Pedants' Corner

[Duncan Grimmond]

Mention of the “ historic present” tense brought me to a rant while listening to “In our time” this morning. Someone was using it but kept slipping in and out during consecutive sentences. I find it irritating and another example of Americanisation of English but then, one often hears an American saying “ If I would have known” , a mixture of past and future conditional tenses rather than the concise and explicit “ Had I known “. Still, the more words you use must confer intellectual superiority I suppose.
As an aside, “In our time “ must be among the best of any broadcasting by the BBC, highly recommended and informative, recommended and all 1500+ editions are available on demand.