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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
Is it because I'm Northern?
I work in Gibraltar and live in Spain and quite often I drive into Gib to fill the car up. I don't like to do this as the queue back to Spain can be quite lengthy, as it was last night.
I said to my boss this morning, who is Danish. "I was sat in the queue last night for 30 minutes."
He instantly said, "How sweet you can still tell you're from the North of England."
This was because I'd said, 'was sat' and not 'I was sitting' or 'I sat'
I've not really thought about this before and have now researched a little on the net.. I am just wondering, as I was sat in the queue, I was put there, as I have no choice but to queue, to get back to Spain and I'm no longer queuing, so the event is over, am I still being Northern or is the grammar right?
I said to my boss this morning, who is Danish. "I was sat in the queue last night for 30 minutes."
He instantly said, "How sweet you can still tell you're from the North of England."
This was because I'd said, 'was sat' and not 'I was sitting' or 'I sat'
I've not really thought about this before and have now researched a little on the net.. I am just wondering, as I was sat in the queue, I was put there, as I have no choice but to queue, to get back to Spain and I'm no longer queuing, so the event is over, am I still being Northern or is the grammar right?
Top answer
I too, like your Danish friend, am not a native speaker but I think that "was sat" (passive) is purely regional (northern British dialect). A more standard way to express this idea would be " was seated " (passive), I think.
- I too, like your Danish friend, am not a native speaker but I think that "was sat" (passive) is purely regional (northern British dialect).
- A more standard way to express this idea would be " was seated " (passive), I think.
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4 Answers
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I too, like your Danish friend, am not a native speaker but I think that "was sat" (passive) is purely regional (northern British dialect). A more standard way to express this idea would be "was seated" (passive), I think.
00
"I was sat in the queue last night for 30 minutes".
I suppose you could make a case for it being a passive construction (be + past participle) though a by-phrase here is clearly impossible. We understand that the weight of traffic caused you to be in a queue for 30 mins. The clearest cases of such passives occur in informal examples like "I was sat at the back", meaning that
I suppose you could make a case for it being a passive construction (be + past participle) though a by-phrase here is clearly impossible. We understand that the weight of traffic caused you to be in a queue for 30 mins. The clearest cases of such passives occur in informal examples like "I was sat at the back", meaning that
00
Bill, I agree that an active construction makes much more sense but it seems to me that even when context calls for a passive form, they still might/would use "was sat" instead of "was seated".
I think , the real question here is "Is this usage ungrammatical considering it's part of their dialect?"
I think , the real question here is "Is this usage ungrammatical considering it's part of their dialect?"
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I wouldn't say it's ungrammatical, just non-standard, or perhaps informal.
BillJ
BillJ
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