4 ms·

Why not?

• tslater2006 3y ago
  Guessing they meant "I have never read" and not telling you to "never read"
  • jen729w 3y ago
    I find myself writing like this all the time. I omit the 'I', writing it like I say it. Then I read back my own words and invariably insert the 'I' as I realise it doesn't make sense.
    • stefncb 3y ago
      In this particular instance you'd have to disambiguate with "I have" or "I had", I alone would mean the wrong thing.
  • schoen 3y ago
    "Read" is a particularly unlucky verb for this because its past participle and imperative form are written the same way. Most other English verbs wouldn't have this particular ambiguity. "Never eaten a Carolina Reaper pepper, but I'm looking forward to my first time." "Never eat a Carolina Reaper pepper; you'll regret it." Wiktionary has a few dozen irregular verbs that could produce an ambiguity like this one: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:English_irregular_verbs_categories#Group_-_1_No_variation https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:English_irregular_ve... "Never miscast Magic Missile ..." "Never shut a door on someone's finger ..." "Never preset the thermostat to 90 °F before going on vacation..." "Never put an irregular verb in a position where readers might interpret it ambiguously..." ("... but there's a first time for everything, I guess" / "... you won't be happy with the results")
• bandrami 3y ago
  That's a participle with an elided subject and helper verb, not an imperative. In spoken English the difference in pronunciation makes it obvious.
  • bandrami 3y ago
    [dead]