[ADS-L] Merely a matter of tas te?

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

I found 381,000 Google hits for "All they did was" and 35,000 for "All
they've done is".

At least when I was a teen-ager, I'dprobably have said, "Alls they've done is
drive me crazy." (There are a few Google hits for that, too.)

In a message dated 8/22/06 3:27:39 PM, hwgray at GMAIL.COM writes:


> The plaintiffs list what they'e done for the benefit of the defendant.
> The defendant replies:
>
> "All they've done is drive me crazy."
>
> In the context in which this was spoken, I would have expected:
>
> "_The only thing they've done_ is drive me crazy."
>
> Nevertheless, what was actually said somehow seems to verge upon
> "correct" for me.
>
> --Wilson
>
> There's only one thing that money can't buy and that's poverty.
>
> --Jack Benny
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org