Grammar question [Janet Miles]

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Sign: "Shoplifters will be smote by the Gods and then turned over to the police."

Should that be "...will be smitten..."?

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There are 17 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

Smitten seems to be past tense... It just sounds better when I read it aloud.

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Yes, it should. I think the problem is that people are so used to "smitten" as a metaphor for being in love that they forget that it's a form of a verb that has other uses.

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That's definitely my problem with it. Were it "smitten" in that context, I'd assume that the establishment advertises that its gods are sp fabulous that one will promptly develop a crush on them should one meet them.

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Hm. How about, "Do not shoplift, for the Gods will smite you and the humans will turn you over to the police"?

:-)

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I like that. (Sign, that is.)

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I don't remember where I picked up this quote, whether I saw it somewhere or actually reported spam to the ISP and was copied on the reply, but you might also enjoy:

If you are the sender of this spam mail, please behave yourself. Seednet will transfer your spam mail to your ISP, and certain penalty will surely fall upon you. -- Seednet Antispam

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Indeed. I think it's "smote" in the active and "smitten" in the passive, BICBW.

Either is better than "smited" ;-)

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Yes, it should. But "smote" sounds better, even though it's wrong.

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My mileage varies :-) .

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Yes, it should have been written as smitten. :)

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I'm with 'smitten' too, though I have cheeky leanings toward 'smaught' :P

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I cannot find it anywhere, but I have vague memories of a James Thurber essay including a sentence to the effect of "Smite not the smitten, lest thee thyself be smooted."

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