Getting
SIR,—Several correspondents have called in question my awards in Competition No. 174—a paragraph demanding the exclusive use of the verb to get." It seems that I was in error in thinking my elimination too thorough: my correspondents found it not thorough enough. They complain that the winning entries include such phrases as " browned off," " get cracking," and " get arrested," which, in their view, should have disqualified them. Perhaps I was too indul- gent, but I passed these phrases as adjectival rather than verbal. They seem to me to be on quite a different footing from the use of the verbs " to be" and " to have," which constituted the reason for disqualification in most cases. I must apologise for omitting "gets" from my list of permitted forms; but no one, of course, was disqualified for using this.—Yours
Previous page
