[Ads-l] "Ever -ING . . . " instead of "Ever BASE . . .?"
Amy West
medievalist at W-STS.COM
Wed Apr 15 15:10:16 UTC 2026
Wondering if this is a variation . . .
I spotted this construction in today's Pearls Before Swine:
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2026/04/15
"Ever driving behind a car that doesn't go when the light turns green?"
I would have used "Ever drive . . . " instead of the "Ever driving . . .
". I don't see this as a phenomenon in the Yale Grammatical Diversity
Project. Is this a variation? It seems to be derived from an ellision of
"Are you . . . " ("Are you ever driving behind a car . . .") as opposed
to an ellision of "Do you . . . " for the "Ever drive . . .?" construction.
---Amy West
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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