Use hanged for executions, except in the expression hung, drawn and quartered.
- Canada’s first Criminal Code (1892) specified, “In all cases where an offender is sentenced to death, the sentence shall be that he be hanged by the neck until he is dead.”
- If I don’t meet this deadline, my boss will have me hung, drawn and quartered.
Hang and hanged are still used in some old-fashioned imprecations.
- Hang it all!
- Well, I’ll be hanged!
Use hung for all other purposes.
- Sue hung the pictures of her grandchildren on her office walls.
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