http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=964813

Personally, I don't get it either - but stood seems to be placement and standing seems to be an actual action; not sure.

Last edited by saturnR (February 10, 2013 2:06 am)

A character might say "He was stood.". TBH as a Londoner I'd place it as kind of cockney. The cabbie in SiP would have said it. So its perfectly appropriate in dialogue.

In not-dialogue, no, I'd  personally say, "he was standing" or "he stood.".

But its not an enormous thing. I think "He was stood" errs very slightly on the side of over-colloquial and confessional, and I prefer plain writing for myself though I'm not saying such a style can't work in skilled hands. It wouldn't leap out at me as wrong though and I can think of sentances in which it would be fine. It kind of elevates the action, it implies something statuesque about the person by using the passive voice to describe their actions. When Sherlock is standing on the rooftops in the unaired pilot "He was stood on the rooftops =>insert purple adjectives" could be acceptable. Its not how I'd write but it creates an effect. "He was stood talking to Lestrade, trying to decide whether to order chips or sausages, eggs and beans, when  => insert event,", could also be right. Its about context.

Like I say I would not use it except for bathotic effect but that's stylistic. I wouldn't see it as wrong per se.

I think its probably a colloquialised form of the pluperfect, if that helps.

hth. 

Last edited by beekeeper (April 22, 2013 8:37 am)