Hang is a tricky verb because it has two past tenses, hung and hanged, that mean two entirely different things.
The first past tense, hung, means to suspend something with no support from underneath. For example, “the stockings were hung by the chimney with care.” Or, “the door hung on its hinges.”
The second, much less used word is hanged. This means that someone was executed. No, it’s not hung. Yes, I know it sounds wrong, and yet it’s right. Go figure. For example, “they hanged the prisoner at dawn.” Yes, I know it sounds wrong, but still… That’s because no one, except persnickety people like me, ever says it right. On top of that we don’t execute people that way any more so we don’t need to say it, which is a good thing, but I won’t go into the grisly details about why hanging is cruel and unusual punishment.
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