I heard this on Fox26 local news yesterday morning.
Problem:
The verb “went” is inappropriate here.
Explanation:
Mixing up “came” and “went” is a common English blunder.
- The verb “to come” implies that someone or something is approaching the speaker or writer.
- The verb “to go” implies that someone or something is moving away from the speaker or writer.
The TV anchor on Houston’s Fox26 news was acting as a journalist who was reporting what a couple said.
In this case, the journalist indirectly quoted what the couple said.
Assuming that a journalist should not impose bad grammar on anyone, especially in an indirect quotation, we can infer that the direct quotation would be this grammatically correct form:
- “… when,” the couple said, “a guy came up to us …”
In contrast, here is the grammatically incorrect form of a direct quotation:
- “… when,” the couple said, “a guy went up to us …”
The reason that changing “came” to “went” would make the direct quotation grammatically incorrect is that the two people are recounting their experience at the time of the approach by “a guy”, and at the time of the approach — from their perspective of being in the location that the guy was approaching — the guy “came” to them, not “went” to them.
Converting the grammatically correct form of the direct quotation back to the indirect quotation, we get the solution.
Solution:
“… when the couple said a guy came up to them …”