Even the most hardened grammarians don’t condone capital punishment for grammar offenses, but we do tend to get hung up about hanged. Hanged can only refer to someone’s death by hanging. If you are wondering, “Is it hanged or hung?” establish whether a deadly action has taken place.
It’s one of the few times when grammar becomes a matter of life and death.
The past tense of hang
Hung is the past tense of to hang when it means “to suspend or be suspended.”
Hanged is the past tense of to hang when it means “to kill someone by tying a rope attached from above and removing the support from beneath.”
to hang = to suspend
| Present Tense | I hang | you hang | he/she/it hangs | we hang | you hang | they hang |
| Simple Past Tense | I hung | you hung | he/she/it hung | we hung | you hung | they hung |
| Present Participle | I am hanging | you are hanging | he/she/it is hanging | we are hanging | you are hanging | they are hanging |
| Past Participle | I/you/we/(s)he/it/they hung | — | — | — | — | — |
to hang = to kill by hanging
| Present Tense | I hang | you hang | he/she/it hangs | we hang | you hang | they hang |
| Simple Past Tense | I hanged | you hanged | he/she/it hanged | we hanged | you hanged | they hanged |
| Present Participle | I am hanging | you are hanging | he/she/it is hanging | we are hanging | you are hanging | they are hanging |
| Past Participle | I/you/we/(s)he/it/they hanged | — | — | — | — | — |
How to use hung
Clothes can be hung on hangers and pictures can be hung on walls. Some people use the rule of thumb that things are hung and people are hanged, but that doesn’t always work out the way it should. It is possible to suspend people without intending to hurt them—for example, to harness someone to a bungee cord and dangle them off the bridge (which may seem like tempting death, but that’s more of an opinion than a fact).
I ran straight home from school with my Grammar MVP Award and hung
it on the wall.
How to use hanged
If you are deciding between hanged vs. hung and an act of execution is involved, always choose hanged. Hanged can also be used reflexively to refer to suicides (e.g., he hanged himself, they hanged themselves).
So when you are playing the letter game Hangman, the figure you draw is your hanged man, not your hung man.
Differences between hang and hung
Because it was common practice in centuries past not only to execute criminals by hanging but to also display their bodies for a period of time to deter other potential criminals, it is just possible that you will need to elucidate in your writing that a deceased person spent some time suspended post-execution.
Conveniently, history is rife with examples.
Certain phrasal verbs containing hang confuse some writers as well. To hang out, which means “to casually socialize with friends,” should become hung out in the past tense. Hanged out implies something much less casual (and more deadly).
Similarly, to be overly concerned about something is to get hung up on it, not hanged up.
Hanged vs. hung: Summary
Using the correct past tense of to hang is simple once you make the distinction between its use for capital punishment and its more innocuous meanings. All you need to remember is that hanged has to do with a person’s demise, and hung is used for all other definitions of “to hang,” including idiomatic verbal phrases that contain it.
