Verb Form Of Lightning?

ForumsGrammar & Sentence Structure
  •  1
  •  27,866
+0
I've been trying to figure out the correct way to use lightning in verb form. If I were to say, "It is thundering and lightninging outside," would that be correct?

Edit: I'm amazed that I don't know simple things like this, and English is my first language. I suppose growing up in "The South" doesn't help any.
+0
www.m-w.com gives lightning and lightninged as the inflected forms under the entry lightning. There is no lightninging; it's lightning.

It [is / was] lightning. It lightninged.

Personally, I don't hear lightninged. I hear There was a flash of lightning.

Under the entry lighten, there's the alternate lighten, lightening, lightened.

It [is / was] lightening. It lightened.

These sound more familar to me.

CJ
1 2
Comments  
I searched "lightning" on the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary ( http://www.m-w.com / ), and I found an inflected form of the intransitive verb form of lightning, which was "lightninged." So, my question is, if you can add the -ed ending to it, does that allow you to also apply the -ing ending?
Students: Are you brave enough to let our tutors analyse your pronunciation?
 CalifJim's reply was promoted to an answer.
I think being surrounded by rednecks, who can hardly write, much less speak proper English, doesn't help at all. The reason I keep asking this is I ran into a song titled "Thundering and Lightninging." I know song writers are hardly English majors, but I've seen a few correct lyrics and titles here and there.
The songwriter probably just needed one more syllable to match the number of notes in the melody! Emotion: smile

CJ
Try out our live chat room.
lightening-ing
Anonymouslightening-ing
Emotion: rofl

CJ
In modern, colloquial English, we tend not to use 'lightning' as a verb and instead opt for 'thundering' or 'storming'. That's not to say that 'lightning' as a verb is wrong, but that it sounds like affectation (as does me using the term 'affectation').
Site Hint: Check out our list of pronunciation videos.
I've never heard 'storming' in that sense.
Show more

Answer this Question