"snuck" is not uncommon here in England. It has a distinct jocular air in my experience; people use it because it sounds funny. I think most people if pushed would say it was technically "wrong", though. Not unlike occasional similarly jocular use of "thunk" as the past tense of "think".
For some reason "dove" for "dive" is much rarer; I basically never encounter it except from US sources, despite it being wholly established in the US, while "snuck" is only most of the way there.
Yes I found it very odd to read that we Brits supposedly say “sneaked“ instead of “snuck”. That's not my experience. He snuck that contentious claim in there.
From my east and west midlands of England perspective, snuck is the default. Sneaked sounds wrong to me. Would like to see some stats about it. Could be generational
I live in Wales. Generally I only hear people say "sneaked" as the past tense of "sneak" - with the exception of "snuck that in" or "snuck that past us".
I also don't think I've ever heard "dove" as the past tense of "dive", other than in North American sources.
As well as “snuck” actually being quite common in Britain, I feel I must also mention that in British English (especially Northern English), “bring” *does* have an irregular form along the described lines: “brung”.
I agree that ‘snuck’ is pretty common in the UK. If I (UK, Scotland) heard ‘snuck’ now I'd think it was vaguely weird/jocular/funny, as another commenter said, but I wouldn't identify it as an americanism, or indeed as wrong.
‘Brung’, in contrast, I would firmly identify as jocular, with someone playing with a strong plural. It also sounds like someone being deliberately slightly childish in their word choice, in a way which makes sense after being reminded about children sometimes erroneously using strong verbs by analogy.
‘Dove’ instead of ‘dived’ I would think of as broadly non-standard, but again not as an americanism. Or at least I think I would – it's of course very hard to work out what one actually thinks when asked a question about usage, like this.
Interesting, so “brung” is specifically Northern English dialect, not Northern British dialect. There are a lot of non-standard words that are shared between Scottish and Northern English dialects, but not this one apparently. If I heard someone say “Has the washing been brung in?” I don't think I'd think anything amiss.
That's fascinating! Am from the Southern US and strongly associate "brung" with rural Southern or Midwestern US dialects (in my mind's ear, I hear it pronounced as "you brung the warsh in yet?"). It goes along with "what the cat drug in". There would've been a scolding about the misuse of English if I'd used either of those as a kid.
Franco-Prussian War: The Ems Dispatch was deliberately re-written to make it look as though the French ambassador and the King insulted each other, providing a pretext for the war.
Hyphen War: Not an outright war but the Czech and Slovak disagreement over whether to use a hyphen in the name of the country contributed to the collapse of the state.
And many independence wars have been fought over the right to use the local language / dialect.
When I Googled for “wars that started over grammar” and I saw a link about the Ems Dispatch, my first thought was that it was weird to fight a war over an em dash
Here's an interesting related grammar quirk I've heard.
If you're enough of a nerd to play D&D, you know that characters of the rogue class have a special ability called "sneak attack", which like "attack" is both a noun and a verb.
Well, if it's a verb, what is its past tense? If you're carefully following the persnickety grammar you were caught in school, the past tense should be "sneak attacked". But in practice, I've heard it many times as "snuck attacked".
I'm sorry, but with such articles, I can't not subscribe. I was resisting the "yet another substack subscription", but this is another gem, so I went ahead and subscribed.
As to the article itself, very interesting. Not being a native speaker, if you'd have asked me what's the past tense of "sneak", I would have hesitated. Because while "sneaked" is technically correct, it sounds "weird" to my years, much more so than "snuck". Is it because most of the English-based media I consume is American? Or some other reason?
Hmm, I wonder if sneak become irregular not purely randomly…
I still think of “snuck” as mildly comical. I’m originally British until I was 52 but have lived in Maine since 2002. I don’t think I heard “dove” for “dived” until I came over here, but I woukd have understood “snuck” before, though not used it.
As children in north west England in the 70's we always used the word 'snuck'. For example "he snuck up on me and stole my pencil". We may even have used 'snooking' as in 'stop snooking around'. 'Snug' is something else of course.
I have a hypothesis for why sneak became a strong verb. My mother often comments on the strength of 's' words, how well they express the action or object they describe, almost onomatopeic in sound: slash, slit, slither, snake, slosh, splash, splat, sweep/swept, swish, swashbuckler. Sneak is a strong 's' descriptor of the action of creeping past a dangerous obstacle in one's way, and thus, it acquired a strong verb past tense.
One example that for some reason annoys the hell out of me — you would think that lawyers with their expensive education would not invent dopey words — is “pled” for pleaded. Presumably because someone thought it sounded sophisticated to turn “plead”, which is of French origin anyway, into a strong Germanic verb.
On another matter, I wonder why pictures are hung, but people are hanged, at least in British prisons.
