Has anyone addressed this before? The past participle of "swim" is "swum." "Swam" is the simple past. You can say, "I swam three times last week" or "I have swum in that pool many times," but you can never say "I have swam ..." It's simply not correct English.
Sorry to be persnickety, but as a former book editor, it drives me crazy every time I see it, and I see it increasingly more often now that I spend so much time here.:nono:
One of my pet peeves is apostrophe abuse--people who put random apostrophes whenever they see the letter 's.' An English instructor I once knew referred to this as "the decorative apostrophe."
I work in academia, and it's amazing how people who are otherwise incredibly credentialed can mangle basic grammar--like the woman who sent an email saying, "I have ask the program director to look into this."
What really got me foaming at the mouth, though, was the email I received from someone at another college, requesting "some of your course syllabuses'." Argh, apostrophe abuse and incorrect Latin plural, all in one sentence!
One of my pet peeves is apostrophe abuse--people who put random apostrophes whenever they see the letter 's.' An English instructor I once knew referred to this as "the decorative apostrophe."
I work in academia, and it's amazing how people who are otherwise incredibly credentialed can mangle basic grammar--like the woman who sent an email saying, "I have ask the program director to look into this."
What really got me foaming at the mouth, though, was the email I received from someone at another college, requesting "some of your course syllabuses'." Argh, apostrophe abuse and incorrect Latin plural, all in one sentence!
