Fri, May 16 2008
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Published May 10, 2008 01:43 am - Mark Friedman Mankato Your View: People should use proper verb tense
I found the article about Daryl Kagan in the April 14 Free Press very inspiring and love the concept of what she is doing to cover positive news stories. She serves as an important reminder that people can be amazingly selfless, generous and compassionate as well as selfish, cruel and callous. However, I was surprised and disappointed to read the caption under the picture and discover a glaring grammatical error. The caption read, “Daryl Kagan could have went into another job.” This incorrect use of the past perfect offended my grammatical ear. It should read “Daryl Kagan could have gone.” I have heard this incorrect use of the past perfect tense so often since I moved to Mankato that I wonder if this verb tense has been obliterated from the English language and relegated to the archaic past. It is simpler to use one verb tense for all past actions, but I was taught there are two verb tenses that refer to the past: The simple past, i.e. I went, I ate, I came, I wrote, I saw, I did, etc.; and the past perfect, i.e. I could have gone, I could have eaten, I could have come, I could have written, I could have seen, I could have done, etc. The past perfect also applies to should have, would have, may have and might have. Has this verb tense disappeared from grammatical lessons? Does anyone use this form anymore? 
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