Friday 21 June 2013

The Sport of Queens

No, this is not the first time that a reigning monarch has won the Gold Cup.

This is the first time that a reigning monarch's horse has won the Gold Cup.

That distinction does seem to matter.
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2 comments:

  1. Miner's Boy21 June 2013 at 15:20

    This reminded me of my teacher of English during the 1950s. He was a stickler for precision in grammar and syntax and spelling. One of his ploys was to hold a quiz, out of the blue, every few weeks to sharpen everyone up. It would be one side of the form against the other side. I remember one occasion when one boy asked, 'What won the Derby in 1957?' The other boy responded, 'A horse'.
    'Quite right', said the teacher, 'the question should have been what was the name of the horse that won the Derby in 1957'.
    From what I can see of my children's and grandchildren's books they don't seem to teach this kind of precision any more.
    If I have made any grammatical mistakes then my excuse is that it is a very long time since I was at achool.

    p.s. Why has the word 'that' been eliminated from English when introducing subordinate clauses. This is noticeable especially among newsreaders and journalists.

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  2. David Lindsay22 June 2013 at 01:28

    You sound like my brother and me. We are both in our mid-thirties, and he is a teacher. Hope springs eternal.

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