Hang, Hung, Hanged
Hang derives from Old English and means to be attached from above without support below. This is one of the core meanings, as shown in the sentence: The picture hangs on the wall.
However, there are several other related uses, for example:
- To let droop or fall – hang your head in shame.
- To fall in a certain way – this costume hangs well.
- To pay attention to – I hang on your every word.
- To hold on tightly – My daughter is hanging onto my skirt.
- A way of doing something – She couldn’t get the hang of it.
- To be oppressive – a cloud of gloom hangs over him.
The regular past tense of hang is hung, which would be used in all the examples listed above. However, there is one difference when it comes to hanging someone by the neck. In this case the past tense is hanged which means killed by hanging.
Sharon on October 20, 2007 
Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Related Articles
Bookmark
11 Responses to “Hang, Hung, Hanged”
- actionsx » Blog Archive » Hang, Hung, Hanged
- simplestuff » Blog Archive » Hang, Hung, Hanged
- Writing Tips For 2007 : Sharon Hurley Hall
Got something to say?
Sponsors
Popular Articles
- 6 Foreign Expressions You Should Know
- The Impotence of Proofreading
- Let the Word Do the Work
- 10 Rules for Writing Numbers and Numerals
- 8 Proofreading Tips and Techniques
- 40 Yiddish Words You Should Know
- TV's War on "Me" and "I"
- 34 Writing Tips That Will Make You a Better Writer
- Gross Writing Errors on the Web
- Creative Writing 101
- Latin Words and Expressions
- Usage That Provokes “Blackboard Moments”
- 44 Resume Writing Tips
Recent Articles
- Complacent, Complaisant
- Say What You Mean
- A Novel IS Fiction
- English Grammar 101: All You Need to Know
- Short Story Competition: Sixth Batch Is Open for Voting!
- Word of the Day: Bourgeois
- The Scandinavian Connection
- Five Reasons Why Blogging Leads to Writing Jobs
- How to Address Your Elders, Your Doctor, Young Children… and Your CEO
- Short Story Competition: Fifth Batch Is Open for Voting!
While I know it’s right, “hanged” in the last entrace always seems wrong. I noticed when Saddam Hussein was executed a lot of newspapers got it wrong too, saying he was “hung.”
Yes, it seems more logical to use the same past tense for all forms, doesn’t it, Zach?
Surely you wouldn’t use the past tense in the example “She couldn’t get the hang of it”, would you?!
I read you blog every day - it is a very productive way of improving my English!
hello!
‘Hung’ is not the past-tense for all the examples above. Nouns have no past-tense form, therefore the past-tense form lof “to get the hang of something” is “to have gotten the hang of something.” Do not give the impression that ‘hang’ changes in that case.
And what about a hangover in past tense? Hanged over or hungover? I use the latter but know many people who use the first. Which is correct?
Hungover would be the most probable answer.
Thanks for your great blog, here you gave me a really good answer to a question that I have had several times lately, when I have read things online where people use “hanged” as past tense of “hang” instead of “hung” (none of them referring to hanging by the neck). The last one I read, was a flower decoration website where they write:
“Next, cut the flowers in short lengths. Insert the pom poms first. It would be best to work on the bridal pomander if it is hanged on something else.” - I gather that the bridal pomander should be hung rather than hanged on something else, since pomanders (at least to my knowledge) does not have a neck to be hanged by. Well, I guess the flowers have a neck, but the flowers weren’t hung by the neck and pr. definition I guess they were already (sort of) dead, since they were already cut (yet not decapitated?)…
It is just so confusing for me when people who I know use English as their mother tongue writes something that sounds/looks like an error to me. I always end out questioning MY own English, since English is not my mother tongue - thinking that they should know a lot better than I do. Since I’m not sure, I regularly end out having to search for answers, to clarify whether or not I need to remember to change the way I write something. Today (again!) I had to conclude that even if I’m not from an English speaking country, my memory isn’t that bad when it comes to what we were taught in school way back when. It really seems to me that a lot of people does not master the *basics* of their own language very well. I wonder if the case is that many just do NOT CARE when it comes to written text. Even in articles in newspapers and magazines, BASIC errors are made, something that very rarely happened before. Then the media seemed to take pride in their usage of their language and articles were diligently proof-read… With the fancy spell checkers etc. that we have today, one could expect that things got better, but instead it has got a lot worse, I think. Schools should focus more on these things, and make kids proud of mastering their language (grammar, spelling etc.), because it is a sad to see how much errors are made now (not unique to English, it’s the same with my language, Norwegian and I have seen examples of the same in Danish and Swedish too, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it is a global problem).
Hmmm… I can’t help myself, I think it is annoying! And that also includes oral use of terms, not just in writing. E.g. yesterday I watched Judge Judy on a local cable channel. She said that doing something was the person’s “perogative”. She is quite quick to comment if somebody else uses some term or phrase wrongly, and she frequently tells people that she is smarter than they are. If she is that bright, she should know that the term is “prerogative”, and that it should NOT be pronounced with a silent ‘r’ either! Hmmm… Wonder if she would have said: “correct pronounciation is perogative”, LOL… Well, I guess it would be her prerogative to say ‘pronounciation’ rather than ‘pronunciation’ - after all, she is a mighty judge AND she even plays one on TV, right?
When it comes to hangovers, which some commenters have mentioned, I have always thought that e.g. “He was pretty hung over after that party.” sounds right… Doesn’t it? It sounds right to me too to use two separate words rather than “hungover”. Or?
Thanks again and sorry for the long tirade! I guess I’ve been pretty darn frustrated…
I’ll get off that soap box now! 