You’re standing in the kitchen, mid-sentence, and you say it. "I already brung the groceries in." Suddenly, the room feels a little colder. Maybe your friend gives you a look. Maybe your own internal grammar alarm goes off. You pause. You wonder. Is brung a word, or did you just accidentally invent a new dialect of English on the fly?
It feels right in the mouth. It rhymes with "sung" and "rung." If we sing and then we have sung, why can't we bring and then have brung? Language is usually about patterns, so it makes total sense that your brain reached for that specific shelf in the vocabulary pantry. But if you try to use it in a college essay or a business email, you’re going to see a lot of red ink.
The short answer is no—at least not in Standard English. But the long answer is way more interesting because it involves the messy, shifting history of how we talk and why some words "make it" while others get stuck in the linguistic "clearance bin."
The Irritating Reality of Irregular Verbs
Let's look at the mechanics. Most English verbs are boring. They’re "regular." You take a word like walk, add an "ed," and you get walked. Simple. Easy. Then you have the rebels. These are the irregular verbs that change their vowels like they’re in a witness protection program.
The verb bring is one of these rebels. In standard modern English, the past tense of bring is brought. That’s it. One option. You brought the cake. You have brought the news.
So where did brung come from?
It’s a result of something linguists call analogical leveling. Our brains love patterns. We see sing, sang, sung and ring, rang, rung. Naturally, the brain tries to apply that "u" sound to other words that end in "ing." It’s an attempt by the human mind to make English more logical than it actually is. English is essentially three languages wearing a trench coat, so logic isn't always its strong suit.
Dialects, Class, and the "Grammar Police"
Is it "incorrect"? Well, that depends on who you ask and where you are.
If you are in certain parts of the American South, the Midwest, or even parts of England, brung is used all the time. In these dialects, it is a word. It functions perfectly. People understand exactly what you mean.
The problem isn't communication; it's status.
Sociolinguists like Walt Wolfram have spent decades studying how we judge people based on their grammar. Using brung is often labeled as "nonstandard" or "substandard." It’s a marker of dialect rather than a "mistake" in the way a typo is a mistake. When people say it isn't a word, what they usually mean is "this word is not accepted in formal, high-status environments."
It’s kinda unfair. You can say "I have flung the ball" (from fling), and everyone thinks you're fine. But say "I have brung the ball," and suddenly people think you missed a few years of grade school. It’s a double standard baked into the history of the language.
The Ghost of Old English
Believe it or not, brought hasn't always been the undisputed champion. In Old English, the word was brohte. Over centuries, the way we pronounce vowels shifted dramatically—a period historians call the Great Vowel Shift.
During this chaos, different regions of England developed different ways of handling the past tense of bring. Some areas stuck closer to the brought lineage. Others leaned into the brung sound. For a long time, there wasn't one "correct" way because there were no dictionaries to tell people they were wrong.
It wasn't until the 18th century, when people like Samuel Johnson and Robert Lowth started writing "prescriptive" grammar books, that one version was picked as the winner. They chose brought. They basically looked at all the variations and decided, "This one sounds more sophisticated. Let's make everyone use this."
And just like that, brung was relegated to the sidelines.
When Can You Actually Use It?
Honestly, context is everything.
If you're writing a novel and your character is a rugged fisherman from a coastal village, having them say "I brung the nets in" adds authenticity. It gives them a voice. It feels real. If that character said "I have brought the nets in," they might sound too formal, almost robotic.
In creative writing, poetry, or casual texting with friends, "brung" is totally fine. It’s expressive. It has a certain rhythmic weight to it.
But—and this is a big "but"—don't use it in a cover letter. Don't use it in a legal brief. Don't use it if you're trying to convince a professor that you’ve mastered the material. In those worlds, the "standard" is the only thing that matters.
Quick Comparison of "Bring" Forms
- Present Tense: I bring the coffee.
- Past Tense (Standard): I brought the coffee yesterday.
- Past Participle (Standard): I have brought the coffee every day this week.
- Dialect/Nonstandard: I brung the coffee. (Use with caution!)
Why Do Kids Say It?
If you have children, you’ve probably heard them use brung. You might even have tried to "correct" them.
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Interestingly, when kids say this, it's actually a sign of high intelligence and language acquisition. It shows they have recognized the hidden patterns of English. They’ve realized that many "i" words change to "u" in the past tense. They are applying a rule they discovered. They aren't being lazy; they are being logical.
Eventually, through "corrective feedback" from teachers and peers, most kids learn that bring is an exception to the rule. They learn that English likes to be difficult just for the sake of it.
The Future of "Brung"
Languages change. They breathe. They evolve. Words that were once considered slang or "wrong" eventually find their way into the dictionary if enough people use them.
Take the word "funner." For decades, teachers insisted it wasn't a word. "More fun" was the only option. But guess what? So many people used "funner" that many dictionaries eventually threw up their hands and added it.
Will that happen to brung? Probably not anytime soon. Brought is too deeply entrenched in our formal education systems. But as long as people keep using it in their homes and communities, the word isn't going anywhere. It stays alive in the "underground" of language.
Actionable Steps for Navigating the "Brung" Trap
If you find yourself accidentally using "brung" or you’re worried about your grammar, here’s how to handle it without losing your mind.
Identify your "triggers."
Notice when you use it. Is it only when you're tired? Or when you're talking to specific family members? Most people code-switch—they use one type of English at home and another at work. Being aware of this helps you flip the switch when you need to.
Practice the "Ought" sound.
If you struggle with brought, remember it groups with thought, fought, bought, and caught. They all share that same "ought" or "aught" vowel. If you can remember "I thought I brought it," you’ve got a mnemonic that works every time.
Don't be a grammar snob.
When you hear someone else say brung, resist the urge to correct them unless you’re their editor or their parent. Language is about connection, not just following rules. If you understood what they meant, the language did its job.
Check your writing tools.
If you're worried about nonstandard English slipping into your professional work, use a tool like Grammarly or the built-in spellcheck in Google Docs. These programs are programmed to catch "brung" immediately and suggest "brought."
Read more formal prose.
The best way to internalize standard grammar isn't by memorizing rules, but by seeing them in action. Reading books, newspapers, or long-form articles helps your brain "default" to the standard version of verbs.
At the end of the day, brung is a fascinating artifact of how our brains handle complex systems. It's a "word" in the sense that it carries meaning and has a history, but it's a "non-word" in the eyes of the gatekeepers. Use it at a backyard BBQ, but leave it out of the boardroom.