why isnt smoken a word?, like spoken but for smoking?

Answer 1

Because we already have the perfectly good word "smoked."

Answer 2

If you want the technical answer, it's because "speak" is a strong verb, and "smoke" is a weak verb.

The difference is this: a strong verb forms its different tenses by changing the internal vowel, whereas a weak verb does it by putting endings on the, er, end.

So.....speak, spoke; smoke, smoked.

Strong verbs form their past participle by having an "n" sound at the end, like "spoken". Weak verbs do it with a "t" or "d" sound, like "smoked". (If you find exceptions, it's because the original form has been corrupted or lost - e.g., the original past participle of "get" was "gotten", but we've shortened it over the centuries. They still say "gotten" in America.)

We get strong verbs from German (through Saxon).

Sorry to be boring, but that's the true answer!

Answer 3

There is a slang version that sounds just like that; smokin', short for smoking.

But as previously expressed by other posters, speak is an abnormal word when it changes to past tense. This is the same as having one foot and two feet, not two foots, but using that case to say you have one boot and two beet, not two boots. Just because it ends in the same way does not mean it will follow the same rules. That is why the English language is considered so difficult.

Answer 4

Grammar rules have exceptions like everything else. It's correct to say smoked for the present participle but wrong to say smoken.

There are too many examples of exceptions to list here, the following are a few:-
eat, ate eaten
read, read, read
run, ran, run
bring, brought, brought
take, took, taken
good, better, best
see, saw, seen
bad, worse, worst

You can see they are all different, not following by just changing to " en " .

Answer 5

The English language is full of quirks. However, if you look at both these words in the present tense, one is smoke and one is speak. These 2 words, therefore, are not at all similar.

Answer 6

I fought it was, I hear man say I saw him Smoken a pipe,

Answer 7

because the present tense for "spoken" isn't "spoke", it's "speak", but the present tense for "smoke" is "smoke".
Because "smoke" and "speak" are different sounding words, they do not share the same past tense form.

Answer 8

I guess it's because of some rules which also make it impossible to say "snoze/snozen" instead of "sneezed", but yet you say "froze/frozen"... the joys of the English language, ey!

Answer 9

speak => spoke => spoken
smoke => smoked => smoked

Answer 10

I don't know why that is, but it would be cool. Then again, people do use the word "smokin" for "smoking".