Certain sets of words in the English language tend to confuse writers. I have found the following to be among them:
HANGED / HUNG
People are hanged; coats are hung.
We learn in school that the conjugation of the verb to hang is hang, hung, hung. This is true not only for coats but for everything other than live human beings. However, when a live person is executed by hanging from a rope around the neck until dead, then we say that that person has been hanged, not hung.
Incorrect: The condemned man was hung for his crimes.
Correct: The condemned man was hanged for his crimes.
The outlaw was sentenced to be hanged at dawn.
After the outlaw was hanged, his sister hung her head in shame.
She walked straight home, hung her cloak on the coat rack, and announced to no one in particular, “I’ll be hanged if I ever go to another hanging again!”
And then, with tears in her eyes, she removed her brother’s picture from the wall where their mother had hung it with such pride years ago.
© 2016 Ann Henry. All Rights Reserved.