Saturday, March 6, 2010

Pet Peeve

My friend Pheasance, metaprime example spotter extraordinaire and pet mommy, posted a pet peeve on http://www.grammarboard.com/ about the misuse of the past participle of the verb to pet.

http://www.grammarboard.com/ipb/index.php?showtopic=3038&hl


Has anyone else noticed this? I probably read more animal-related news than most folks, so you may not have come across this, but I keep finding "pet" used as the past and past participle of "to pet" (as in to stroke an animal).

That one doesn't like getting petted.
I pet him earlier.

Are people modeling it after "set" or "let" perhaps? As far as I know, "pet" is a completely regular verb, and the dictionary backs me up. Ergo, peevishness.

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