Bad Grammar on Sky News
On my recent holiday in Cyprus I found myself watching Sky News quite a bit. I'm not a regular viewer of this station normally, but it was one of the few English language channels available on the TV in our hotel room.
While it was nice to have a lifeline to what was going on in the world over Christmas, one thing that quite surprised me was the number of grammatical errors made by Sky's presenters. Here's just one example I jotted down:
"The future of democratic elections hang in the balance..."
The story in question concerned the appalling assassination of Benazir Bhutto, and in no way do I wish to trivialise this. But hearing the presenter mangle the sentence in this way did succeed in distracting me from the story itself.
Of course, 'hang' in this sentence should be 'hangs'. The subject of the sentence is 'the future'. This is a singular noun and therefore requires a singular verb.
What seems to have happened is that the presenter - or whoever wrote his script - was distracted by the plural noun 'elections' directly preceding the verb, and therefore assumed that a plural verb was needed. 'Elections' is NOT the subject of the sentence, however. It is simply part of the adjectival phrase 'of democratic elections'. This is therefore an example of faulty subject-verb agreement.
I might excuse this if it was an isolated mistake, but in fact it was one of a number of such errors I heard. In addition, because Sky News is a rolling news channel, stories get repeated every twenty minutes or so. I waited hopefully for someone to have a word in the presenter's ear and get him to correct the mistake, but sad to say it didn't happen while I was viewing!
Anyway, I don't suppose the bosses at Sky News will lose too much sleep over this, but I'm afraid it diminished their channel's authority in my eyes. I was left with the feeling that if their presenters couldn't get their basic grammar right, how much faith could I have in their reporting of the facts? Perhaps it's time Sky News appointed a grammar czar? In the meantime, I've gone back to BBC News - where I've never heard this particular error committed at least - with some relief!
* Just in case you're interested, there is a whole module on subject-verb agreement in my brand new course Essential English for Authors.
While it was nice to have a lifeline to what was going on in the world over Christmas, one thing that quite surprised me was the number of grammatical errors made by Sky's presenters. Here's just one example I jotted down:
"The future of democratic elections hang in the balance..."
The story in question concerned the appalling assassination of Benazir Bhutto, and in no way do I wish to trivialise this. But hearing the presenter mangle the sentence in this way did succeed in distracting me from the story itself.
Of course, 'hang' in this sentence should be 'hangs'. The subject of the sentence is 'the future'. This is a singular noun and therefore requires a singular verb.
What seems to have happened is that the presenter - or whoever wrote his script - was distracted by the plural noun 'elections' directly preceding the verb, and therefore assumed that a plural verb was needed. 'Elections' is NOT the subject of the sentence, however. It is simply part of the adjectival phrase 'of democratic elections'. This is therefore an example of faulty subject-verb agreement.
I might excuse this if it was an isolated mistake, but in fact it was one of a number of such errors I heard. In addition, because Sky News is a rolling news channel, stories get repeated every twenty minutes or so. I waited hopefully for someone to have a word in the presenter's ear and get him to correct the mistake, but sad to say it didn't happen while I was viewing!
Anyway, I don't suppose the bosses at Sky News will lose too much sleep over this, but I'm afraid it diminished their channel's authority in my eyes. I was left with the feeling that if their presenters couldn't get their basic grammar right, how much faith could I have in their reporting of the facts? Perhaps it's time Sky News appointed a grammar czar? In the meantime, I've gone back to BBC News - where I've never heard this particular error committed at least - with some relief!
* Just in case you're interested, there is a whole module on subject-verb agreement in my brand new course Essential English for Authors.
Nick at 3:03 AM 
4 Comments:
In the sentence you wrote: "I might excuse this 'if it was' an isolated mistake, but in fact it..."
Shouln't that be 'if it were'
Thanks for your comment. "If it were" would, of course, be the subjunctive, and traditionally this is used instead of the indicative mood to indicate a condition that is clearly contrary to the facts: "If I were president of the USA...", "If the Moon were made of green cheese...", and so on.
In my post I wrote, "I might excuse this if it was an isolated mistake". In my view this doesn't fit the definition above. It is perfectly possible that it could have been an isolated mistake. This is therefore a straightforward conditional clause, so the indicative rather than the subjunctive is correct. There is a useful discussion of this point at the excellent Dr. Grammar website.
That aside, however, I think we have to accept that in modern English, use of the subjunctive is generally regarded as optional. US English is a little stricter about this than British English, but even so anyone insisting on the use of the subjunctive nowadays - especially in an informal medium such as a blog - might be regarded as a little pedantic.
The American Heritage Book of English Usage has a good article about the subjunctive in modern English, which states, 'In practice, of course, many people ignore the rules. In fact, over the last 200 years even well-respected writers have tended to use the indicative was where the traditional rule would require the subjunctive were. A usage such as If I was the only boy in the world may break the rules, but it sounds perfectly natural.'
So, overall, I am happy that my use of the indicative rather than the subjunctive in the blog post was correct. Interesting point, though. Thanks for raising it!
Dear Nick. I think your reaction is a bit extreme, and I wonder how you get through the day without getting constantly upset by incorrect grammar. Presumably, you didn't vote for Tony Blair? He always dropped his Ts. I do hope I am writing this response correctly. Keep the flag flying for good English! And chill out!( did the last sentence deliberately.Lol) David Clarke
Thanks, David. Sorry if you felt my reply was extreme. I was simply trying to answer your question with the thoroughness I thought it deserved. It is, as I said in my answer, a very interesting point you raised. But I'm more than happy to chill out now!
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home