Is it British English or just wrong?
September 10, 2007 – 12:24 amBecause I have a fetish for has-beens who cash out, a few months ago I was following David Beckham’s first MLS game on ESPN.com.
The phrase “took finally the field” gave me pause: Did ESPN.com make a rare grammatical mistake? Or was it just another lame attempt by an American sports writer to infuse humor into a piece on Beckham by trying to sound British?
About 30 minutes later, I had my answer.
It’s better to be wrong than a hack anyway.
2 Responses to “Is it British English or just wrong?”
Verb form: Galaxy have vs. Galaxy has. I think US speakers would normally use “has” inidicating that the team is a singular entity, while the UK norm would be “have” indicating that the team is a collection of individuals.
By John Nichols on Mar 20, 2008
Good point John–and the usage can even be quirkier. Most newspapers refer to organizations as a singular entity except on the sports page, where teams are treated as a group.
By Zach Everson on Mar 21, 2008