Fudge

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 99229

Potioncat wrote:
In American English a headline that read "Fudge Ran Out of Town"
would mean that the townspeople ran him out, or more likely here, he
was forced out of office.
  
Dave responded:
Not to quibble (OK, yes, it is, but....) but if he were forced out of
office and the Ministry (and town) wouldn't the headline be "Fudge
Run Out of Town"?  Of course, "Fudge Ran Out of Town" could go either
way (on a rail, or uder his own steam). <snip>
 

 
Carol adds:
This is getting dangerously off-topic and I don't want to annoy the
List Elves, but I have to step in. "Fudge Ran Out of Town" probably
would not be a headline in any paper. If Fudge ran away on his own
power, the paper would use the present tense, "runs." "Run" in a
headline implies the passive voice, which would appear (again written
newspaper-style, in present tense), as "Fudge (Is) Run Out of Town." 
"Fudge (Is) Ran Out of Town" is ungrammatical regardless of which side
of the Atlantic you're on. 
 
Fortunately the headline actually reads, "Fudge Chased From Office,"
so there's no ambiguity. We know, despite the missing "is," that the
headline is in the passive voice and Fudge is on the receiving end of
the action. IOW, he's being chased, not doing the chasing. (Whether we
can trust the Quibbler or not is another matter, but I've already
dealt with that in another post.)
 
Carol, who promises to stop talking like an (ex-) English teacher now