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Re: USAGE: gotten, boughten

From:Eli Ewing <celticslim@...>
Date:Wednesday, June 26, 2002, 7:02
Thomas Wier said:
>> Still, it says here that "was going," "used to go," and "went" are all >> forms of imperfect past, and that "was going" is the "past continuous" >> construction, i.e., one specific imperfect form. > >Says where? Whatever you're reading, it's wrong. The simple past >(aka preterite) has no set aspect to it, although the tendency is >to use it for aorist functions.
Actually, the books I learned grammar from in school called "was going" the "past progressive" and "is going" the "present progressive". . . "went" was called simple past. I never even used the term "imperfect" until I studied foriegn languages. As the term applies to English, I was taught that all three of these forms are (or can be, at least) imperfect. I.e. "went" can be imperfect because the sentence "He went to the store" doesn't necessarily imply that the action is finished. He could still going to the store, still be gone (at the store), or he could be back. When my dad said "Let's went," it obviously applied to an action that wasn't yet completed :) My recent reference was to some online version of a reference text. I want to say Heritage, but it could have been something else. All of my books are in boxes, so I couldn't look it up in hard copy. Eli

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Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...>