Rend, Rent, Rented, Render, Wrought…

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Sample 1: “The arrival of Governor Adeleke at the venue raised the excitement beyond expectation as the wild shouting of ‘Imole De’ rented the air space.” (How Governor Adeleke embarrassed Aregbesola in Ilesa, Opera News, 30 March, 2023)

The word that interests us is rented which occurs in the following context: “the wild shouting of ‘Imole De’rented the air.” The form is grammatically anomalous. We can say upfront that the appropriate form for this context is rent, the past simple form of the verb rend. This word, its appropriate usage and its misapplication, have engaged our attention several times in this place before. What is the problem with this word as used in this context? How do we use the word correctly?

In answering these questions, we would not shrink from rehashing some of our earlier presentations on the subject.

The verb from which the form *rented is supposed to derive is rend, meaning to break through violently, to tear apart, to make a loud, deafening noise. The form *rented has been erroneously presented by the reporter as the past simple form of rend.

Many Nigerian writers usually confuse the forms rend, rent and rented, and renting. There is the verb rent, meaning to take and use for some time, say an apartment, a facility, a vehicle, etc, for a fee. The forms of that verb are: rent, rents, renting and rented. Usage examples: 1) She rents a car every week for that purpose. 2) He has been renting out his father’s houses for the past five years. 3) The facility was rented for five hundred thousand naira. 4) I have not rented any house since I secured this job; the company has been providing accommodation. 5) The university has been renting facilities from the company.

The noun form of that verb remains rent: 1) She always takes a loan to pay her rent. 2) When is your rent due? 3) Rents have gone up astronomically since the increase in the prices of petroleum products. 4) Is the house for rent? 5) We pay an annual rent of one million naira.

We need, however, to distinguish the various forms of the verb rent from the various forms of the verb rend. The verb rend has the following forms: rend, rends, rent, rending. As we have noted, this verb means to tear violently apart, break into pieces with violence, to utter loud, deafening noise. Usage examples: 1) Every night, the noise of carousing men rends the air. 2) When the president arrived, shouts of ‘APC’ rent the air. 3) A hefty branch of the huge tree was rent by the storm. 4) Heart-rending stories of death and destruction were told by the hapless returnees. 5) Her loving and innocent heart was rent by a bitter disappointment. 6) It was the tradition of the ancient Hebrews to rend their clothes as a sign of penitence. 7) The rocky hill was rent by an earthquake. 8) It was a terrible crash in which the vehicle was rent into two.

It is important to note that the past tense of rend is not rented but rent; the past participle is not rented but rent; its present participle is not renting but rending.

It is also important to note the difference between rend and render. The following sentences are defective: 1) We are *rending an account before the end of the financial year. 2) She narrated a soul-*rendering story of how her husband and children were brutally murdered. 3) He collapsed while he was *rending a song. 4) That sad development *rendered her heart. 5) Increased technology seems to be *rending many workers redundant.

Those sentences are re-presented as follows with the appropriate word replacing the wrong one in each case: 1a) We are rendering an account before the end of the year. 2a) She narrated a soul-rending story of how her husband and children were brutally murdered. 3a) He collapsed while he was rendering a song. 4a) That sad development rent her heart. 5a) Increased technology seems to be rendering many workers redundant.

In other words, the structure in question should have the following form: “drum sounds rending the air.”

Another word that sometimes suffers a fate similar to that of rend in the hands of some Nigerian writers is strike. We sometimes read: “Boko Haram strucked in the village killing scores of innocent people.” The ignorance displayed by the form of this single word is so profound that it would require an equally ingenious feigning of ignorance to illustrate the shocking level of illiteracy.

