Ask Me a Question

If you have a writing, grammar, style or punctuation question, send an e-mail message to curiouscase at sign hotmail dot com.

Add Your Own Criminal Sentence!

If you find a particularly terrible sentence somewhere, post it for all to see (go here and put it in the Comments section).

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Criminal Sentence 149: Naked Ill Will

From a Web site:

“Jennifer Aniston made headlines the world over last November, when she finally broke her silence about ex-husband Brad Pitt's ladylove, Angelina Jolie. But Brad bares no ill will."

What does he not bare? (To bare, in this case, means to reveal, as in "to bare his teeth.")

Oh, he bears no ill will. Good for him, but shame on the writer of this sentence.

3 comments:

Fake Name said...

I think the writer means that Brad is unwilling to reveal any ill will. It's a nice play on words.

Anonymous said...

Keep on posting such stories. I love to read blogs like that. Just add some pics :)
AngreeDealer

The Sentence Sleuth said...

I'll try to add pictures. I'm not sure, though, if I'm allowed to take photos of book pages or Web site screens because of the copyright issue. Anyone know?