Many years ago (far more than I care to remember), I was taught in English class that if a team lost to another team, it was beaten.
Now, it seems as if all I hear is “they got beat” or “He/she was beat by…”
In short, has the word beat replaced the word beaten in general word useage?
“They got beat” sounds like American slang (I speak English english, no offence intended). “They were beaten by. . .” sounds correct to me, but sports pages speak their own type of language. If enough people use words in a particular manner for long enough then they will become be recognised as correct, and in a colloquial case it is already correct, but it is grammatically incorrect right now.
I’m with you guys! “We got beat” makes me cringe. Even though I expected some decorum in my classroom, I had rather have heard, “We got our asses kicked.”
Just this week I read the words of a minister who claimed that stores were being brow beat into saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” (Double cringing and gnashing of teeth)
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