Often when I’m playing Scrabble, I’m testing every normally -ed word with the -t variant to see if I can make it fit, but only a small percentage of them gets accepted or is in the dictionary. Some seem self-explanatory, but others seem arbitrary, and feel like hangovers from an old mediaeval version of the language.
An example of a self-explanatory variation would be “burned” and “burnt”. One is the past particle of the verb to burn, the other is a description of the quality of having been burned. Although interchangeable, one generally feels more appropriate than the other in specific circumstances. I’m ok with that particular t/ed switcheroo. It’s stuff like the following that I’m confused about:
- Vexed/Vext
- Fixed/Fixt
- Flocked/Flockt
- Picked/Pickt
- Skinned/Skint (borderline case, “skint” has another meaning)
Those are all in the dictionary, but these aren’t:
- Backed/Backt
- Racked/Rackt
- Packed/Packt
- Fucked/Fuckt
I can’t for the life of me figure out the rule, if such a rule even exists.
Cheers!
Scrabble is not a language game, but instead a spatial and arithmetic game using arbitrary strings of letters. Don’t look to it as a reflexion of the state of English as she is spoke.
I see what you did there.