Now if I were writing this...

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She would have been wearing a skirt.

http://distractify.com/trending/2016/09/29/pantsgate

Comments

That's a true friend!

That's a true friend!

What's an hour of potential discomfort in exchange for what could be a year of depression and frustration for her?

I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime

Went or gone

"... you should have went home."

Gone, not went.

!!!!

Not really

erin's picture

American usage allows "have went" in the conditional or subjunctive. You wouldn't say "I have went" but you could say "I should have went" or "I might have went". It's not formal usage but it is common. I know it sounds wrong to many but it really is something people say and actual usage is what defines usage. :)

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Wedding Bells?

Daphne Xu's picture

Do I hear wedding bells somewhere? Or is it a life-time of friendship?

Went vs. Gone: If I encountered "went" in that context while editing, I would have changed it to "gone". However, I'm trying to maintain the linguistic tolerance that I demanded so much in my youth. So what's more cringe-inducing: seeing a guy in short-shorts, or reading "should have went"?

The young man himself was quite good-looking, by the way.

-- Daphne Xu

-- Try saying freefloating three times rapidly.

i have to say

Maddy Bell's picture

"should have went" gets me riled every time! Its lazy and there's really no excuse for writing it, and I mean none. To do so is pretty much saying its correct usage and this guy seems to otherwise be quite intelligent.

Not sure why he was hiding in the toilets though.


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Madeline Anafrid Bell

Lazy?

erin's picture

I can't make sense of why it would be lazy. It's the same exact number of letters and the rules for when it is correct, if informal, in American English are just as sensible and consistent as any other rule of grammar; ie. none at all. :)

You wouldn't use it in a formal letter to a Dean of English at any American university but in a comment on the internet? How much more informal could it be? :)

BTW, usages like these are not American inventions; usually, they are holdovers from some British regional or older usage. After all, went was not originally part of the verb to go, it was the past tense and past participle of the verb to wend and as such "have went" was perfectly good English because wend was usually conjugated wend, went, went.

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

i meant

Maddy Bell's picture

lazy use of English. This guy, I hope, was taught the correct modern English at school, I can't imagine anyone actually speaking that sentence, you would say 'I went' or 'I've gone', the 'have' is totally superfluous in this context.

Anyhow, moving on. I do find this tendency of some Americans to add extra words , I think with the idea more is better, into a sentence quite tedious. It makes reading some authors work quite difficult, its fine to use contractions when you write! honest! We all do it when we talk so why write in such a tedious manner.

Divided by a common language, I know.


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Madeline Anafrid Bell