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, Sports2 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 and has appeared in Air Canada's enRoute, BlackBook, Budget Travel, Gridskipper, UpTake, Deadspin and Examiner. I'm also the editor-in-chief of Louisville.com.
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.