Thanks Bonni, that's a really interesting read. I always thought "pled" was a sort of clunky neologism, but it's got a long history in Scotland, before it crossed the Atlantic. Put it in the same category as wear, ring etc, invented strong verbs.
Excellent! The comments there also point to another posting on the same blog [1], which points to some other scottish terms still atavistically bubbling along.
To those I'll add ‘furth’, as in time spent, or courses taken, by undergraduates ‘furth of Glasgow’. There is some other characteristically erudite commentary on that little gem at [2].
I've never heard of lawyers saying pled! (I live in Wales, UK.) I think "pled" is the past tense of "plead" in Scots, but the news media I consume is in British English, and always uses "pleaded"
I grew up in the Mid Atlantic region of the US, which is the area earliest settled by Europeans, mainly from the British Isles in the early 1600's. I remember that we often differentiated between using dove/dived: "I dove into the water yesterday at the lake", yet "I dived into the water to rescue the person". Not strictly interchangeable, but with a subtle difference in the (past) action. Seems to me now that it depended on the form of the action. I still do that today, but would be hard-pressed to explain the variance.
Ah. Now I understand my discomfort when a certain fiction author I read uses -ed and not the irregular version. I definitely dove in — never dived. So why does swim, swam, swum still crip up in my mind?
Fascinating! I wonder if this is why I distinctly remember hearing the past tense of "squeeze" as "squoze" when I was a child in NYC in the 70s and 80s...
"snuck" is not uncommon here in England. It has a distinct jocular air in my experience; people use it because it sounds funny. I think most people if pushed would say it was technically "wrong", though. Not unlike occasional similarly jocular use of "thunk" as the past tense of "think".
For some reason "dove" for "dive" is much rarer; I basically never encounter it except from US sources, despite it being wholly established in the US, while "snuck" is only most of the way there.
Yes I found it very odd to read that we Brits supposedly say “sneaked“ instead of “snuck”. That's not my experience. He snuck that contentious claim in there.
Maybe it's a generational thing. The old usage panel was probably my age (75); I have never used 'snuck' and think it sounds silly.
From my east and west midlands of England perspective, snuck is the default. Sneaked sounds wrong to me. Would like to see some stats about it. Could be generational
I live in Wales. Generally I only hear people say "sneaked" as the past tense of "sneak" - with the exception of "snuck that in" or "snuck that past us".
I also don't think I've ever heard "dove" as the past tense of "dive", other than in North American sources.
As well as “snuck” actually being quite common in Britain, I feel I must also mention that in British English (especially Northern English), “bring” *does* have an irregular form along the described lines: “brung”.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/brung
I agree that ‘snuck’ is pretty common in the UK. If I (UK, Scotland) heard ‘snuck’ now I'd think it was vaguely weird/jocular/funny, as another commenter said, but I wouldn't identify it as an americanism, or indeed as wrong.
‘Brung’, in contrast, I would firmly identify as jocular, with someone playing with a strong plural. It also sounds like someone being deliberately slightly childish in their word choice, in a way which makes sense after being reminded about children sometimes erroneously using strong verbs by analogy.
‘Dove’ instead of ‘dived’ I would think of as broadly non-standard, but again not as an americanism. Or at least I think I would – it's of course very hard to work out what one actually thinks when asked a question about usage, like this.
Interesting, so “brung” is specifically Northern English dialect, not Northern British dialect. There are a lot of non-standard words that are shared between Scottish and Northern English dialects, but not this one apparently. If I heard someone say “Has the washing been brung in?” I don't think I'd think anything amiss.
That's fascinating! Am from the Southern US and strongly associate "brung" with rural Southern or Midwestern US dialects (in my mind's ear, I hear it pronounced as "you brung the warsh in yet?"). It goes along with "what the cat drug in". There would've been a scolding about the misuse of English if I'd used either of those as a kid.
I'm in Yorkshire.
Snuck is pretty common. "He snuck in before me in the queue" for example. "He snuck down the snicket."
Brung isn't very frequently heard by myself but certainly exists. "I brung along a brolly." "He brung her with him."
This basically conforms to my experience in Lancashire: snuck is pretty normal; brung is non-standard but not shocking.
(*blush* I see I wrote ‘strong plural’ – I have no idea why, when I meant ‘strong verb preterite’, or something like that)
Wars over grammar (loosely defined):
Franco-Prussian War: The Ems Dispatch was deliberately re-written to make it look as though the French ambassador and the King insulted each other, providing a pretext for the war.
Hyphen War: Not an outright war but the Czech and Slovak disagreement over whether to use a hyphen in the name of the country contributed to the collapse of the state.
And many independence wars have been fought over the right to use the local language / dialect.
> The Ems Dispatch...
