Assume v. Presume

[Trev]

I have no idea where this "train station" kindergarten-speak came from).

Same place as 'bus station' came from

 

[Black Hole]

Well, it's always been "bus station" (in my lifetime), just not "train station". Don't spout about consistency to me - the last thing anyone can claim about English is consistency.

 

[EEPhil]

...the last thing anyone can claim about English is consistency.

English is consistently inconsistent.

 

[Trev]

Yeah, just like I used to be indecisive once but now I'm not sure.

 

[EEPhil]

Are you positive about that?

 

[Trev]

No. I've just got a feeling about it.

 

[Black Hole]

with baited breath

Oops!

Common error, due to language slippage: the word bated no longer being in common use and therefore not understood. From a similar root as abate (to cease or limit), bated means paused or held.

It's difficult to find a meaning in "baited breath".

 

[Trev]

Eat some garlic. You will then have it.

 

[EEPhil]

It's difficult to find a meaning in "baited breath".

Breath that lures an animal so that you can trap it?

Eat some garlic. You will then have it.

Breath that lures a French person?

 

[gomezz]

How do French vampires cope?

 

[Trev]

Same way as Transylvanian ones do with a wooden stake through the heart.

 

[MikeSh]

. I did think to myself as I was writing it that I didn't know if it was with or without the i, but couldn't be bothered to Google it. It was 50:50

 

[Black Hole]

Breath that lures an animal so that you can trap it?

Doesn't work! The breath would be the bait, not baited.

 

[Trev]

You bait a hook so that the hook is baited and it's then just the job for catching fish. Get out of that one.

 

[Black Hole]

"Was sat"

The verb to sit conjugates the same as to run, so "he was sat" is no more appropriate than "he was ran".

That is all.

 

[Trev]

Well, I just had a look around this 'was sat' thing. 'Sitting' is the present participle of 'sit', so is not 'was sitting' an oxymoron as 'was' implies the past which contradicts the present 'ing' implication?

 

[gomezz]

The kitten was sittin' on the mitten?

 

[prpr]

'Sitting' is the present participle of 'sit', so is not 'was sitting' an oxymoron as 'was' implies the past which contradicts the present 'ing' implication?

No.

 

[MikeSh]

"Was sat"

The verb to sit conjugates the same as to run, so "he was sat" is no more appropriate than "he was ran".

That is all.

It looks like one of those cases where common use has mixed two versions of similar things.
"I was sitting waiting for the bus" ... "I sat waiting for the bus"
The context of using those two would (in my mind anyway) be a little different, but by using sat instead of sitting in the first you reduce the number of syllables and letters which makes it quicker to speak or write (ie. tap out on a phone ).

 

[Trev]

In the first, the 'was' changes the meaning to the past tense, but the second is already in the past tense so does not need the 'was' qualifier.
Reducing the number of syllables does not make it right.

But both the above usages are in the past tense, so either is correct as far as I can see.