"I ground/grounded the spices into a thin paste."

Question

Which is correct?: 1."I ground/grounded the spices into a thin paste."2."I have ground/grounded the spices into a thin paste."Thanks in advance.

Teechr · Accepted Answer

In your sentence, "ground" is correct. It is the past participle of "grind."
The verb "to ground", whose past participle is "grounded", means to prevent somebody or something from leaving some place.

Fivejedjon · Answer

fatimah07861."I ground/grounded the spices into a thin paste."
2."I have ground/grounded the spices into a thin paste."

'Ground' is the past simple (second form) in #1 and the past participle (3rd form) in #2.

Deadrat · Answer

"Grounded" also has several other meanings, all connected, literally or metaphorically, with the earth.

Of electrons, with a common path for electrical current. "The appliance cord is frayed; fortunately, the circuit is grounded."
Of aircraft, confined to the ground. "All planes are grounded until the weather clears."
Of people, well balanced, synonymous with having one's head on straight or one's feet on the ground.
Based upon: "Learning is grounded in perception."

Teechr · Answer

fivejedjon fatimah07861."I ground/grounded the spices into a thin paste."2."I have ground/grounded the spices into a thin paste."'Ground' is the past simple (second form) in #1 and the past participle (3rd form) in #2.

Oops! I didn't notice the first sentence. Thanks fivejedjon

Fatimah0786 · Answer

Thanks a lot everyone for taking the time to answer my question.
Does the same logic works for 'binding'? For eg. 'I want you to get all the project papers spiral bound.'

Deadrat · Answer

A little canoodling around on the intertubes reveals that logic in question has to do with history of the English language. The verbs "to grind" and "to bind" come from the Old English words grinde and binde, respectively. (Old English is old, over 1000 years old and closely related to German.) These two words are inflected for tense in the same way, with an interior vowel change "i" for "o":

present: grindan, bindan
past: grond, bond

So they have some down to modern English preserving that vowel change

present: I grind, I bind
past: I ground, I bound.

We also get the word "ground," meaning to be fixed to the earth from the Old English, from the word grund, but this verb is inflected differently with a prefix-suffix pair but no internal vowel change:

present: grund
past: gegrunded

So when this word reached modern English, it became inflected

present: ground
past: grounded

(In its march to modernity, English, unlike German, dropped the ge prefix.)

The verb "bound" meaning to leap comes not from Old English but from the Old French bondir. The French inflection doesn't change an interior vowel to get the past tense, but I'm not confident enough to say that's the reason that "ed" for the past tense is attached to the word.

"I ground/grounded the spices into a thin paste."

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