_bees_: reply to Phil Bralich

[David_Tuggy at SIL.ORG]

     Phil Young suggested the sentence

     >When I was told to be good, I did???? (Actually, sometimes I wasn't.)

     I agree, "did" sounds really bad here.  A bare "was" is still pretty
     awkward for me, though.  I think I'd just avoid the construction,
     maybe saying something like "I did as I was told/what they told me" or
     "I WAS good".

     By the way, everybody's been saying where their dialect is from. For
     what it's worth ... I grew up in So. America, my grandparents were from
     Colorado and California, my parents had gone to school as teenagers in
     S. Carolina. Mom is very careful to use "correct" speech, so many
     pedantries are natural for me. Since I was 5 or so I've read
     constantly, nearly as much in English as in American authors. So what's
     my dialect?

     David Tuggy