"shined" or "shone"?

msstice

msstice

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I always though the past-tense of "shine" was "shone" as in He shone a light into the dark cave. I just read a story to my daughter and the usage was "He shined a light." Now, this book series has pretty frequent typos so I am not super confident that it gets grammar correct either, but now I am full of self-doubt. So which one is it, and is it a US vs UK issue and does this out me as someone educated in a UK-based system?
 
Adding a question: Does it also depend on singular versus plural pronouns? I.E. "The band really shone that night." sounds better to me than "The band really shined that night." whereas "He really shined that night." sounds okay to me.

from vocabulary.com - Stick with the traditional rule of using shined with an object and shone without an object unless you have a good reason to deviate.
 
I think it's a question of continuity

He really shined that night. gives the impression of an action which you would like to express as a continuous event, which is now complete.

He really shone that night. is telling of an action, which may have taken some time to happen, but which you think of it as a single or discrete event.

Note, of course, that there is also the past continuous case.
He was shining that night .


See how you feel differently with the following 3

I felt awed in his presence.
He was really shining.

I felt awed in his presence.
He really shined that night.

I felt awed in his presence.
He really shone that night.
 
msstice said:
I always though the past-tense of "shine" was "shone" as in He shone a light into the dark cave. I just read a story to my daughter and the usage was "He shined a light." Now, this book series has pretty frequent typos so I am not super confident that it gets grammar correct either, but now I am full of self-doubt. So which one is it, and is it a US vs UK issue and does this out me as someone educated in a UK-based system?
Click to expand...

I may be corrected but I think it is a UK/US thing. Shone is used in the UK as the past tense of shine - except when it comes "to polish" so our shoes have been shined, but the sun shone yesterday.

Shined is used more commonly in the US, although the article that I'm reading says that "though US writers can use both shined and shone, there is a preference in formal writing for one over the other. If you want to be scrupulously correct, use shone when the verb is intransitive and shined when it’s transitive. In other words, use shone when something was itself shining—the sun, his eyes, a lava lamp—and shined when something was being shined—a flashlight, a laser, a spotlight."

To recap:



In this case UK usage is actually a bit easier, so I'm going to stick with that!
 
My understanding is that the past tense and past participle is always "shone" save when an object is being polished or buffed up when it's "shined" ie it's "the light shone" and "he shone the light" but "he shined his armour (until it shone)".


As always, popular usage by people who aren't aware of the rule has meant that over the years "shined" is being used where it was once wholly incorrect, but it's still best avoided, especially in UK English.
 
My usual online reference, the Merriam-Webster dictionary indicates shone as a British and Canadian preference and shined, presumably, preferred in the US and elsewhere.
www.merriam-webster.com

Definition of SHINED

to emit rays of light; to be bright by reflection of light; to be eminent, conspicuous, or distinguished… See the full definition
www.merriam-webster.com www.merriam-webster.com
 
Thank you all for this very educational thread!
 
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