Difference between revisions of "Shew - shewn - shewed"

Revision as of 16:07, 15 February 2007

These are obsolete spellings of the verb ‘to show’, and its past tense and participle. These are normally written today as showed (past tense) and shown (past participle). I advise all current writers of formal British English to use the forms with -o-.

Spelling was normally an -e- until the nineteenth century, and represented a pronunciation current until about then. Poetry often rhymed the forms of to sho/ew with ‘view’ and ‘true’ down to c 1700 (OED). The spelling is not seen nowadays, although the playwright G.B. Shaw (1856-1950) used it regularly. (I do not know how he pronounced the words.)

See also show (verb).