Hm... "Bastard"? How so? Tim ________________________________________ From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] on behalf of Helen Borrie [hele...@iinet.net.au] Sent: Friday, May 30, 2014 2:47 PM To: framers@lists.frameusers.com Subject: Re: Fit or fitted?
At 12:28 p.m. 30/05/2014, Writer wrote: >It's not a verb in this case; it's a predicate adjective. > >Nadine > >>________________________________ >> From: Robert Lauriston <rob...@lauriston.com> >>To: Stephen O'Brien <sobr...@innovmetric.com>; "Frame Users >>(framers@lists.frameusers.com)" <framers@lists.frameusers.com> >>Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 11:42:49 AM >>Subject: Re: Fit or fitted? >> >> >> >>Per Betty Azar, in American English, the present, simple past, and past tense >>of the verb "to fit" are all "fit." Actually, it's not. The example from the OP used "fit" as a transitive verb and "fitted" was applied as the past participle. A pedagogue would rule this usage illegal but English, the bastard language of the world, grows this way. Usage of "fit" as a transitive verb has become widespread in my lifetime, although I'd have got the red crayon if I used it in a high school composition. Things get muddy when we try to use fit in the passive voice, which is the usage in question here. Intransitive verbs can't be used in passive voice so what do we do? We can try to borrow the past historic of the intransitive verb, which is "fit" or we can pursue the formation of a participle by regularising it. "The members iof the Olympic team were fit for their new uniforms" doesn't work. "The members of the Olympic team were fitted for their new uniforms" seems to. My call would be that the regularising rule applies here. If the OP MUST use passive voice (dubious tech writing practice at best) then make "fitted" the participle, rather than awkwardly stealing the past historic from the transitive verb. It fits better (sic: intransitive!) with other forward formations that are already in use. Helen _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to framers as tp...@telecomsys.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/tpann%40telecomsys.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in this message may be privileged and/or confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, or responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, any review, forwarding, dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication or any attachment(s) is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately, and delete it and all attachments from your computer and network. _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
