To prophesy

[Ellbell]

The verb is 'to prophesy'.

The third person singular form in the present tense is 's/he prophesies' and in the past tense 's/he prophesied'.

THERE IS NO SUCH VERB AS 'TO PROPHESIZE'.

[And breathe]

My students have been getting this wrong for years, but this morning I heard it on Radio 4 : 'he prophesizes'.

So, after screaming at the Radio for 5 minutes, I felt a visit to Pedants' Corner was in order.

Thank you. I feel better now.

I knew you were going to say that.

[bleedin' obvious]

Oops missed me

Predictable response.

Well you learn something new every day.

It just doesn't seem right, though, does it - sounds like a noun rather than a verb.

I do believe you, though.

Aha... the noun is 'prophecy'. It's another example of a pair of words that follow the 'advice'/'advise' rule (the noun has a 'c', the verb has an 's').