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i have being trying endlessly to think up something positive about this expression

which of these is correct?

He pregnate my daughter

He pregnated my daughter

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  • 11
    They are both positively incorrect. – Oldcat Mar 20 '14 at 18:53
5

Try this:

He impregnated my daughter

Or -

  • My daughter is expecting.

  • My daughter is going to have a baby

  • Congratulations! My daughter is expecting!

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3

Neither is. The verb is impregnate.

Then, there are two possibilities:

  • He impregnates my daughter. (Present tense - unlikely to be heard)
  • He impregnated my daughter. (Past tense)

The positive part of the expression is of course

I am going to be a granddad.

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2

Merriam Webster lists "pregnate" as an obsolete intransitive verb meaning "to become fertile" (I pregnated) and as a transitive verb meaning the same as "impregnate" (I [im]pregnated her).

The latter does not have an actual definition, but rather a link to "impregnate", suggesting that this is the preferred, standard term.

This Ngram shows that usage of "pregnate" is indeed negligible compared to that of "impregnate":

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(It is worth noting that this does not show the usage context. A Google search brings up plenty of hits for"pregnate" as an obvious misspelling of "pregnant"; this could be the case even in printed books!)

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1

One would say: 'He impregnated my daughter, but perhaps more commonly, 'He made my daughter pregnant'.

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0

Informally also: He put my daughter in the family way.

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/in+the+family+way

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0

Informally: He knocked up my daughter. See this.

He impregnated my daughter sounds like the sort of thing you'd say before directing a henchman to dispose of the lifeless body of her erstwhile suitor.

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