I've been reading the First Law series by Joe Abercrombie, and some of his Britishisms really throw me off, such as his use of the word 'whinge' in place of 'whine', but especially his common reference to 'fruits' in place of what Americans would more often call 'balls'.
He also used 'dived' when all my life I've heard people use 'dove'. I felt the need to look it up, and it turns out that 'dived' is the traditional correct way to use the past tense of 'to dive', but from about two centuries ago in the US the word 'dove' began to supersede 'dived' and has now become the standard. So, since I always recommend taking jabs at our lovely British friends, I will stick with 'dove', thank you!
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2 hours ago
I've seen it used both ways but not often. I'll stick with dove as well.
ReplyDeleteI read the first book, The Blade Itself. I liked it. And, yes, it always throws me when I read "dived" instead of "dove." Just what we're raised with, I guess. I'll have to check out the rest of the books. I do like his style quite a lot.
ReplyDeleteL.G., I thought his books got stronger as they went, as it felt he was learning how to write during the first one. It was also poorly edited, but then that aspect got much better in the next books.
ReplyDeleteI've read Joe's books too and lots of other books by British writers. I like the dove too but I remember my high school English teachers telling me either is correct.
ReplyDeleteThere are differences WITHIN the US with those verb tenses, too. I find the west coast changes faster. I am a big defender of snuck instead of sneaked (hell, sneaked doesn't even SOUND sneaky)--my editors are fine with that, but a couple of my betas take issue.
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