The other day, a client asked me whether the expression “cast doubt” should be  “casted doubt” if used in the past tense.

 The answer is no, since cast is an irregular verb — the past tense is also “cast.”

But I did a quick Google search to see what’s happening to this expression online, and “casted doubt” comes up about 2,000 times.  Hmmm…

I did find one very useful document in the process of this diversion: a guide to tense  produced by the University of Ottawa.  It contains a nice list of irregular verbs.

Of course, that sent me off on a whole new diversion: looking for concrete and definitive proof that “boughten” is not a word — because I hate it.

That brought me to this very interesting post.

And at this point, I think I’d best get myself off of Google or I could be lost for days.