Perfectly Simple

Dear Client

Thank you for your prompt email; you must have had a lot of time on your hands to have replied me within the hour. I wish all my clients were as efficient as you are.

In your email, you had wanted to make some grammatical changes to the press release I had written for you. Before we get to that, I would like to express my utmost displeasure with having to write your product's press release for you. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I have always assumed that organisations write their own press releases and pass them on to magazines to have them published. After all, they should know their own products more than anyone else. But, no matter, maybe the times have changed, as volatile as this industry is. I have done my research and have written, in my humble opinion, an extremely exaggerated article on your product. I probably know more about your company than you do now.

Now on to the main subject. Instead of putting your MBA to good use, my dear Marketing Manager, you have chosen to correct my "grammer". I now have the most unfortunate task of having to explain to you why I had used the term "has become" instead of your preferred "has became".

It is called the Present Perfect. It expresses an action that is still ongoing, or that had stopped recently, but has an influence on the present. It places emphasis on the result. For Present Perfect Tense, we use:

[HAS/HAVE] + [PAST PARTICIPLE].
For example, "You [have] [gotten] on my nerves."

The problem, for your case, lies in the word "become". Because it is an irregular verb, its Past Participle is the same as its Base Form, which is, "become". So,

become became become

Hence, the sentence "Through the years, the brand XXX has became synonymous with quality" is grammatically wrong. I was right. If you still disagree with my explanation, I invite you to find evidence that proves your stand. Your failing to do so will simply make you look like a dullard to your boss, of whom I've cc-ed this email to. I may not claim to have a perfect command of the English Language, but I know enough to have my job and have enough clout to say, "You Suck."

Thank you for your time, and I sure am looking forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely

p/s The plural form of the word "Personnel" is still "Personnel".