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:
Welcome to the club! "He pleaded guilty" (pled), "He shined the light" (shone), "He lighted the fire" (lit), etc., etc.
"The murderer was hanged." Oh, sorry, I guess that one's OK (right?).
I agree with all of these.
In my days of being a probation officer, the clerk of the court used to say "his license were suspended". Really? He had more than one license and all were suspended?!
Welcome to the club! "He pleaded guilty" (pled), "He shined the light" (shone), "He lighted the fire" (lit), etc., etc.
"The murderer was hanged." Oh, sorry, I guess that one's OK (right?).
The one that gets me is when someone says "he dived". No he dove. What happened to using the past tense correctly?!
Welcome to the club! "He pleaded guilty" (pled), "He shined the light" (shone), "He lighted the fire" (lit), etc., etc.
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 one that gets me is when someone says "he dived". No he dove. What happened to using the past tense correctly?!
... Or the continued use of "insure" when "ensure" is the word that should have been used!
That one gets me going too. Must be more an American thing than UK, 'cos since I've been here, I constantly see people needing to insure that things get done.
So you're going to call State Farm to "insure" that your kid goes to bed on time?????
