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Dictionaries say that the past tense of glide is glided.

‘a few gondolas glided past’

But in my dialect, I say glode and sometimes glid and most people I know also do but apparently glided is used by most people. I find that “He glode over the dale” sounds much nicer to me.

Why is glide a regular verb, when ride (rode) and slide (slid) are irregular?

herisson
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user212897
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  • Also related: Why do some words have two past tense forms (e.g. “dreamed” vs. “dreamt”)? – Mari-Lou A Jan 05 '17 at 23:25
  • @BoyFromSomewhere I have perhaps once or twice heard someone say glid, mainly for humorous effect. I have never heard the word glode in my life, and unless it was very obvious what the intended meaning was, it would probably take me a few seconds to figure out what it was supposed to be. Glided is the only form that has any currency cross-dialectally. It is not “irregular in common speech” any more than beat (with its occasional past bet) is. If you thought glided was wrong until today, you can't have been reading many books or listening to people from a great variety of places. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jan 05 '17 at 23:33
  • @JanusBahsJacquet it might be common in his dialect, I have heard of stranger things. – Mari-Lou A Jan 05 '17 at 23:34
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    well for me the past tense of glow is glew so it doesn't cause confusion just to add, I live in a remote place so maybe it hasn't reached here yet, he glode over the dale sounds much nicer to me :) – user212897 Jan 05 '17 at 23:34
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    That doesn't mean there isn't an interesting question here—it would be interesting to explore, for example, where the forms glid and glode occur (I would guess the latter is the more restricted of the two), and whether there used to be more variation throughout the Anglosphere than there is now. The trouble with the question is that it's currently worded in a way that makes it basically a non-question, something that can be answered just by looking in a dictionary. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jan 05 '17 at 23:36
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    @BoyFromSomewhere When you say "for you, the past tense of glow is glew", do you mean only yourself? Or your family? Or town? Do you regularly hear others use it? Where are you from? – Dan Bron Jan 06 '17 at 11:08
  • It's not normal US English. I've never heard anyone who persistently used such terms, though I may have heard them a few times. I would assume that people using such terms (in a non-humorous fashion) either didn't have English as their first language or else were raised in a rather cloistered community. – Hot Licks Jan 06 '17 at 12:53
  • What is your variety of English? (I.e. Where did you and others that say this grow up or what sub population are you all?) – Mitch Jan 06 '17 at 13:30
  • Intrestingly I've found that glod was the past tense in middle English so maybe a survival of a much older form? I live in England by the way – user212897 Jan 06 '17 at 19:17
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    @BoyFromSomewhere Where in England? England has one of th richest patchwork of dialects in the world. Some speakers will say "thee" and "thou". But what people are telling you is no one here -- and there are Brits, Americans, Aussies; etc -- has heard anyone use "glode" or "glid", so we're wondering if this usage is simply idiosyncratic to you as an individual or whether there's an identifiable dialect and region where it's current. – Dan Bron Jan 06 '17 at 20:16
  • Yeah I haven't heard anyone else outside the place say it before, I live in Southern England not the north or midlands or London. I also know they say thee and thou in parts but thou is normally replaced by thee. – user212897 Jan 06 '17 at 20:21
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    @BoyFromSomewhere Can you be more specific please? What county or parish or whatchmacallem over there? And does everyone from your parish use the word this way? Or just your family? Or just you, yourself? Can you remember any specific incidences when someone else actually used this word this way? We're running a diagnostic here, we need information... – Dan Bron Jan 06 '17 at 20:41

3 Answers3

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Historically, glide did conjugate like ride: the Oxford English Dictionary says it comes from "A common West Germanic strong verb" and lists the Old English forms as "glídan, glád, glidon, gliden". The Old English "long back a" vowel in the singular past tense form listed here, glád, corresponds to the modern English "long o" vowel in "glode". The Old English "short i" vowel in the plural past tense form "glidon" and the past participle "gliden" corresponds to the modern English "short i" vowel in "glid" or "glidden".

I don't think it's possible though to say whether modern dialects with "glode", "glid" or "glidden" have inherited these forms, or restored them by analogy with other "strong verbs".

It's hard to say why glide became regularized in standard English. Frequency is known to play a role in the rate of English verb regularization: less frequent verbs tend to become regular more quickly. Glide is less frequent than ride.

herisson
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I have always thought that the past tense of glide was glid but then, I'm English. To me, the past tense of shine is shone, not shined as the Americans say, and the plural of roof is rooves. I also use dove as the past tense of dive.

Betsey
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  • Sorry but my kindle changed glid to good! This site must be governed by an American spell checker! – Betsey Aug 23 '17 at 18:55
  • Hello, Betsey ... no; your Kindle was trying to correct you. 'Glid' is not used in either BrE or AmE as the past tense of 'glide'; it is an arcane Scots adjective. // Grammarist says of rooves': << 'Roofs' is the plural of 'roof' in all varieties of English. 'Rooves' is an old secondary form, and it still appears occasionally by analogy with other irregular plurals such as 'hooves', but it is not common enough to be considered standard. >> Please do reasonable research before posting. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 23 '17 at 22:15
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I also use "glid" as the past tense of "glide." I'm American. I understand the difference between "shone" and "shined" is that "shone" refers to a light source internal to the object in question (e.g., "the stars shone brightly") while "shined" refers to an external light source (e.g., "I shined a light in the dark corner"). I also use "dove" as the past tense of "dive." And the past tense of "plead" should be "pled," just as the past tense of "forbid" is "forbad," and the past tense of "spit" is "spat."

Richard
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    The difference you describe between shone and shined is one of transitivity: intransitive shone vs transitive shined. It’s not a distinction I’ve ever noticed before (to me, all senses to do with emitting light have shone, whereas what you do to make something shiny has shined), but I’m not surprised it exists. Forbad surprises me, though; did you not mean forbade? Is the past tense of bid also bad for you? And if so, is the past participle (for)bud as well? – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jan 26 '19 at 23:38
  • @JanusBahsJacquet: Why would it be "forbud"? Many dictionaries mention the form "forbad". – herisson Jan 27 '19 at 03:53
  • @sumelic In analogy with other i-a-u strong verbs. There’s no nasal, of course, but the pattern has extended beyond nasals before, encroaching on i-a-a/i territory, so I figured it might’ve done so here as well. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jan 27 '19 at 08:23