A New York Times print headline:
"Plane vanishes carrying 228; cause puzzle"
That cause a puzzle with me. The subject is "Plane," so the verb after the semicolon should be singular, as is "vanishes."
Perhaps the headline writer was so traumatized by the terrible news that his or her grammar flew away, too.
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).
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
not that it's any better, but I think "cause puzzle" was meant as shorthand for "the cause is a puzzle".
I agree with Bill Simoni. I was just about to post the same thing. Not that it makes the sentence any better!
I agree that the headline writer might have meant "the cause is a puzzle," but it sure was confusing, don't you think?
Post a Comment