As our starting point, let’s take the verb come: Its past form, universally known, is came. But relying on the ludicrous logic of the writer, an alternative past form is *camed. Can you beat that highly innovative coinage? We can then project the illiterate logic as follows: the past tense and past participle of stand is stood; but the reporter’s alternative is *stooded; the past form of break is broke; but the reporter’s alternative past form is *broked; the past tense of fight is fought; but the reporter’s alternative past form would be *foughted; the past tense of drive is drove; the reporter’s alternative would be *droved; etc. Readers should please notice that in each alternative provided, a past tense has been created out of a past tense by the addition of -d or -ed to the authentic past form. The result is a rare display of illiteracy.

Yet, these risible creations have been achieved in imitation of the choice of the ridiculous past form: *strucked. This absurdity is ostensibly the past form of the verb strike. Please note this: The past form (which is also the past participle form) is struck. Not satisfied with this conventional past form, some Nigerian writers would help the English language to add -ed to the existing past form, thus producing the monstrous strucked!

We deem it necessary to present in sentences the proper use of the form struck. The following sentences illustrate the appropriate usage of struck (the past/past participle form of strike): 1) He struck me as a dishonest or at least insincere person. 2) The government struck a balance between taxation and people’s welfare. 3 Hardly six months into the democratic regime, the army struck and replaced democratic structures with absolute dictatorship.4) The arrow struck the rampaging cow in the head and brought it down badly. 5) The tune played by the highly skilled pianist struck a chord with me and I began to sing and dance. 6) The speaker struck the right points and the crowd cheered delightfully. 7) The sermon struck the hardened criminals and generated repentance in some of them. 8) The case has been struck out by the presiding judge for lack of diligent prosecution. 9) Disasters struck repeatedly and the family was reduced to misery. 10) We have struck an agreement with the opposing camp. 11) The mad cow struck the tree with its sharp horn which pierced through it. 12) The naïve girl struck a match and the gas cylinder exploded, creating a conflagration. 13) We were lucky to have struck a business deal with the multinational company. 14) The stone from David’s catapult struck Goliath on the forehead. 15) A stray bullet struck an innocent passerby and killed him instantly.

Notice that we have not used the form strucked at all. Why? Because it does not exist in English. It is a linguistic monstrosity.

Like strucked and rented, the formslained,presumably derived from the verb slay, is a linguistic oddity. This strange form features repeatedly in the Nigerian discourse space. We know, of course, that the past tense of slay is slew and its past participle is slain.

How, then, do we characterise the form slained? What is its relationship with slay, slew and slain? It is a product of confusion, of tottering knowledge. Obviously familiar with slain as a form related to slay, some writers fail to realise that it is already a past participle and they, quite risibly, impose the –ed ending that characterises many past forms and past participles on it.

The form slained is as outlandish and ridiculous as *soughted (cf sought, the past and past participle form of seek) *boughted (cf bought, the past and past participle form of buy) *foughted (cf fought, the past and past participle form of fight) etc.

There is yet another form which sometimes creates confusion among some Nigerians particularly in the Pentecostal church setting. That form is wrought, an old past and past participle form of the verb work. We hear such sentences as: 1) God will *wrought mighty miracles in the crusade. 2) God has been *wroughting miracles in His church. 3) God did not *wrought miracles because of people’s unbelief. 4) I look forward to God *wroughting miracles at the revival meeting. 5) We must create conditions favourable to God *wroughting miracles. 6) If God would not *wrought miracles, there would be no reason for us to invest so much in that programme.

In each of those sentences, the form work/worked/working should replace wrought/wroughting: 1) God will work mighty miracles in the crusade. 2) God has been working miracles in His church. 3) God did not work miracles because of people’s unbelief. 4) I look forward to God working miracles at the revival meeting. 5) We must create conditions favourable to God working miracles. 6) If God would not work miracles, there would be no reason for us to invest so much in that programme.

Now read the following sentences in which the form wrought is correctly used: 1) Mighty miracles were wrought by the prophets in ancient Israel. 2) Christ could not have wrought such mighty miracles in the absence faith. 3) Fervent prayers preceded the miracles wrought by God. 4) The miracles that were wrought served to proclaim the greatness and goodness of God. 5) Those miracles were wrought in the strength and power of God.

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