meant vs. mean't

Ignorance. It is not a contraction, but I suppose that some people, unfamiliar with the -t suffix (learnt, spelt, meant, etc), think there's a letter missing.

There IS a contraction. There IS a missing letter (althouth 'spelt' IS spelled 'spelled' with no contraction) and 'learning not' and 'meaning not' has no meaning for 'the ignorant' (you, maybe?). Lighten up and get with it! English is variable. And up for adaption.

It is not a contaction. It's the past form of mean. It isn't a contraction of mean not.

Meant is a hold over from middle English. It is not a contraction, and adaptability aside, the English language is mutilated all the time by people. So to set the record straight, it may have been a contraction in Middle English, but basically it's considered a hold over and there is no mean't!! That would be an incorrect spelling.

The only place I can think of that you could find a legitimate use of mean't would be in verse by someone such as Shakespeare for the purpose of meter ['mean it']. And even then I'm not sure it would be written as one word.

So would you write, I meaned to do that? Or, I mean't to do that? Or, I meant to that?

Anon,
In order for you to understand for future reference, please review the tense of the verb. Otherwise,
this question may come up again later.

This means you have to study the tenses...
By that, I meant present, past, and past partciple.

Not