Should Have Went

  All my life I've loved the English language. I listen to people talk, and sometimes the way they say things whets my curiosity. Occasionally it's possible to find a reason or at least formulate a hypothesis about  expressions speakers insist on using.

Went

Went is a strong, unsociable word. It has no friends because it doesn’t need any. When you try to get helpers such as has, had, and have to come too close for a visit, went will do all in his power to make you sound uneducated. Went is mean that way.

For example, if you say, “We should have went,” the people listening to you may pretend not to notice, but many listeners will hear what you say and think you are somehow deficient.

Don’t say any of the following. Don’t use them in any social groups. Don’t allow the sound of them to pass through your brainwaves.

I have went.

I had went.

You have went.

You had went.

He has went.

She has went.

It has went.

We could have went.

Remember not to use an auxiliary (helping) verb with went, even if the people listening to you say this. If went could be an athlete, it could not play football. Instead, it would be a cross-country runner.

Went is the past tense of go. Past tense verbs do not, do not like to, refuse, cannot take helpers.

The form of go that requires helping verbs is gone.

I had gone.

You have gone.

You had gone.

He has gone.

She has gone.

It has gone.

We could have gone.

Why are we talking about went to this extent? Using went correctly is important.

Back in 1853, Alexander Crombie stated in The Etymology and Syntax of the English Language that “I had went” was “an egregious solecism.” A solecism is an ungrammatical combination of words or a blunder, or it could mean poor manners. Egregious means especially bad or flagrant. Many rules of the nineteenth century are merely memories, but in the early twenty-first century, “I had went” is still considered unacceptable usage.

Practice! Develop the habit of saying gone instead of went with auxiliary (helping) verbs. Drill. Make up sentences using gone instead of went with have, has, or had. Say them until your brain believes you are right.

Some more thoughts about went. If it’s so terrible to say “have went,” why do we say it? The obvious reason is that we hear other people. Now, let’s move to a conjecture that might explain this “egregious solecism.” This information is not to excuse the expression; it’s my theory about how it came about.

We have many ways in our language to say “go.” In the Anglo Saxon era (fifth to twelfth centuries), two popular words meaning to travel from one place to another were go and wend. The past participle form (the one that requires a helper) of go, was similar to our word gone. They had a word for the past tense of go (the one that stood alone). So far, I have found two spellings of it—iolde and eolde. At some time around 1400, this word disappeared. Since language is a gradual practice, this disappearance didn’t happen overnight, but we don’t have the word now.

We do, however, still have the word wend with its past tense and past participle, wended. It implies traveling with a twisting motion. Wend is not a popular word, but its cousins, wind and vent, are common. Wend’s roots extend to Latin origins.

Around 1400 when eolde disappeared, Middle English speakers replaced it with went, the ancient past form of  a word for go. Is it any wonder that “have went” sounds normal to our ears? It’s somewhere embedded in our brains. Went must have been similar to a past participle in days gone by.

But today, we are supposed to say “have gone.” Don’t forget to practice.