The Greenbelt

Language Liberalism Freethought Birds

Verbing Weirds Language only if you're expecting it to work in a simple way. This is a special case of the more general truth that Language Weirds.

Only when a republic's life is in danger should a man uphold his government when it is in the wrong. There is no other time.

The church says Earth is flat; but I have seen its shadow on the moon, and I have more confidence in a shadow than the church.

If we can't find Heaven, there are always bluejays.

Friday, July 01, 2011

Just which preposition do you suggest?

This may be the single stupidest thing the grammar checker has ever said.

For correct usage, you may need to reword your sentence by adding a preposition directly after the marked verb or by substituting a more appropriate verb. It is incorrect to put a direct object after the marked verb.

Certainly that is true for its examples (Erica listened all sides; the puppy disappeared the pancake), though 'disappear' does have a transitive use in political contexts.

But this sentence?

He hefted the package – it was light, of course – and then began unwrapping it, carefully, saving the paper and ribbon to reuse.

And the underlined verb?

Yeah. Unwrapping.

1 comment:

Barry Leiba8:51 AM, July 02, 2011
Not just in political contexts: if you put something down in my mother's house, she will disappear it before you can say "informal usage."

Anyway, it would seem that, as we say, there are still a few bugs in the system.
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