The lurker post

oooh a guy I work with just had a baby and his wife had gestational diabetes...they weren't going to induce early (they were going to induce on the due date) but near the end the little guy started to grow so fast that they induced 4 days early. He's a healthy, happy baby and I wish the same for you :)
 
Ah, but wouldn't he therefore have a baby? Perfect tense?

'Had' is past perfect tense, which is fine when used to imply giving birth to a child, since that happened in the past and is over.

But, if he still has the baby, then it wouldn't be past perfect (or I suppose it might be called pluperfect, don't really remember) tense, so you can't say "he had a baby" unless you're either referring to him giving birth to a baby (as if you could give birth to anything else), or if you're referring to him having a baby at one point in time but no longer having it, i.e. baby turns 18 and moves out, although I figure that as long as you still have contact with the child, you would still 'have' him or her.
 
Well... this turned into a persnickity hair-splitter all of a sudden.

What the Nixter should have said was: 'How about you past perfectly cram a basket of walnuts right up your ass. Then we can see how tense you are.'
 
unclehobart said:
What the Nixter should have said was: 'How about you past perfectly cram a basket of walnuts right up your ass. Then we can see how tense you are.'
Click to expand...

Why? Is that the type of thing Canodians typically do with their free time?

"I'm just going to pop out for lunch and shove this basket of walnuts right up my ass."

Maybe they'd shouve it instead, hmm?

:lol:
 
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