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Officewriter Posted 21 years ago
Linguistics Studies

Correct Usage of First-Come, First-Served

0 Is the following sentence correct related to hyphens and using "served" rather than "serve"? 02br
00"All sponsors will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis." 02br
00Thank you. 0-
  

Top answer

0 Hello, Officewriter, welcome to the Forums! 02br 00Your sentence looks quite fine to me, but maybe wait for another opinion? 0-

— Pieanne

  • 0 Hello, Officewriter, welcome to the Forums!
  • 02br 00Your sentence looks quite fine to me, but maybe wait for another opinion?
  • 0-
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34 Answers
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0 Hello, Officewriter, welcome to the Forums! 02br
00Your sentence looks quite fine to me, but maybe wait for another opinion? 0-
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0 I agree, Pieanne 0-
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0 I believe both can be used since the sentence describes what and not who or when something will happen in the future... 02br
02br
00If you are the first person to come, you will be the first person I serve, she serves or the person who gets served. 02br
02br
00It's really a matter of choice or preference in this case. 0-
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0 Hi ludikris. fair point, but I'm afraid in this instance it is not a matter of opinion, but a matter of usage. The expression is 01b00First-Come, First-Served02b0-
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0 Googled: 02br
02br
00Results 1 - 10 of about 1,550,000 English pages for "first come first serve". 02br
02br
00Results 1 - 10 of about 3,520,000 English pages for "first come first served". 02br
02br
00UK Pages Only: 02br
02br
00Results 1 - 10 of about 265,000 for "first come first served". 02br
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0What about the hyphenation, RH-- any interesting results? 0-
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0 I didn't check, Mr Micawber. I don't think, though I could be wrong, that that type of Google search recognizes hyphens. Also, hyphens mark newer collocations in English. They aren't necessary for well established idioms. 0-
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0I was just curious. Yes, I recall that Google does not sort by them. I just had a quick look, and both forms ('serve' and 'served') seem to be represented in both the hyphenated and unhyphenated forms. Interestingly-- but also expectedly-- it is the adjectival form that seems to require hyphenation, e.g. 'first-come, first-served campgrounds'. 02br
02br
00I've been trying
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0 Mr Micawber: I've been trying to reconstruct the grammar. Although the BrE results are weighted toward 'serve', I see the original as something like: 02br
02br
00RH: Don't you mean "BrE results are weighted toward 'serveD'", with a 'd', Mr Micawber? That's what I found when I googled. 02br
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0Oh, did I reverse them? Sorry. 02br
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00I was not concerned with what 'a speaker might envision'-- my experience is that speakers rarely envision anything-- they just repeat what they have heard or read while learning. I was more concerned with finding a source in our grammar for the fixed expression: there must be one. If your theory is correct, then the 'serve' has
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