Monday, June 23, 2008

Criminal Sentence 42: Hire More Grammarians, Not Table Cleaners

From a sign at the IKEA restaurant. The rest of the sign indicated that customers should bus their own trays.

"By taking your tray to the tray station, we can continue to keep prices low."

This sentence contains an amusing misplaced modifier. It says the exact opposite of what's intended. IKEA wants "you" to take your tray away, not "we," as stated here.

How about this, IKEA:

"If you take your tray to the tray station, we can continue to keep prices low."

Thanks for the Swedish meatballs, and the memories.
at

2 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 16, 2008 at 1:51 PM

    How about "By taking your tray to the tray station, you are helping us continue to keep prices low."? The rhetorical gist here is that people are doing this already, so you will too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Sentence SleuthSeptember 16, 2008 at 2:08 PM

    Your suggestion is perfect since the "you" in the sentence is "taking the tray to the tray station."

    ReplyDelete

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