The Student Room Group

"Written" or "wrote"?

I'm generally pretty good with my grammar etc but I've never really got the hang of when to use these words. Funny how you can come through 13 years of British education and not actually be told/corrected on it once... I remember getting to Year 3 and finding out I'd been spelling 'was' as 'woz' the whole time and was absolutely raging the teachers had never pointed me in the right direction!

So yeah, when do you use 'written' and when do you use 'wrote'?

While we're at it, effect/affect? It's not just as simple as noun/verb is it?

Scroll to see replies

'Written' is the past participle: the book was written. 'Wrote' is just the past tense: I wrote the book.

And affect is the verb; effect the noun except in the obscurer usage of effect which means to "cause to come into being".
It was written that I wrote a book.
I have written, he has written etc. You use written with have/has (or another auxiliary like was).

I wrote, he wrote etc.
"wrote" = perfect past tense, ie:
I wrote...
You wrote
He/She/It wrote
We wrote
They wrote

"written" used to form pluperfect (ie step in time before perfect past) -
I had written
You "
He/she/it "
We "
They "

or in the phrase
It was written...
ooh, just got that thing where you look at a word and it just looks so much like it's been spelt wrongly with "written" ... hate that!
Reply 6
Today I said.
"I've already wrote it out" ( referring to paperwork).
Somebody piped up..
"You mean you've already written it out"

Who is right. Which sentence is correct?
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 7
Original post by Mikem1989
Today I said.
"I've already wrote it out" ( referring to paperwork).
Somebody piped up..
"You mean you've already written it out"

Who is right. Which sentence is correct?


Written it out is correct. Wrote is incorrect.
Reply 8
Original post by Mikem1989
Today I said.
"I've already wrote it out" ( referring to paperwork).
Somebody piped up..
"You mean you've already written it out"

Who is right. Which sentence is correct?


Man this thread is from 2009!
Reply 9
Written is a passive verb. Wrote is an active verb. Both past tense.
"Written" is the past participle, so you would say "I had written..."
"Wrote" is like the perfect (past) tense or something? So you say "I wrote"

Same thing with the verb 'to see':
"I had seen" vs "I saw"

Spoiler

it was written in the history books that I wrote my name wrong
Reply 12
Original post by Jebedee
Written is a passive verb. Wrote is an active verb. Both past tense.


So is this thread.

It's also #NotNews.
Original post by Mikem1989
Today I said.
"I've already wrote it out" ( referring to paperwork).
Somebody piped up..
"You mean you've already written it out"

Who is right. Which sentence is correct?


I've already written it out is correct.

(Have + past participle) - I have already written it out.

The first sentence should be "I wrote it out" (past tense)
Reply 14
Original post by Glutamic Acid
And affect is the verb; effect the noun except in the obscurer usage of effect which means to "cause to come into being".


Hello there, I just fell like help you on this one
People seem to have lots of problems with spelling the word 'writing.'

So we're going to look at the spelling rules around this word and write, written and wrote.

write is a verb: to write, I write, he writes, she writes, they write...

Notice the "i" is a long sound and says its alphabet name "eye". This is because of the silent 'e' at the end of the word which makes the vowel sound long and say it's alphabet name.

We have the short vowel sound in writ and when we add the silent "e" it makes it a long vowel sound write

When we add -ing to write we drop the 'e' (remember drop the 'e' with -ing rule. Have you seen the video?)

write + ing so drop the 'e' = writing

Writing still keeps its long vowel sound.

We also drop the 'e' in writable, a rewritable DVD


he past tense of write is wrote: I wrote, you wrote, she wrote, he wrote...

Notice again the silent 'e' magic 'e' makes the vowel long and say its name "oh"

Let's look at written

Written is a past particle - I've written to the bank, she's written, they've written to me.

Here you can find giant blog about writing and some writing tips and hints

It's also an adjective - the written word, written records

Written has a short vowel sound - the "i" is short that's why we have a double "t" to indicate this short sound.

Double letters after a vowel usually indicate a short vowel sound which helps with reading, spelling, speaking. It was introduced centuries ago.

Double letters dropped out of fashion at the end of most words but when we add a vowel suffix ending we double up the end consonant to keep, or make a short vowel sound:

put - putting

sit - sitter

jog - jogging

quiz - quizzical

writ - written

So we have a long vowel sound for write

and when we add -ing we drop the 'e' to make writing

We have a short vowel sound in writ and double up the "t"

to make written


Hope it helped someone
Effect is like in the movies producing an effect. affect is like giving someone a cold they are affected by the cold. I am affected in my bones by cold weather. Some common errors They're theirs over there. We're where we were to wear them last year. I haven't passed it in the past ten years. Should've Should have not Should of.
(edited 6 years ago)
Even after a decade of responses, I apologize but this *still* has not answered my take on the question. (Note:I did not write the question; Google just brought me here.)

I neither have any problem spelling it nor do I care the technical definitions of what is a "participle" etc. (Although I found much of it interesting...so still thank you for the responses!)

I simply want to know:
Which is correct (or at least preferred)?

"She wrote a book."

"She has written a book."

If both are correct is there a subtle difference between each example? (For instance, does using "wrote" imply that the book is finished? Or is a different one preferred if using "the book" instead of "a book." (I know it probably does not mean this; I am just using these examples since I really still do not know the answer to this question!))

Thanks in advance!
(edited 5 years ago)
Original post by YurkDawg
Even after a decade of responses, I apologize but this *still* has not answered my take on the question. (Note:I did not write the question; Google just brought me here.)

I neither have any problem spelling it nor do I care the technical definitions of what is a "participle" etc. (Although I found much of it interesting...so still thank you for the responses!)

I simply want to know:
Which is correct (or at least preferred)?

"She wrote a book."

"She has written a book."

If both are correct is there a subtle difference between each example? (For instance, does using "wrote" imply that the book is finished? Or is a different one preferred if using "the book" instead of "a book." (I know it probably does not mean this; I am just using these examples since I really still do not know the answer to this question!))

Thanks in advance!


Both correct.

'She has written a book' - Means started in the past and continued until now.

'She wrote a book' - Means she did it in the past.
Reply 19
I write
I wrote
I have written

Latest