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Cc Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

past participle

The other day I was driving and I saw a sign that says: Can't be beat!
My question is, should it be "Can't be beaten?"
  

Top answer

It's either, but I'd go so far as to say that "beat" is better in such an informal context. " Personally, I like to see "beaten" in all other meanings, but "beat" is not wrong. S.

— Enoon

  • It's either, but I'd go so far as to say that "beat" is better in such an informal context.
  • " Personally, I like to see "beaten" in all other meanings, but "beat" is not wrong.
  • S.
  • -- Welcome, widdew kiddie-kat.
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2 Answers
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It's either, but I'd go so far as to say that "beat" is better in such an informal context. The Shorter Oxford says of past participle "beat" that it is used especially in the sense "defeated", and it supplies a citation from the turn of the eighteenth century from Steele: "He had beat the Romans in a pitched battle."

Personally, I like to see "beaten" in all other meanings, but "b
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ccshould it be "Can't be beaten?"
No. It doesn't have to be. 'beat' is one of those irregular verbs that can have all three parts the same.

We beat them today. We beat them yesterday.
We always beat them. We have always beat/beaten them.
It seems that we are beat/beaten. It seems that we have been beat/beaten.

CJ
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