Getting it right
Howard's talking grammar and usage tonight. I like to play, too.
I was willing to overlook Circuit Judge Pamela Ann Rymer's statement in her dissent today in a death penalty case that a prisoner had decided to "forego" an appeal, when the better word to use was "forgo."
This puts me in mind of an old conundrum. What do we say that the prisoner did after he decided? "He forwent an appeal"?
I would rather consider it a rare verb without a past tense. The dictionary, however, indeed accepts "forwent".
He also mentions:
There, in relevant part, Judge Noonan writes that "Pearson had been sentenced to ten years imprisonment." I'm fairly certain that the noun "years" should also be possessive, so that the sentence would read "Pearson had been sentenced to ten years' imprisonment."
I disagree. What or who is doing the possessing? Years have a hold on us all, but they do not possess the imprisonment in this sentence.
The answer: There is an implied "of", as in "ten years of imprisonment". In the foregoing sentence, it is a foregone conclusion that the apostrophe should be forgone.
11:39:14 PM 
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