grammar question

We have swum

We swam; we've swum.

'Swam' is past tense; 'swum' is past participle used after 'have' or 'had'

Same pattern with 'sing', 'sang', 'sung'.

As above. I have a similar bugbear regarding sat and sitting. I hate to hear people say "they were sat" rather than "they were sitting". "They sat" "they were sitting".

Thanks, so "swum" is ok, I learn something new every day!

However, you are right about it looking strange, Tricia.

I have the same problem with dived and dove

The past tense of "dive", dove is American, in English it is dived e.g. "he dived for cover".

My bugbear is " they were sat sitting" I'm having trouble with ance and ence endings these days.

of in lieu of have is my biggest bugbear. 'We should of gone shopping'. It drives me mad . They were sat is next on my list......

I am having trouble remembering words - sod the grammer that would simply be a plus

My only bugbear is with people saying 'haitch' the name of the letter H is 'aitch'.....even though the sound it makes is 'huh'!
I understand there is a legitimate use of the 'huh' sound before some vowels in the West Indian culture and that is perfectly acceptable - just as Irish people often pronounce 'th' as 't'. But, when people who are not from these cultures say them, it is actually an error.

.....also, can anyone give me a simple rule for the use of 'that' and 'which' please? I did go to grammar school (and I wasn't away that day!) but I seem to have a mental block about how the rule works.

Me too! I was horrified to read a message from one of my own children using it and when I pointed out his error he told me he knew how to spell it but when texting he uses 'of'....aaaargh!!

I just loathe 'I'm bored of' something instead of 'with' They even say it on the beeb now - is it just me?'

The whole subject of English grammar frustrates me these days. I can't read anything printed nowadays without having a little shout over one or another point of incorrect grammar. Aaaargh!

No Beattie - 'bored of' really grates, and it gets everywhere. I wonder where and when it first crept in, I remember teenagers starting to say it within the last 10 years. I have almost become resigned to 'different to' as it's so prevalent but 'bored of' is still an irritant.

Maybe when texting you can convert your son to 'could've'. Actually I guess not as it needs a change of screen ...

mummsymags you and me both!

Even some TV presenters say 'haitch' drives me bonkers

Saying 'haitch' is a regional dialect thing though, so where do you draw the line? Who's to say which dialect is the correct version? I do try to look things up before I criticise, after something sounds odd to my ears.

'Should of' drives me mad, too.

In Hull they say that 'ull begins with haitch.

Just heard another, frequent minor irritation on R4. Someone being interviewed for his opinion re calories on menus said 'restauraNteur'.

Hoi pedants- word pronunciation is not a grammar issue! Sorry -being pedantic!

I was thinking that myself, Jane. Just stopped myself from complaining about the way 'fifth' is so often pronounced 'fith' these days for that very reason!

One of my big bugbears is hearing nauseous pronounced 'naushus', which I imagine is an American import