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Thursday, March 5, 2009

Criminal Sentences 180 and 181: Two of a Kind

Today we have a double dose of the same mistake: one courtesy of Starbucks and the other courtesy of the local paper.

So, Starbucks: Love ya but how is it possible for each of your stores to have one of these signs?

"Purchase a pound of coffee and write a message on the bag. We'll do the rest to ensure our troops gets a special treat from you."

And now for the start of a sad newspaper article about two people who died in a fire:

"The preventable deaths of a father and daughter in a Mesa house fire not only illustrates the importance of smoke alarms, but also a cultural divide that could result in needless loss of life, a relative said Wednesday."

So, have you found the errors? Hint: subject-verb agreement.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I also noticed a missing word in the newspaper quotation: "needless of life"--needless what?

The Sentence Sleuth said...

Thanks for pointing out my typo. I hate it when I'm not perfect.

Anonymous said...

should the first sentence read "... ensure our troops get a special ..."?

and the second sentence, "... not only illustrate the importance of smoke alarms..."

The Sentence Sleuth said...

Yes!