Spit, spitted or spat? - spelling?

Question

American authors constantly confuse me with the substitution of the word 'spat' as in "he spat on the floor" by saying instead "he spit on the floor..."
Also the word 'fit' gives me readers block when I read "it fit perfectly" when people actually say "it fitted perfectly"
Which is correct?

Answer 1

What is all this? The past tense of spit is spat, unless you are talking about a piece of meat on a spit, when you can say it was spitted, meaning impaled on a spit. The past tense of fit is fitted. In the present, the suit fits perfectly. In the past, the sweater fitted perfectly until she washed it and it shrank. No question. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Past Tense Spit

Answer 3

"Spat' is the past tense of the word 'spit.' Depending on how the scene/sentence is constructed, either spit on the floor or spat on the floor could be correct. Spitted is not correct when referring to a person expelling moisture from their mouth..however, if memory serves me correctly, it can be used when referring to a method of cooking over a flame. The same with fit and fitted, it depends on the tense of the sentence/ or view point of the character. With today's lesser emphasis on grammar, fitted is one word which is going by the wayside in general use. ('He wore a fitted suit' is one example where it should be used properly)

Answer 4

Spit in the present, spat in past tense & the fit thing is acceptable in both centances, dependse on context... .spitted is NOT a word!

Answer 5

I read this in Game of Thrones by George Martin...
"Fat sausages sizzled and spit over firepits, spicing the air with the scents of garlic and pepper"

At first, to me as a British English speaker, this seemed like an error and should be "spat" since the meaning is "to spit out juices" rather than "spit roast" -- and even if he did mean the latter "spitted" would be the better choice (ie. "Fat sausages spitted over firepits sizzled..."

However, I referenced Oxford and found that both spat or spit are past tenses of "spit". (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/spit?q=spit)

Answer 6

Tell your parents and let them handle it....and if your teacher actually asked you 'how it wud fel to be spitted on bcuz i was chooing gum' the law better be looking at how you got a yahoo account at such a young age and how the teacher managed to get a teaching certificate using such terrible grammar and you such awful spelling. I hope you don't have such a mean teacher. We are not all like that, but I do think that somebody who has enough respect for himself/herself not to want to be 'spitted' upon would want to write 'I was chewing gum in class and my teacher asked me how it would feel to be spat upon, because I was chewing gum. She spit on me! What the hell??? Can I tell the law?' Now, somebody is mad along with you and has put it in English :)

Answer 7

It's all a matter of time.

He spat on the floor. THEN
He spit on the floor. NOW

Answer 8

American English is a different language from our Mother tongue, since the 1890's
You cannot mix and match ours and theirs.
Instead of Spat use Gobbed on the floor much better English.
It FITS perfectly, It is FITTED perfectly, It is FITTING perfectly are all good English grammer.
So what is the problem?

Answer 9

spat, spit is presant tense, and spitted isn't a word

Answer 10

Spat , fitted

If the author uses "spit" to indicate the past tense, or "fit" as the past tense, that author has a poor command of English. If, however, he uses these words in speech, he is simply quoting what a character has said, and the character may indeed have a poor command of English grammar, in which case the author is justified.