Error correction 2

J and I were just trying to recall by memory the words for the German folksong "Hänsel und Gretel." I started singing: Hänsel und Gretel / verlaufen sich im Wald. J interrupts and says "Nein, Papa, es ist verliefen. Sie verliefen sich im Wald." I told him he was absolutely right. 

Now it is true that some versions of the song do have verliefen sich. But I checked, and the one we have always listened to, as well as done close readings of and artwork on together ...

March 2014

March 2014

... has a different verb, verirrten sich. 

It's possible that J heard another version somewhere along the way. But I suspect he (following me) just substituted sich verlaufen for sich verirren because—I think—we use the former more than the latter in daily conversation (on our walks for example). So what the correction really tells me, I think, is not only that J has synonyms at his command, but that he is capable of abstractly generalizing the preterite over the different rule systems of both regular and irregular verbs. 

Oh, and later when I said "Kanguru," J corrected me to "Känguru."