‘Redding up’ grammar her thing
Pittsburgh’s colloquialisms have their charms.
I happen to like and sometimes use “jagoff”; I don’t “tidy” but “redd up” a room.
And then there’s the way I grew up pronouncing Washington. Where I came from we said “Wooshington.” I finally got rid of that when I went three states away to college.
But there’s another way Pittsburghers speak and write that is so irritating that it’s caused me to back away from local television news and, increasingly, social media.
It’s the use of “seen” in place of “saw.”
We’ve heard it a million times from witnesses on the evening news: “We seen the storm rolling in over the hill.” That grammar error has become the standard, as predictable as that same witness saying the storm sounded like a freight train.
This is the stuff of fourth-grade English class. It is never correct to use “seen” by itself as a past-tense verb (and by high school you learn about passive voice and participle form, but we won’t wander into that here).
“Seen” just doesn’t sound right — it’s jarring and repellant, but maybe that’s just the way I was raised.
I grew up with a mother who corrected our grammar constantly, starting very young when she removed “ain’t” from our vocabularies, a task made easier when she banned the Three Stooges show from the house. Eventually we went off to school and brought home little bits of incorrect pronouns and subject-verb discord. I still can picture it.
“I don’t have no socks,” I would say.
“I don’t have any …” she would say.
“Me and Karen are going for …” I would say.
“Karen and …” she would interrupt, and I would correct myself.
Eventually her corrections became more precise:
“Her and I are going …” I would begin.
“She and …” she would correct.
It can be said that I’m a pedantic snob; even the most erudite educators have argued that the most important thing is personal expression, no matter how inaccurate the grammar. We all have our mental chew toys, the things that bother us more than they do others, and this one is mine. None of my friends had grammar-correcting mothers; they are irritated by mistakes that don’t bother me.
Where I may be proficient at proper English, I fail at math, geographic direction, and basic household upkeep. The handyman who came to fix the drywall around a toilet paper holder used “seen” improperly, but he noted that I’d tried to glue the holder back on – and probably mocked me about that later. Also, I rely on my phone calculator more than any adult should. Others have basic skills that I lack.
I’m aware of the danger of writing about this, knowing that my harangue may not be pristine. When I first started this column almost 30 years ago, a kind editor pointed out that I wrote “payed” instead of “paid.” I was mortified. I had a blank spot; you don’t know what you don’t know.
Those who say “seen” instead of “saw” likely have a blank spot, having grown up around people who did the same. One might wonder why 12 years of school didn’t correct course, but the mistake is everywhere around here.
This column is my one public objection to it. I don’t correct grammar errors when I see them on social media. And I would never correct anyone in person.
Except my own children. I nagged them about grammar when they were growing up.
Like my mother.