My teacher returned my essay saying that the sentence "The citizens of Salem hanged the accused witches..." uses the word "hanged" incorrectly. I was taught last year that the word hanged is for people while hung is for pictures. I'm not sure if I'm incorrectly remembering this rule, or if my teacher is wrong. Thanks for clearing this up!

your teacher is correct. the sentence should be "the citizens of salem hung the accused witches..."

your reading the crucible that book is cool. i love it! we did a play in my school it was awesome

Unfortunately I didn't get to read it yet, but we read parts of the play, and saw the film version. The movie was so sad at the end, it was painful to watch. But I thought it was a really good story.

yes it is sad. i cryed lol the play and the movie are totally different. the producer of the movie changed parts. the beginning of the movie the scene with abigail and john proctor takes place outside and in the play it takes place inside. he shows john to be confused if he wants abigail or not which i find really cool. did you know that this is based on a true story? and that in real life abigail was actually 11 or 12 years old and john proctor was about 40 years old.

Check this site:

http://www.englishrules.com/writing/2005/hanged-or-hung.php

Hanged is used regarding people.
Hung is used regarding things.

Now I'm confused...I checked a literary style book and it said it should be hanged, but it's sort of an outdated book. I guess I'll just stick with hanged and show the book to my teacher.

Annaiiz-I was looking at more Abigail Proctor stuff online, and it said she would have already died if she was as old as the movie made her 17 or 18ish. Isn't that weird? How did your school do the hanging scene, where they lifted up the bodies choked by the rope?

I'd take GuruBlue's answer since she was a high school English teacher for many years. You might also print the website that she posted. Also I checked and all of the sites I found confirmed that hanged is the correct word for people.

You are correct that there is a difference between the use of "hanged" and "hung." The word "hanged" is indeed used to refer to the act of executing a person by hanging them from the neck until dead. On the other hand, "hung" is typically used to describe suspending or placing an object, such as a picture, on a wall.

In the case of your sentence, "The citizens of Salem hanged the accused witches," the word "hanged" is actually used correctly. Since the sentence is referring to the execution of the accused witches by hanging, the use of "hanged" is appropriate.

It's possible that your teacher may be unaware of this specific distinction, or there may be some confusion. I would suggest discussing your understanding of the usage of "hanged" and "hung" with your teacher to clarify any confusion and to ensure that you both are on the same page.