“Have you proven your case?”
13 July 2011
This is a rare occasion that I beg to differ with Bryan Garner. Does anyone detect a usage error in the headline? According to Garner’s Modern American Usage, proven as a past participle is “ill-advised[ ]”:
“Proved”" has long been the preferred past participle of “prove.” But “"proven” often ill-advisedly appears ....
In American English, “proven,” like “stricken,” properly exists only as an adjective ....
“Proven” has survived as a past participle in legal usage in two phrases: first, in the phrase “innocent until proven guilty”; second, in the verdict “Not proven,” a jury answer no longer widely used except in Scots law....