My extended family of all prior generations use the word 'et' rather than ate as the past tense of eat. Has anyone else experienced this? Is it likely to be a misinterpretation of ate pronounced in a really weird regional dialect? I have never heard anyone of my generation (yes, I own it) use the term. I'd think it was a local thing if my parents weren't raised on opposite sides of the globe (which is another thread unto itself).

Rapport was established superficially.

Yes, doc, the "et" pronunciation was current in my home, "when I were a lad."
So far as memory serves, it was used only for the third person, sing. or plur.. One would say, "I ate all my greens, Mum!" but, "The cat et the fish you left on the table."
My home was Middlesex (now the western part of Greater London), but my mother came from Buckinghamshire, whence the pronunciation emanated, I guess. I found it was common parlance in Northamptonshire when I lived there in later life. Northants and Bucks have very similar accents and dialects.
Me Pa were born in Gloucestershire, but 'ad been brung up in Bucks, so 'e talked the same as me Ma.

"Et" turned up in something or other which we were reading in high school, and I actually felt compelled to look it up at the time to confirm that it meant what I thought it meant ("ate"). And it was in the dictionary I had at the time, so its use must have been widespread at one time. It may have been marked "archaic".

I remember hearing "et" as past tense of "eat" quite often over 70 years ago, most commonly in countrified colloquial context. wwh

I think it must be a regional thing as, in the sentence:

"I ate all my greens, Mum!" but, "The cat et the fish you left on the table."

I would still have said "The cat ate the fish you left on the table". However, I regularly hear 'et' being used in Estuary, whereas I was brought up in Lincolnshire and Dorset.

My family often used, and I occasionally still use, the archaic past tense 'eat', used by Shakespeare, among others. Dr. Johnson, I believe, said, "It was a brave man that first eat an oyster."

Did you eat that biscuit dry, or did you wash it down with coffee?

Et two, brut.

Dammit, TEd, you beat me to the pun(ch) again!

Dammit, TEd, you beat me to the pun(ch) again!

Et alius. Et cetera.

Et allocatur.

Dammit, TEd and Sparteye
et in saecula saeculorum.

As a Bucks lad myself I can confirm Rhubarbcommando's observations. I still pronounce the past of eat as et. I thought everyone did.

I actually come from Beaconsfield, which is pronounced Beckonsfield. I was told recently that there is a Beaconsfield Avenue in San Francisco. How's it pronounced there?

Bingley

>I actually come from Beaconsfield, which is pronounced Beckonsfield. I was told recently that there is a Beaconsfield Avenue in San Francisco. How's it pronounced there?

Can't help there, Bingley, but the town of Beaconsfield near Melbourne, Australia is pronounced Beekonsfield.

And I've heard a few people here, exclusively "older generation" I think, pronounced "ate" as "et".

>the "et" pronunciation was current in my home, "when I were a lass."

I et too.

I still use et. Et's OK!

"How much of that pie did you eat?"

"I et all"

[Proud of herself for finally coming up with one after I lost the Julius Caesar race to TEd emoticon]

[et] was the normal past tense of 'eat'; it was spelt either 'eat' or 'ate'. I don't know when the pronunciation [eit] ("ayt") came in for 'ate', but I'd guess very recently, later nineteenth century, and from the middle class in London, since [et] hasn't been fully displaced in either upper or lower class speech.

I don't know what the age/class distribution is in US or Aus/NZ: I _think_ I've heard [et] in Australia by older people but can't remember. Did they ever say [et] in old US films?

An edition of Spenser from around 1900 or a tad earlier actually glossed 'ate': it said simply 'did eat'. So the very spelling might be recent (in non-dialectal).

The only person in NZ I can remember who used "et" was my grandmother, and she was brought up in Manchester ... I don't think it's been normal usage in NZ for many years, if it ever was.

normal usage in NZ

Make up your mind, Cap - normal or NZ?

Make up your mind, Cap - normal or NZ?

Down, boy!