past tense of to sew

[valtango]

Past tense of to sew, surely sewed?? and yet it sounds so wrong!!

[RonBee]

sew:

• sew, sewed, sewn, sewing, sews

[Red5]

You can find more here: http://www.usingenglish.com/irregular-verb-list.html

[Tdol]

http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1917

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by valtango

Past tense of to sew, surely sewed?? and yet it sounds so wrong!!

It's its orthographic ending, -ew. We expect "sew" [o] to be like "flew" [u]:

:D flew [flu], flown [flown]
sew [su], sown [sown]

sew [so], sewed [sowd], sown [sown]

:D

[RonBee]

They are homophones (words that sound alike but have different meanings).

sew:

• sew, sewed, sewn, sewing, sews

sow:

• sow, sowed, sown, sowing, sows

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by RonBee

They are homophones (words that sound alike but have different meanings).

sew:

• sew, sewed, sewn, sewing, sews

sow:

• sow, sowed, sown, sowing, sows

sew, pronounced [su] and sow, pronounced [so] are not homophonous.

[RonBee]

Originally Posted by Casiopea

sew, pronounced [su] and sow, pronounced [so] are not homophonous.

They are the way I pronounce them. I am from the Midwest and my wife is from the South, and we both pronounce them as homophones. Should I start a poll (pole)?

:wink:

[Casiopea]

• They are the way I pronounce them. I am from the Midwest and my wife is from the South, and we both pronounce them as homophones. Should I start a poll (pole)?

Addendum

to sew, vb. to join with needle and thread, pronounced as [so], or as [su], like the girl's name Sue, in the Midwest and the South.

[Tdol]

They are to me (BE speaker), too. I say 'so' for both.