I missed that earlier, John (Scott’s post), but it’s clear that comprise is a
transitive verb which does not require the ‘of’. But the chap’s dislike of the
pluperfect is illogical. The pluperfect tense is necessary to give the next
layer back in time, but it is omitted in many US sentences, but then so is the
perfect tense. For instance, this form is more common, “Shut the door.” “I
just did.” This uses the past tense exclusively, which loses much of the power
of expression of English.
But then this sort of sentence,
"Since Adobe announced their movement to the Creative Cloud, many photographers
were hoping that Adobe Lightroom didn’t make the move.”
(http://www.thephoblographer.com/2015/04/21/review-adobe-lightroom-6-adobe-lightroom-cc/#more-72598)
just show how many writers have lost control of their tenses; it’s as if the
past tense is the only tense with which many are comfortable and are unwilling
to learn how to express themselves more appropriately.
I do despair; but not enough to read The Economist . . .
Chris
> On 2 May 15, at 13:59, John Hudson <OM4T@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> The lengthy list of readers' comments is equally as interesting as the
> article itself. List grammarian Chris B might opine upon whether there is a
> split infinitive in the previous sentence and, if so, to offer an improvement
> in the writing :-)
>
> jh
>
> On 5/1/2015 8:34 PM, Scott Gomez wrote:
>> http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2015/04/johnson-grammar?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/CompriseThis
>>
>> ...or should I have written: gramparians ... or perhaps grumparians? I
>> include myself, having been known by family as the "apostrophe police" for
>> some time.
>
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