Yorkers say something like “suppowzda” – “I was suppowzda go to the store, but I forgot.” We just mush the two consonants d&t together.
So this grammar error results from no longer spelling like we speak – dialect interference, which is a shame, since writing started out as a transcription of speech.
A long time ago. Like the English that was the language of Chaucer.
But something happened. Writing became highly standardized in spelling, grammar and style. Speech, though, continues to change rapidly and to be different in different places, even different neighborhoods. Learning speech and learning writing is not even close to learning marks to transcribe sounds into written words. It’s really learning two variations of one language.
Don’t feel bad if you do this, but if you do, remember to add the “d” to the past tense of these words.
“I was supposed to go to the party,” and “I used to live in Arkansas.”
That simple change will bump up your writing a lot in a short time.
