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:
Should of, could of, would of. That right there is my pet peeve. Should have, could have, would have.
i could of swimmed real goodly on saturday if i would of sleeped gooder.
Should of, could of, would of. That right there is my pet peeve. Should have, could have, would have.
i could of swimmed real goodly on saturday if i would of sleeped gooder.
I thought this came from Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront "I coulda been a contenda - I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum."
I'd also like to point out that--according to the search function--cheakamus is the first person to use the word "persnickety" on these forums. It seems we've all been rather niggardly* in using persnickety here.
* Darn it. I should have known Jim Thornton would have already used "niggardly."
I don't know exactly why, but I think lots of people think "swum" is not a word. I guess it just seems a little ungainly.
My personal pet peeve is when people confuse the word "loose" for "lose."
"The murderer was hanged." Oh, sorry, I guess that one's OK (right?).
That's something they need to do more often...enough of this "lifetime w/out parole" B.S.
