Timeline for Why isn’t “the passengers were perished” correct?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
20 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jul 29, 2021 at 21:01 | comment | added | A.Ellett | "The plane was crashed" sounds fine if it was done deliberately. "The passengers were perished" does sound a bit odd, but if the plane was deliberately crashed, then "were perished" continues the sense of deliberate action carrying across. Granted, it doesn't sound like standard English; nevertheless it has a bit of a poetic sound to it. | |
| Jul 28, 2021 at 13:51 | comment | added | Canadian Yankee | @PeteKirkham - Okay, I've modified the entry to reflect that "to perish" meaning "to die" is never transitive. | |
| Jul 28, 2021 at 13:51 | history | edited | Canadian Yankee | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 118 characters in body
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| Jul 28, 2021 at 13:47 | comment | added | Pete Kirkham | @CanadianYankee for a person, 'they were perished' would mean they were very cold, for something made of rubber or leather that it had degraded and wasn't soft and supple any more, but prone to cracking or crumbly. For food it would mean 'gone off'. So not quite wear and tear either. | |
| Jul 28, 2021 at 0:21 | comment | added | Canadian Yankee | @PeteKirkham This transitive usage is not idiomatic in AmE. Question - would you find it idiomatic in BrE when applied the actual death of a living person, or just applied to wear-and-tear? | |
| Jul 27, 2021 at 20:37 | comment | added | JustWilliam | My first language (a long time ago) was British English. As well as the verb to perish, perished could be an adjective meaning what happens to rubber when it shrivels up after a long time and (jokingly?) to mean very cold or thirsty (perhaps analogous to the rubber drying out meaning.) I should add that I mostly recall it being used in that way by my mom who learned her English in Tyneside in the 1920s. So in the plane crash example, the passengers were perished would mean they had shrivelled up or were very cold. To say they had been killed would be, "The passengers perished." | |
| Jul 27, 2021 at 14:54 | comment | added | user3067860 | @FluidCode The passengers had already perished. Consider the verb die vs. the noun dead. The passengers had already died. The passengers were already dead. | |
| Jul 27, 2021 at 12:12 | comment | added | FluidCode | Does adding already as a comparison between different pasts make "were perished" correct? As in "the passengers were already perished" implying "by the time the rescue team arrived" | |
| Jul 27, 2021 at 4:59 | comment | added | Andrew Savinykh | MW says that this verb can be transitive (British) also perish the thought. | |
| Jul 27, 2021 at 4:43 | comment | added | Douglas | @PeteKirkham 'were broken' makes sense because 'broken' is also an adjective. 'Perished' is only a verb. Part of the issue is definitely US vs UK, though - merriam-webster.com gives two definitions of "perish" that it notes as "chiefly British", and one of them is a transitive verb. | |
| Jul 27, 2021 at 1:17 | comment | added | Mark G B | David Z could be correct. I'm in the eastern US, but I would never use "perish" in the sense of cold or rotten. It sounds obsolescent to me. I would use "perishable", but for perishable materials which were, indeed, perished, I would say they are old, or past their due date, etc. | |
| Jul 27, 2021 at 1:13 | comment | added | David Z | @PeteKirkham I wonder if this is one of those British vs American English differences? I mean, I'd agree with Kirk that "was perished", "were perished", etc. sound flat-out ungrammatical, and I notice that both of us list our location as California. | |
| Jul 26, 2021 at 23:07 | comment | added | Pete Kirkham | @KirkWoll that's also valid, but seems wrong to me (UK) just like if writing a report I'd say 'were broken' rather than 'had broken' (reflecting that they were in that state when I found them). 'had' also doesn't work for perishing from cold as 'had perished' means died whereas 'were perished' means very cold. | |
| Jul 26, 2021 at 23:02 | comment | added | Kirk Woll | @PeteKirkham I would say, "the brakes failed because the rubber hose had perished." | |
| Jul 26, 2021 at 23:00 | comment | added | Pete Kirkham | @KirkWoll Say I have an old car and the brakes failed because the rubber hose were perished. How would you describe the hose's state in the past within your idea of English grammar? | |
| Jul 26, 2021 at 22:56 | comment | added | Kirk Woll | @PeteKirkham I don't think your two examples sound grammatical. In fact, I'm not even sure what those sentences are trying to convey. | |
| Jul 26, 2021 at 22:52 | comment | added | Pete Kirkham | And yet "the rubber hose was perished" or "my hands were perished" are perfectly valid, so it's a bit more subtle than a blanket 'grammatically impossible'. | |
| Jul 26, 2021 at 14:00 | vote | accept | jbn | ||
| Jul 26, 2021 at 13:54 | comment | added | randomhead | When I hear "the plane was crashed" the first thing I think of is that time when NASA deliberately sent a Boeing 720 into the desert. There were no passengers in that case, and not even any pilots—the pilots were in the aircraft for takeoff and then parachuted out, and it was flown to the crash site by remote control. | |
| Jul 26, 2021 at 13:33 | history | answered | Canadian Yankee | CC BY-SA 4.0 |