Past form of 'dogfight'

[Tomasz Klimkiewicz]

Hello,

Nothing particularly important, but I'd like to know your opinion, dear Teachers...

'Dogfight' is a close-range aerial combat situation when the opponents manoeuvre so as to place themselves on the enemy plane's vulnerable 'six o'clock' position to get a good shooting angle....

But 'dogfight' can also be used as a verb, with a gerund form, and so on. Now, my question is whether the correct past form should be 'dogfought' or 'dogfighted' :?:

 

[Barb_D]

Hi Thomas,
I've never seen this used as a verb. It's a noun, first and foremost. (I don't disagree that you can find a listing for it as a verb, but it's not used that way.)

I would suggest "got into a dogfight" as a past verb.

 

[Linguist__]

(Not a teacher)

But, if you had to use it as a verb, or choose the correct one, then 'dogfought' would be correct.

 

[Tomasz Klimkiewicz]

Wow! That was lightning-fast!...

Thank you for your replies, gentlemen.

I'm a big fan of WWII military aviation history (Battle of Britain, Pacific Theatre, etc.) Now I've realised that, indeed, even though I must have read and heard the word a thousand times, I've never come across its direct verb form, just the gerund ("Dogfighting a Zero was always an experience..."), that's why I thought it functioned as a typical verb...

A good lesson of dogfighting... ;-)

 

[BobK]

Wow! That was lightning-fast!...

Thank you for your replies, gentlemen.

...

:up: ...especially Barb ;-)

 

[TheParser]

Hello,

Nothing particularly important, but I'd like to know your opinion, dear Teachers...

'Dogfight' is a close-range aerial combat situation when the opponents manoeuvre so as to place themselves on the enemy plane's vulnerable 'six o'clock' position to get a good shooting angle....

But 'dogfight' can also be used as a verb, with a gerund form, and so on. Now, my question is whether the correct past form should be 'dogfought' or 'dogfighted' :?:

***NOT A TEACHER***Tomasz, I googled and learned that the military guys say "dogfighted." Thank you.

 

[Tomasz Klimkiewicz]

Ooops!... Terribly sorry for confusing a mod's gender, Barb_D I owe you my sincere apologies .

TheParser: thanks a lot. I take it that since 'dogfight' is, to a degree, a coined word, the usual rules of 'irregular-compound-if-the-simple-irregular' may not apply ;-)

 

[Barb_D]

Since most of my knowledge of dogfighting comes from an old TV show called "Black Sheep Squadron" and the movie "Top Gun" (where I paid a lot more attention to the beach volleyball scene -- if you had any doubts about my gender), I don't claim to be an expert. However, I would think that if you were talking to an average person, and said "got into a dogfight" instead of "dogfighted" you'll have more people pay attention to WHAT you say instead of HOW you said it.

 

[Tomasz Klimkiewicz]

Barb_D: I carefully study and digest all replies, they're extremely valuable to me as they show a native speaker's approach to the linguistic phenomenon in question, and their feeling what sounds 'right and what might sound 'odd'.

And I am very grateful for any and all (relevant) replies.

 

[Barb_D]

You may enjoy that old series, by the way. It's about the Fighting Tigers in the days before official US involvement in WWII.

 

[Tomasz Klimkiewicz]

Thanks, I'll certainly try to find the series you've mentioned