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Hxcboatcaptain Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

Verb Form of Lightning

I've been trying to figure out the correct way to use lightning in verb form. If I were to say, "It is thundering and lightninging outside," would that be correct?

Edit: I'm amazed that I don't know simple things like this, and English is my first language. I suppose growing up in "The South" doesn't help any.
  

Top answer

" So, my question is, if you can add the -ed ending to it, does that allow you to also apply the -ing ending?

— Hxcboatcaptain

  • " So, my question is, if you can add the -ed ending to it, does that allow you to also apply the -ing ending?
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9 Answers
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I searched "lightning" on the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary ( http://www.m-w.com/ ), and I found an inflected form of the intransitive verb form of lightning, which was "lightninged." So, my question is, if you can add the -ed ending to it, does that allow you to also apply the -ing ending?
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www.m-w.com gives lightning and lightninged as the inflected forms under the entry lightning. There is no lightninging; it's lightning.

It [is / was] lightning. It lightninged.

Personally, I don't hear lightninged. I hear There was a flash of lightning.

Under the entry lighten, there's the alternate
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I think being surrounded by rednecks, who can hardly write, much less speak proper English, doesn't help at all. The reason I keep asking this is I ran into a song titled "Thundering and Lightninging." I know song writers are hardly English majors, but I've seen a few correct lyrics and titles here and there.
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The songwriter probably just needed one more syllable to match the number of notes in the melody! Emotion: smile

CJ
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Anonymouslightening-ing
Emotion: rofl

CJ
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In modern, colloquial English, we tend not to use 'lightning' as a verb and instead opt for 'thundering' or 'storming'. That's not to say that 'lightning' as a verb is wrong, but that it sounds like affectation (as does me using the term 'affectation').
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I've never heard 'storming' in that sense.
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fivejedjonI've never heard 'storming' in that sense.
Hmm. It's not unheard of on this side of the pond.

When it's not storming in the ITCZ, the weather can be completely calm, with little to no wind. (CNN)

CJ
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