Dear Grammarians,

 

In the first twenty-one pages of "The Audacity of Hope", by Barack Obama, c.2006, the word "had" appears 68 times.

 

Of the total, 16 are used correctly as the past tense of the verb "to have" (11), or in the past perfect (2), or in the subjunctive (2).

 

Of the 52 in error, 5 use "had been"' instead of "was" or "were", 13 insert the word 'had' in front of the wrong form of an irregular verb, and 34 insert the word "had" in front of a past tense verb.

 

Before you decide to kill the messenger, let me remind you that they are all there in black and white. They await the scrutiny of doubters.  

 

When you are satisfied, tell me ( a ) what difference does it make? and ( b ), assuming you think it makes a difference, what can be done about it?

 

The misuse of the past perfect is widespread. Obama's error rate of 76% puts him about the middle of the range in the 50 texts I have examined, where error rates run from 48% (John Coetzee) to 100 % (Henry Kissinger, believe it or not).

 

You are welcome to see the numbers on some of the others. It was tedious to collect but is not particularly tedious to look at and consider.

 

.brad.18feb08.

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