To shout “No! The Queen was not sat alone!”

[Saddlesore]

I have just been reading some of the online coverage of Prince Philip’s funeral, from some pretty blue-chip websites, and some of them say “The Queen was sat alone...” This is like nails down a blackboard for me (along with “I was stood...”). Surely the Queen was sitting, or was seated?
Of course, there’s an outside chance that the writer made a spelling error and meant to say “The Queen was sad...” - but that goes without saying.

I agree, I haven’t heard this particular example but I HATE the use of the passive voice here...

Similarly stood and even ‘laid’

@HarrietHardy

I'm getting so fed up with all this podiatry.

Huh?

@Blue4YOU that’s unlikely, but the fact is many of the ‘proper’ words/grammar of today was wrong initially. Language DOES evolve and any linguist worth their degree will tell you being prescriptive as a linguist is just making your own life harder.
I’m as irritated as anyone by things like literally being misused completely...but language will evolve whatever we do.

I'm getting so fed up with all this podiatry.

Brilliant

Agree with Blue that it should be knob.

Mm is it grammatically incorrect? Could someone please explain, my grammar is generally good but clearly missing something.

PastMyBestBeforeDate

grammarist.com/homophones/knob-vs-nob/

@spikyplants2021

"Sat" is the past tense: "he sat" or past participle: "he was sat (upon) by (someone). The imperfect tense is "he was sitting/seated".
You cannot change "he was laughing" to "he was laughed" either. 'He was laughed at' is another thing altogether. "He was seated" or "he was sitting" are standard English, "he was sat" is dialect. It is ungrammatical.

Collins dictionary also agrees with me.

Nob = nobility = ‘head’ = penis

You need to get a grip

It's talking past tense is it not?
It could have done without the 'was' so that it read 'the Queen sat alone' or maybe it was a typo error where they were going to put 'the Queen was sitting alone' but changed it to 'sat' and forgot to remove the 'was'?

StormzyinaTCup
It could have done without the 'was'

Yep,that's pretty much the point of the thread!

Cant get excited about it though and I've certainly used 'knob'' not 'nob' in the past so I've learnt something new there. I will, however, continue to type 'knob'' as and when required (it may be wrong but I'm going for personal preference on this one!).

Oops missed an apostrophe!!

Nob = shortened or slang term for nobility , as in 'nob hill', the place where the rich folk hang out, or head, e.g. a term in the game of cribbage 'one for his nob' i.e. an extra point for a picture card with a male head on it.
Knob -- door knob, a protrusion or a penis. See also knobhead. (synonym for dickhead)
It makes much more sense to say knob for penis than nob when the latter is just a short form of nobility. Collins is wrong. The Cambridge English dictionary has it correctly. Ex (chief) subeditor here.

Yeah knob means cock.

Cock.

Anybody else thinking of Was Not Was rn? Open the door get on the floor, Everybody walk the dinosaur etc

Ooh Collins v Cambridge.
To 'nob' or not to 'knob'? that is the question
I'm going with Tartyflette and the Cambridge definitions.

Anybody else thinking of Was Not Was rn? Open the door get on the floor, Everybody walk the dinosaur etc

I wasn't but I am now 😁

@anyoldtime

I absolutely hate the way language has to be dumbed down. Someone “was sat”, “it’s needed doing”, “it’s needing done” and so on. Ffs, it’s not that difficult.

I’m not from the UK and always thought itt must be a regional way of speaking? It is odd as it’s the ...., well English language.

Those are all regional ways of speaking-"was sat" is the North of England, "it's needing done" Scottish.

It is colloquial speech, nothing wrong with it at all. It would be incorrect to use it in a very formal speech (a legal summing-up, for example, or an academic lecture) or in a formal piece of writing.

My MIL constantly "corrects" people who use such phrases in conversation. yes, she is a pedant. And it is rude. You get the strong impression she's not at all interested in what people are saying, only in pointing out (what she considers to be) mistakes.

@GreenTeaPingPong

Before all the papers went online, they used to pay highly-skilled sub-editors who would never have let this through. Now news websites are riddled with grammatical errors and even blatantly obvious typos, but they don't care, as long as they keep churning out the content and getting the clicks.

This. It’s so noticeable.

"was sat" means someone sat her there. The person in charge of the seating plan did it.

The butler did it!

I like these threads bemoaning "was sat" because it's one objectionable (to some) use that can't be blamed on Americans. (There's another thread blaming us for misuse in the UK of the title Queen of England.)

I think people are giving OP a hard time. She isn't correcting an individual person who was joining in an online discussion. She is correcting a journalist who has published an article. I think that's completely legitimate.

I'm with you OP, drives me mad! Mind you, I'm a professional editor. And tbh, I find the sneery responses to this sort of thing oddly uplifting, because they remind me why my job exists in the first place.