Is it British English or just wrong?
Because 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.
Tags: American English, British English, David Beckham, ESPN.com, Goofs, Grammar, MLS, Soccer, Sports
2 Comments
Zach Everson on March 21st, 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.
My writing focuses on travel and culture. I've contributed to The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Air Canada's enRoute, BlackBook, Budget Travel, Deadspin, and Louisville Magazine. I'm also the editor-in-chief of Louisville.com and BlackBook's Louisville City Editor.
John Nichols on March 20th, 2008
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.