On Sun, 2 Nov 2014 17:20:00 -0000
"Col" wrote:

There's nothing wrong in literature, language changes all the time.
Dickens and Brenard shaw used "They was" and they only lived about
a century ago.

Yes, language changes all the time.
That's the whole point I was making. However we don't say
'they was' today, no matter how many dead writers may have done so in
the past.
Therefore it is *wrong*.

Of course, "they" can also refer to a singular person when gender is
unknown so one might try to argue that in that case "was" might be more
appropriate than "were". ;-)

--
Graham P Davis, Bracknell, Berks. Mail: 'newsman' not 'newsboy'.
Posted with Claws: http://www.claws-mail.org/

Come on Col, you can't be expecting to get away with btw. Don't recall Shakespeare or Dickens using it. :-)

On 02/11/2014 22:55, David Mitchell wrote:
Come on Col, you can't be expecting to get away with btw. Don't recall Shakespeare or Dickens using it. :-)



You'll find "They was" in Hard times, Dombey and sons and many more of
Dickens novels.

On 02/11/2014 12:05, Col wrote:
'They was' is *wrong*. It just sounds *wrong*. It jars when
you say it. That's because it's *wrong*. End of.


You sound like Vinny Jones, are you sure you don't want to join UKIP Col?