Saturday, June 15, 2024

A living language changing or simply bad grammar?

Commenting yesterday on RTÉ Radio on the results of last Friday’s elections a university professor said: “They could have ran .....” and later in the programme said: “They should have went early....”

Later on the same day an RTÉ reporter said: “.... they have went"

Is it simply a/ a sign that a living language is constantly changing, b/ the past participle is dying, or c/ the professor and the reporter’s English is not up to standard.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Should that not be "professor's" in the final sentence?

Michael Commane said...

Thank you for your comment and delighted you read the blog.
No, it’s custom and practice in that particular situation to omit the first apostrophe. But this blog is always open to suggestions and learning.

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