'Was stood'

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Reading news reports of the terrible events in Liverpool, I can't help but notice multiple uses of, 'was stood', instead of 'was standing'.

This isn't the average member of the public, in shock, being quoted. It's BBC journalists explaining Steve Rotherham was in the vicinity, or they saw things for themselves on the scene.

It's their job to report correctly and yet they don't routinely write accurately.

That is correct usage.
It is a variant that is the normal usage in the East Midlands and North. Probably elsewhere too.
With so many southerners having gone to university in those areas it has become prevalent in the South also.

I think this is distasteful in light of what has happened and the news reports that you are referring to. There's time to be a pedant but this really is not it.

I often say that myself... I looked it up, some say it is a dialectical form but I thought this explanation was reasonable:
"This is a perfectly acceptable construction when used as a reflexive verb with the action preposition and reflexive pronoun implicit.

I stood myself >>
I was stood by myself* >>
I was stood

*In the sense ‘I stood me’ - ‘Myself stood me' "

It's not standard English to say you were sang, swam, danced, shouted, or stood. You either stood there or you were standing there.

Perhaps officers are still standing there. They weren't stood or sat.

Myself stood me makes absolutely no sense at all.

It's prevalent in lots of reporting, but particularly noticeable based on the focus on positions. This isn't about the crime, it's about the national media and the quality of writing.

I know immediately when someone writes or states "I was sat there" or "I was stood there" that the person is English. I can't say if it is grammatically correct or not as I'm not linguist, but most people in other English speaking countries would say "I was sitting there" or "I was standing there". In my experience....

This is one of my DH’s pet peeves as his DM (grammar school teacher 50 years ago) used to drum it into him. So I agree with you.

Saying that, I’m also not sure you needed to link it to what’s happened in Liverpool. You could have just said you’d noticed it recently, even from professional journalists?

It's not correct unless someone actually put you there!

No one should EVER say "I was stood by myself"

I'm linking the grammar issue to the news story because that's what I was reading, as well as the tens of thousands of other people apparently still viewing the page.

It's high profile, obviously emotive, and full of repeated non-standard language usage, when it should be a trusted source.

I obviously don't think it's more important than the people involved, but it does say something generally about the calibre of writers involving themselves for us to rely on.These mistakes are from the people chosen to report for the BBC on this (not people speaking in dialect off the cuff).

Exactly. Just like a toddler might be 'sat' in their high chair or in front of the TV, by someone who lifts them up and puts them down.

BBC's younger presenters make this mistake with increasing frequency.

I stood watching the parade for hours.

I was standing in a side street when the tragedy occurred.

I was stood is never correct. It's a conflation of the past perfect and past imperfect tenses.

I’ve seen
“was sat” written in novels recently.

I hate it.

'Myself stood me' makes me feel quite poorly.

I hate it. Drives me mad. It doesn’t read or sound right to me. I’ve read that both (‘I was standing’ and ‘I was stood’ ) are correct and interchangeable grammatically, but I don’t accept it!

How about 'I was stood standing '?!

MP being interviewed on TV this morning - "While I've been stood here......."

Overheard recently, "We was sat at the back..."

The first two words are bad enough.🙄

It's clearly everywhere!

Do they think it's correct (because to sit or stand implies being still, so can't be actively happening - maybe?) or do they think the alternative is too formal and they need to tone it down?

Who stood or sat these people there?

I think that if you imagine that pedantry can be switched on and off as the (very mild in this case) inappropriateness of a situation dictates, then you haven't really understood the nature of being a pedant. Think of it as an affliction and find some sympathy in your stony, cold heart for all of us who suffer bravely through. 😉

When journalists are reporting verbatim, they report exactly what was said. Likewise if people are interviewed on camera.

But sometimes it's their own insightful comments.

Ooh it makes me cringe. I’m an ex-teacher and the amount of actual qualified adults who I’ve heard say to children, ‘Let’s see who’s sat nicely’… hurts my ears!