struck / stricken & always struck ??

[SanMar]

Hi
Could someone please clarify for me the use of struck and stricken? I've looked it up in the dictionary and under verb / inflection it states, struck also stricken, so does this mean it can be used interchangeably?
For instance

I was struck-stricken with guilt after having stolen your pen.

I was struck with a sense of relief when you forgave me.

( to me this second sentence would seem odd with stricken but I am not sure why, I've only used/heard stricken to express something negative or burden like, but now I am not sure if this is always the case)

also

It always struck me as odd that you eat pizza for breakfast.

( is had missing from this sentence? i read the first half of the sentence in a news article -- i know its common in spoken English in N.America but is it acceptable in written or formal English? )


thanks so much!

[5jj]

It seems to me, a speaker of BrE, that stricken is mainly used adjectivally, especially in compounds:

As the flood-waters receded, the stricken village slowly came back to life.
The grief-stricken parents ...

It always struck me as odd that you eat pizza for breakfast.

( is had missing from this sentence?)

In the right context, a past perfect is possible. Without more context it is impossible to say if it is essential.

[SanMar]

It seems to me, a speaker of BrE, that stricken is mainly used adjectivally, especially in compunds:

As the flood-waters receded, the stricken village slowly came back to life.
The grief-stricken parents ...

In the right context, a past perfect is possible. Without more context it is impossible to say if it is essential.

Would it be correct to say,

I was stricken with a sense of panic when I realized what had happened.

(I'm not sure, but I thought struck/ stricken in the above examples are past participles ... and maybe this belongs on a different thread but ... Can you use past participles without the auxiliary/helping verb?



thanks


sorry I meant to write has or had in the previous post ....It has/had always struck me ...

[5jj]

Would it be correct to say,

I was stricken with a sense of panic when I realized what had happened.

Yes - you can also 'say struck by...'

( I thought struck/stricken in the above examples are past participles.
Past participles can often be use as adjectives. It is often difficult to say whether such a word should be labelled as a passive form or BE+adjective in such sentences as 'I was bored'. Sometimes, a preposition will make this clear:

'I was bored by his speech.' - passive
'I was bored with his speech.' - adjective

This is important only if you have a an obsession with labelling.

For the past participle of 'strike' it appears to me that most speakers of BrE use 'struck', but many speakers of AmE use 'stricken'.

I, personally, would say:

'I was stricken with grief.' - adjective
'I was struck by guilt.' - passive.

For active perfect forms, especially when 'strike' means that an idea has occurred to me, I would use only 'struck': 'It has often struck me that...'

5

[SanMar]

Thanks for your explanation!

and sorry if I'm asking something that has already been answered and I have yet to get it, but, with respect to....

It always struck me as odd that.... you eat pizza for breakfast.


Is this the simple past then? I thought this was a present or past perfect tense but that the helping verb had been omitted or forgotten.

This sentence is just sounding stranger and stranger the more I think about it.

[5jj]

It always struck me as odd that.... you eat pizza for breakfast.

It's the past simple. I would probably use a present perfect; with a past simple I'd be more likely to say, "It always struck me as odd that you ate ...", but the sentence you quote is possible.