11:24 PM
There is a great deal of hysteria and paranoia in coarse speakers of American English when it comes to strong verbs with a u in their past tense or past participle.
A reasonably complete list of the verbs that have no u in their present tense but which do (or at least, can) have a u in either their past or past participle are: begin, beseech, bestick, bework, bring, dare, drink, fling, ping, ring, seek, shall, shrink, sing, sink, slink, sneak, spin, spring, stick, sting, strike, string, swim, swing, teach, will, and wring.
Many of those strike terror into the tongues of many a native speaker in North America. I cannot account for their insecurity, and I do not share it myself, nor do my family.
In general, strong verbs scare them, and they try to regularize to weak verbs.
But the fear of the letter u is something else.
I said “reasonably” complete, because I’m not counting obsolete or even archaic forms, just current, modern English. That means I’m not counting the archaic wrought for work, or raught for reach.
The following abominations are regularly heard by rough speakers: I’ve began, I’ve brang, I’ve brung, I’ve bringed, I’ve drank, I’ve flinged, I’ve rang, I’ve ringed, I’ve shrank, I've sang, I’ve sank, I’ve spinned, I’ve sprang, I’ve stinged, I’ve stringed, I’ve swam, I’ve swimmed.
Notice how sometimes they make it a weak verb, while other times they seem not to know that there are three inflections instead of just two.
@Cerberus Nice subjunctive there, with typical inversion, too. Perish the thought, heaven forbid, come the morrow, come hell or high water, far be it from me, suffice it say, be it ever so humble, win or lose, live or die.