past tense of the verb "to swear"

[factor-fiction]

I was listening to radio 5 this morning and there was an interview with an academic at Keele University discussing swearing (i.e. using profanities).

In his opening sentence he used the past tense "sweared" (which sounded wrong to me) and then he used "swore" in the next sentence.

I later checked and found to my surprise that according to one site "sweared" is the correct word in this context.

Are here any language experts who can clarify this?

Finally, later in the interview when he was describing an incident I thought he said: "and he sworn..." Maybe I misheard him as I am certain that isn't correct.


ater when describing an incident he said " ...and he sworn"

[dzug2]

With a lot of these variants there isn't one 'correct' answer.

However 'swore' is the standard form here, 'swored' is a non-standard variant and 'sworn' is plain wrong

For an academic he was being remarkably imprecise.

[ladyalex]

I think the past participle to 'swear' is 'sworn'.
He has sworn to obey the law.

The imperfect tense is 'swore'.
He swore to obey the law.

I cannot recall ever having heard or seen 'sweared' (except out of the mouth of a child.)

[Quizmonkey]

Some wrong terminology being used here:
• simple past (or preterite) is swore
• past participle is sworn
Any other variations are dialectical (or wrong by the speaker if not his dialect).

[factor-fiction]

Thanks Quizmonkey. Wikidictionary includes SWEARED but acknowledges that it is non-standard.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sweared
I'm glad to see though that SWORE is correct because that is the form I have always used, and as soon a sthe academic said SWEARED today it really grated on me. However, I have heard many people say "I sweared blind...." and that doesn't grate quite so much.

[Quizmonkey]

No prob. I think you're actually hearing 'I swear blind (that that's what he said)' etc. I think it would be quite rare to want to use a past tense with the first half of that phrase.

[atalanta]

In court or in a police station you may be asked for a sworn statement.
Sworn is correct.

[jno]

words change. The past tense of dive was once dove; it's almost always dived nowadays (ditto strive/strove). The tendency is to imitate other words, which means forming a past tense with -d. I don't think sweared is English yet but it may well be normal some day.

[bednobs]

i bet what he actually said is "he's sworn" in that stupid tense people use when they are describing something in the past in a presentish tense eg "i went over to him and he's sworn and he's hit me over the head with a bottle" (just look at most posts in the law section to see what i mean)

[abstibus]

atalanta
'Sworn' is an adjective derived from the past participle of the verb: swear, swore, sworn