Timeline for UK vs USA grammar, past tense usage of "were stood" and "found…stood" that jars my American mind
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
8 events
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| Feb 2 at 14:56 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | ... and in the same article: 'Giving evidence, Sgt Tony Sothinathan of the Met police said Thunberg was standing near to the entrance of the InterContinental Hotel'. The police often find lawyers' words somewhat bewildering. | |
| Feb 2 at 7:53 | comment | added | David Garner | In the (UK) Guardian, 2nd February 2024, a prosecutor in a London court said, “Miss [Greta] Thunberg was stood outside the hotel entrance.” | |
| Jan 20 at 22:35 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | @Lambie It is still termed 'nonstandard' in the article. | |
| Jan 20 at 14:43 | comment | added | Lambie | She also says: “The answer’s not clear,” Soames says, “but my research shows that this usage (which used to be restricted to some regional British dialects) is becoming more widespread in British English, and is even appearing in edited writing such as newspapers and magazines.” | |
| Jan 19 at 23:27 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | ['In an Oct. 3, 2012, post on the Oxford Dictionaries blog, the lexicographer Catherine Soames notes the increasing nonstandard use of the past participles “sat” and “stood” for the present participles “sitting” and “standing” in British English.' ... Soames, editor or co-editor of several Oxford dictionaries, says [this usage] in continuous, or progressive, tenses is “regarded as non-standard by usage guides.” '](grammarphobia.com/blog/2017/12/…). | |
| Jan 19 at 20:12 | comment | added | Lambie | And this long article: random-idea-english.blogspot.com/2013/11/… "But I have to say that personally I find them rather attractive and, like a lot of idiomatic English, an enrichment of the language. The main thing is that when you hear a native speaker say it, don't think they are making an error or are grammatically ignorant: this is a perfectly natural British English expression, albeit one that is not accepted in all quarters." | |
| Jan 19 at 20:01 | comment | added | Lambie | bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/… Teachers correct it but people say it. It is heard all the time on British series and in British movies. It is not an overgeneralization. It's the vox populi. The Guardian has a style guide but the BBC blog post explains its usage. And does not condemn it. Do you think I have bad hearing? | |
| Jan 19 at 19:18 | history | answered | Edwin Ashworth | CC BY-SA 4.0 |