Generate the answer for a given question. The question requires common knowledge of English. Make sure that the answer is in detail, long, consistent with the context, and requires general knowledge of English. To be less repetitive, please vary your language for each question. Give a proper explanation to answer, and if necessary, provide the definition of various terms. And conclude your answer if it's long. If you have used other resources (e.g., Merriam Webster's.) to answer the question, include citations in your answer. You don't need to paraphrase the context of your resources, but make sure that your answer is consistent and complete.

Q: Are shit, shat, and shitted all correct and fine to use as the past tense of shit? After a little bit of searching it seems that they are, with shat being Old English. Is any form more common in British or American English? Erik Kowal claims that shit is mostly American English and shat British English. [M]ost Americans don't change the verb form for the past tense of certain short verbs ending in -it. So fit, spit, shit, slit and pit are thus formed both in the present and the past tense as far as Americans are concerned, whereas people from Britain would almost always use fitted, spat, shat, slitted and pitted for the past tense. What about shitted?.

A: The OED's etymology for this word is: The form shite represents OE. *scitan, pa. t. *scat, pa. pple. -sciten (in be-sciten), corresponding to OFris. *skita (NFris. skitj, pa. t. skad, pa. pple. skedden), MLG. schiten, Dutch schijten, OHG. scian (MHG. schian, mod.G. scheissen), ONor. skita (MSw. skita, Da. skide), f. OTeut. root skit-. The now more common form shit is influenced by the pa. pple. or the related sb. As far as modern/current forms go, it says that: The present tense is either shit or shite. For the past tense, the OED gives all three of shit, shat, shitted as current. So the answer to your question is yes. For the past participle, the OED provides only shit and shat, with shitten last appearing in the 19th century. That means you won't find any one 'correct' answer. Because those variant forms are all used natively by speakers born to the language, all are therefore 'correct'. Use whatever you please.
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Q: Possible Duplicate: How do I say 'Our meeting is preponed'? A friend of mine asked me this question, and it caught my curiosity. Is there an explicit opposite of the word postpone? As in, do something in advance? Clearly what I just said is functionally equivalent to the answer I am seeking, but I was wondering if there was a single word that is the antonym. More context: Bob was supposed to start work in July, but due to a work visa issue, he had to begin in advance.

A: The most business-speaky option is expedite. Other alternatives include accelerate, hasten, and advance. Technically prepone is in fact the precise antonym, but I honestly wouldn't be caught dead using it.
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Q: In my language there's a saying which literally translates to Don't burn your house to smoke out a rat! It advises us to use solutions that are appropriate to the magnitude of the problem. Eliye pedichu illam chudaruthu! - in Malayalam/Indian. What could be the English equivalent?.

A:
This idiom carries the same idea, but it is expressed as a description of what happens when the magnitude of the 'solution' far exceeds the needs of the problem: Using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. This idiom has the reverse idea: Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Instead of advocating restraint when a portion is bad and the rest is valuable, it advocates care when a portion is valuable and the rest is unwanted.
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