Err...or hmmm?

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Sat May 16, 2009 2:54 am

When are they going to go through the former PM Tony Blair and that awful wife of his claims?

Anything wrong with that? (I mean the language, not the viewpoint). The quote isn't from anywhere you'd particularly want or need to check by, by the way!

Anyway, if that didn't tickle your fancy, here are some things (in the 'Could you rephrase that?' box) that really do need a bit more work:
http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chamber ... title=21st

woodcutter · Post by **woodcutter** » Sat May 16, 2009 1:25 pm

Surely "claims of" would be better after "through" if I understand the meaning.

As it stands you seem to need to write his's, and I don't think that you are really allowed to write or maybe even say that.

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Sun May 17, 2009 1:52 am

Yes, that's pretty much what I was thinking too. Thanks for the response, Woody!

woodcutter · Post by **woodcutter** » Tue May 19, 2009 4:41 am

As to your link, it seems to me that the problem is often simply failing to register an ambiguity rather than being "loose" or "clumsy" - if you objected to sentences similar to some of those sentences without an obvious ambiguity arising then people would get upset and call you the p word. (An the ambiguity is sometimes comic rather than real).