Hmm. I suppose if it had been rewritten to be shorter, it would have become the Ens Dispatch.
When I Googled for “wars that started over grammar” and I saw a link about the Ems Dispatch, my first thought was that it was weird to fight a war over an em dash
Isn't that the Butlerian Jihad?
Here's an interesting related grammar quirk I've heard.
If you're enough of a nerd to play D&D, you know that characters of the rogue class have a special ability called "sneak attack", which like "attack" is both a noun and a verb.
Well, if it's a verb, what is its past tense? If you're carefully following the persnickety grammar you were caught in school, the past tense should be "sneak attacked". But in practice, I've heard it many times as "snuck attacked".
I'm sorry, but with such articles, I can't not subscribe. I was resisting the "yet another substack subscription", but this is another gem, so I went ahead and subscribed.
As to the article itself, very interesting. Not being a native speaker, if you'd have asked me what's the past tense of "sneak", I would have hesitated. Because while "sneaked" is technically correct, it sounds "weird" to my years, much more so than "snuck". Is it because most of the English-based media I consume is American? Or some other reason?
Hmm, I wonder if sneak become irregular not purely randomly…
I still think of “snuck” as mildly comical. I’m originally British until I was 52 but have lived in Maine since 2002. I don’t think I heard “dove” for “dived” until I came over here, but I woukd have understood “snuck” before, though not used it.
As children in north west England in the 70's we always used the word 'snuck'. For example "he snuck up on me and stole my pencil". We may even have used 'snooking' as in 'stop snooking around'. 'Snug' is something else of course.
What a delight to read!
Amen
“Hand is to glove as foot is to _______.” (shoe)
I never had to do an SAT. If I answered 'sock', would I have lost a point?!
Hand is to glove as foot is to mouth. I.e., you put the one into the other.
I have a hypothesis for why sneak became a strong verb. My mother often comments on the strength of 's' words, how well they express the action or object they describe, almost onomatopeic in sound: slash, slit, slither, snake, slosh, splash, splat, sweep/swept, swish, swashbuckler. Sneak is a strong 's' descriptor of the action of creeping past a dangerous obstacle in one's way, and thus, it acquired a strong verb past tense.
Check out glow, glass, glitter, glaze, glisten
"Sound symbolism" is the term linguists use and its existence is debated, although it seems apparent to both you, me, and your mom.
One example that for some reason annoys the hell out of me — you would think that lawyers with their expensive education would not invent dopey words — is “pled” for pleaded. Presumably because someone thought it sounded sophisticated to turn “plead”, which is of French origin anyway, into a strong Germanic verb.
On another matter, I wonder why pictures are hung, but people are hanged, at least in British prisons.
"The stocking were hanged by the chimney with care" gives that poem a slightly different character
@Thomas Blackburn - interesting blog post about pleaded and pled which I just found https://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2025/11/pleaded-and-pled.html?m=1
Thanks Bonni, that's a really interesting read. I always thought "pled" was a sort of clunky neologism, but it's got a long history in Scotland, before it crossed the Atlantic. Put it in the same category as wear, ring etc, invented strong verbs.
Excellent! The comments there also point to another posting on the same blog [1], which points to some other scottish terms still atavistically bubbling along.
To those I'll add ‘furth’, as in time spent, or courses taken, by undergraduates ‘furth of Glasgow’. There is some other characteristically erudite commentary on that little gem at [2].
[1] https://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2006/10/outwith-and-diet-scottish-factor.html
[2] https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005500.html
I've never heard of lawyers saying pled! (I live in Wales, UK.) I think "pled" is the past tense of "plead" in Scots, but the news media I consume is in British English, and always uses "pleaded"
I grew up in the Mid Atlantic region of the US, which is the area earliest settled by Europeans, mainly from the British Isles in the early 1600's. I remember that we often differentiated between using dove/dived: "I dove into the water yesterday at the lake", yet "I dived into the water to rescue the person". Not strictly interchangeable, but with a subtle difference in the (past) action. Seems to me now that it depended on the form of the action. I still do that today, but would be hard-pressed to explain the variance.
Anyone else have this memory?
My old relations (in Scotland) used ‘een’ as the plural of eye.
Ah. Now I understand my discomfort when a certain fiction author I read uses -ed and not the irregular version. I definitely dove in — never dived. So why does swim, swam, swum still crip up in my mind?
Fascinating! I wonder if this is why I distinctly remember hearing the past tense of "squeeze" as "squoze" when I was a child in NYC in the 70s and 80s...
It's funny how (for me) snuck, pled, hung, dove and drug had to be memorized as regular verbs at school. The strong forms feel natural and intuitive.
My favorite strong verb has to be "chide." I will never in my life have occasion to use "chid," but I know it's there.