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I have noticed that even native English speakers make grammatical errors when it comes to verbs. For example:

  1. I should not have came here.
  2. I haven't did this for a long time.
  3. We have went to the cinema.
  4. We were all stood on the barrier and saw it happen.
  5. Where would you like to see your product sat in the supermarket ?
  6. I am amaze !

Please explain whether these sentences are simply bad English or some dialect.

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    What's your source for these samples? In particular, sentence 6.
    – gotube
    Commented May 27, 2023 at 3:49
  • Really need sources for these! I've noticed that even profession mathematicians sometimes make mistakes in proofs, and expert chess players sometimes blunder... And I'm 100% certain that you make mistakes in your native language too. And, thanks to my grammar checker I've also noticed that I've made a mistake in the form of "profession" instead of "professional" in the first line of this comment. Yes... to err is human.
    – James K
    Commented May 27, 2023 at 8:09

3 Answers 3

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I would say most of these are possibly just mistakes - people do make mistakes. I can't really speak for dialects/varieties of English in other countries so I'm basing this on UK usage alone. Most of these are totally alien to me.

However, constructions such as "I was stood" and "I was sat" are commonly heard in some parts of England. These are definitely dialect, mostly northern English varieties. I'm Scottish, but we don't use these at all, even in Scots dialects, although I am familiar with them. No. 5 seems to be an example of using "sat" this way, however I'd say it's not a natural example, and I don't think it would be used quite like this in the UK.

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  • Sentence 1 was spoken by an American woman on television. She later literally repeated it. So it can't be a simple mistake. Notice that in sentence 2 and 3 the same grammatical error is made. I assume that many lower class Americans have difficulty with grammar and rely on some simplified street English.
    – M. Wind
    Commented May 29, 2023 at 17:11
  • @Mwind - sure, but I am not American, so I wouldn't know, and you should have mentioned that in your question. I already alluded to this in my answer. My answer is based "on UK usage alone". It would be considered a simple mistake here in the UK, or perhaps some unknown dialect. What you have to realize is that not all native English speakers actually speak standard English.
    – Billy Kerr
    Commented May 29, 2023 at 17:44
  • @M.Wind - I assume that many lower class Americans have difficulty with grammar and rely on some simplified street English. I am amazed at your rudeness. Commented May 29, 2023 at 19:57
  • @MicahelHarvey . . . well, yeah that is a bit of an assumption! I didn't actually read the whole comment.
    – Billy Kerr
    Commented May 29, 2023 at 20:21
  • @Michael Harvey - You mean that it is politically incorrect to suggest a link between poverty, racism and poor education on the one hand and a low level of literacy of a section of the population on the other ?
    – M. Wind
    Commented May 30, 2023 at 3:27
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As an ESL teacher with certification in marking IELTS written exams, I would mark 1, 2, 3 as wrong, but I can imagine there are local varieties of English where those structures might be correct, though I cannot tell you where. That's to say, they're non-standard, but I can imagine there might be people who speak certain varieties of English who would say they are correct.

I can't imagine a native speaker of any variety accepting sentence 6.

With 4, I read "stood" as an adjective that means "standing", so it's correct.

Similarly with 5, I read "sat" as an adjective meaning "placed" or "located", so it's also correct.

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  • I think that I've heard some native lolcats say sentence 6 . . . Commented May 27, 2023 at 4:50
  • @MarcInManhattan Lol! I'd have to classify them as non-native speakers
    – gotube
    Commented May 27, 2023 at 5:34
  • Fair enough. :) Commented May 27, 2023 at 5:40
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    Stood for standing and sat for sitting are widely used in the UK, but your other sentences sound unnatural to me. A friend and I have a joke that, when someone says "I was sat [there]", we can both hear our late mothers say "Sitting". Commented May 27, 2023 at 6:22
  • @KateBunting - you'd hear your late mother a lot in Bristol. She would have extra conniptions when they said 'I was led down in bed'. Commented May 27, 2023 at 8:53
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You seem to have a good grasp on standard English. As others have noted, sentences 4 and 5 are valid British English. The others are nonstandard.

Sentences 1–3 can be found in dialects such as AAVE; they should only be used within their dialect and only by those who speak it natively. I haven't heard 6 from someone who wasn't playing with grammar on purpose, but that's not to say it couldn't exist somewhere.

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  • I'm not sure that 1-3 are found in AAVE, but they are certainly non-standard in American and British Englisy.
    – James K
    Commented May 27, 2023 at 8:13
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    Actually sentences 4 and 5 are not valid British English either . . . they are considered non standard in British English, and could be marked wrong in an exam.
    – Billy Kerr
    Commented May 29, 2023 at 18:07

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