Passed and Past?

[KatyMac]

I am never quite sure on these 2

I ride passed parked cars but when I am stood at traffic lights cars whizz past me?

Is that right? and if so why/why not?

Yes, Yorkshire is what I was thinking of. You can't wander around Yorkshire telling everyone they're wrong!

If you're using the past progressive tense, for example "yesterday I was sitting by a lake" you either need to give a specific time, or another action that happened in the past simple tense.

"yesterday at 18:00 I was sitting by a lake" or "yesterday I was sitting by a lake when I saw the boy."

Yes, Yorkshire is what I was thinking of. You can't wander around Yorkshire telling everyone they're wrong!

I'm also from Yorkshire, but it's still wrong

"I was sat" is incorrect in literary, formal or academic writing (or, arguably, in any instance). Yes, a lot of people say it (and not only in Yorkshire), but that doesn't make it any more correct than "I were", "they was", "I done it", "he brung" or any of the numerous other erroneous verb conjugations which are frequently and widely used regionally and nationally.

No one is proposing some sort of campaign from York to Pontefract, but this is a thread called Pedants' Corner.

I'm also from Yorkshire, but it's still wrong 

I'm still not going to be the one to bring it up

, "he brung"

I hear that in Brummie. Very evocative, these grammatical eccentricities

I'm still not going to be the one to bring it up 
I don't blame you

Yes, UnaCorda, this is Pedants' Corner, so let's be precise. As you say it's incorrect in formal / written English, but that doesn't mean it's incorrect in every dialect of English. If native speakers of a variety of English use it grammatically and consistently, then it's not incorrect in that variety. So, "I done it" might be incorrect in the English you speak, but it's grammatical in other dialects.

A construction that always sounds odd to my ear is expressions such as "it needs washed" (instead of "it needs to be washed"), but I understand that if you are Scottish or from parts of the US it sounds perfectly fine - different dialects, different grammatical constructions. languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3422

I'm a Scouser albeit a posh one!

& more of a mathematician than a linguist - I'm just glad I don't have to write for my living

'I was sat on the bus' would mean (if anything) that someone picked you up and plonked you down on the bus. 'I sat on the bus', by contrast, would mean that you got on the bus and sat down yourself ('sat' = perfect tense of 'to sit'). The action was then completed ('I got on the bus, and I sat down').

'I was sitting on the bus' takes this a step further. It indicates that you chose to get on the bus, and then you sat down - and then you continued to sit there. So whatever you are recounting happened while you were still in the process of sitting there ('I was sitting on the bus when my toddler projectile vomited all over another lady's bag of root vegetables'. That kind of thing). This is different from 'I sat down on the bus. Then my toddler projectile vomited all over another lady's shopping.' The latter involves two completed events.

'I was sat' makes no grammatical sense at all.

'I was stood', 'I stood', and 'I was sitting' work in the same way.

I am Yorkshire girl, btw. We don't all speak ungrammatically up here.

"it needs washed" (instead of "it needs to be washed")

I haven’t heard this, only “it needs to be washed” or “it needs washing”

😬

A few of us from Yorkshire!

Wayne Rooney ran, passed the ball and fell over in the mud. Plucky!

I ran past the ball and fell over in the mud. Whoops!

Have I missed a comma out?

Looks fine to me Outwiththeout!

Thank you missmouse!

I didn't put an Oxford comma before the and in the first sentence. But I didn't go to Oxford. Does that make it okay?

I would put one, @OutwiththeOutCrowd, but I think you can get away without it.

You don't need a comma as well as the 'and' in that sentence.