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So I was reading a story called 'Desiree's Baby' and I saw this sentence appear, when one character (Desiree) was telling her mother that her husband was so happy upon the birth of her child, that he hadn't punished any of his servants since then.

"He hasn't punished one of them— not one of them— since baby is born,"

This sentence sounds very wrong to my mind. I think it should be:

"He hasn't punished one of them— not one of them— since the baby was born,"

So I guess what I'm really asking is:

  1. Is that sentence grammatically correct?
  2. If not, why not? (Which grammatical rule states that such sentences are not correct?)
  3. Is my correction to the sentence correct?
  4. If not, what is the correct way to say this?
Unix Doughnut
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    I believe Désirée comes from a French-speaking background in the story, so maybe her speech patterns are meant to represent French usage (est né)? – Kate Bunting Jun 12 '22 at 07:52
  • @Chenmunka not fully. is it 'since baby is born' or 'since baby was born'? – Unix Doughnut Jun 12 '22 at 09:43
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    It's useful to give some information about the story itself. Wikipedia has "Désirée's Baby is an 1893 short story by the American writer Kate Chopin. It is about miscegenation in Creole Louisiana during the antebellum period." The story was written in 1893 and set between 1832-1860. – Andrew Leach Jun 12 '22 at 10:03
  • English formerly used to be for some perfect forms (especially intransitive verbs), and it was more common in some regions, so it might have persisted in historic dialects, although the French influence is likely. – Stuart F Jun 12 '22 at 10:08

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