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programed or programmed

Remus2 ๐Ÿšซ

Which is the correct usage?

Switch Blayde ๐Ÿšซ

@Remus2

From what I just read, "programmed" is the preferred spelling, but in American English there's an alternate spelling of "programed."

helmut_meukel ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Remus2

Which is the correct usage?

depends on the spelling of program / programme.
The later is the standard British spelling outside of computer usage.
If you use the British spelling of 'to programme', then it's always 'programmed'.
If you use the American spelling 'to program', then both spellings 'programmed' and 'programed' are correct, but you should be consistent.

See especially the usage notes in Wiktionary.

HM.
Typos edited.

Remus2 ๐Ÿšซ

@Remus2

Thanks for the answers. Since the MC is American, I'll stick with programed. I paused as I've seen it both ways in various dead tree works.

awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ

@Remus2

SOL advanced search:

programmed - 1000 files (ie SOL stopped counting at 1000 and there are probably considerably more)

programed - 117 files

As an editor, I would always correct 'programed' to 'programmed'.

AJ

Replies:   Dicrostonyx
Dicrostonyx ๐Ÿšซ

@awnlee jawking

According to Google's Ngram viewer (word frequency in published works), the two-m variant is by far the most common across the board. Single-m reached maximum usage in 1964 and declined fast, but has started rising again (very slowly) as of around 2009.

Note that when I say more common, in works published in 2019 the two-m version is about 50 times more common than single-m.

Source: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=programed%2C+programmed&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cprogramed%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cprogrammed%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2Cprogramed%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cprogrammed%3B%2Cc0

Switch Blayde ๐Ÿšซ

@Remus2

Since the MC is American, I'll stick with programed.

I'm American and was in IT. I had never seen "programed" before you brought it up. The preferred spelling for Americans is "programmed" so I'd go with that.

Replies:   Dominions Son
Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ

@Switch Blayde

I'm American and was in IT.

I'm American and I'm still in IT.

I had never seen "programed" before you brought it up. The preferred spelling for Americans is "programmed" so I'd go with that.

I won't go so far as having never seen "programed", but it's so rare vs "programmed" that I would consider it a typo.

Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ

@Remus2

As an IT professional in the US, in my experience, programmed is far more common than programed.

Replies:   Keet
Keet ๐Ÿšซ

@Dominions Son

As an IT professional in the US, in my experience, programmed is far more common than programed.

I agree, I rarely see programed and when I see it I consider it a typo. If you use the pronunciation rules then programed is wrong.
There's an overwhelmingly preference for programmed.
With usage charts: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/244280/programming-versus-programing-which-is-preferred

Switch Blayde ๐Ÿšซ

@Remus2

If you do an ngram search on "programmed, programed" you'll see that "programmed" is the one overwhelmingly used. And it looks like "programed" had its peak in the early 1960s (with "programmed" still way above it) and basically died out late 1980s.

BlacKnight ๐Ÿšซ

@Remus2

As an American programmer (not "programer"), I would consider "programed" to be an error, though apparently the Mozilla dictionary doesn't agree.

Standard English orthography (yes, there is such a thing) would make the 'a' in "programed" long (it'd be the past tense of the notional verb "programe"). Doubling up the terminal consonant keeps the 'a' short.

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