differences - "Lept" vs. "leapt" vs. "leaped"


After reading this discussion, I'd like to know what example sentences distinguish the meaning of the words lept, leapt, and leaped from each other?



Answer



The past tense of leap is today rightly spelt leapt when pronounced with the DRESS vowel rather than with the FLEECE vowel, so /lɛpt/ rhyming with kept.


In contrast, lept is an obsolete spelling of leapt seldom seen since the 1500s, back before the standardization of English spelling.


Consider:



  • bleed > bled

  • breed > bred

  • creep > crept

  • dream > dreamt

  • feed > fed

  • feel > felt

  • kneel > knelt

  • lead > led

  • lean > leant

  • meet > met

  • plead > pled

  • sleep > slept

  • speed > sped

  • sweep > swept

  • weep > wept


As you see, the sound change is more consistent than the spelling, but leapt is not wholly without precedent in other forms even when spelt that way.


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