Last Updated on June 13, 2017
Back in high school — yes, I actually remember that far back, thanks — I had an English teacher who once told a classmate that something he had said had just made her ears “tingle with disgust.”
Mine have lately. I get this way almost every time a human has an unpleasant encounter with a life form of the animal persuasion.
Yesterday, in the waters off Isle of Palms, two different people, a 10-year-old and a 30-somthing-year-old, got a reminder the hard way that when one wades into the ocean, one is walking right into the home of animals that can sometimes pose a danger. To be more specific, their legs became temporary gnawing toys for what is almost certainly a shark of some description.
Local news media were quick to report the situation, and during various live shots and taped reports, I’ve heard that unfortunate choice of wording that I hear every time there’s a bite involved. I’ve heard this blunder at every station I have ever worked for, and plenty of others that I haven’t. The little number goes something like this:
“…when he was bit by a shark…”
If you can’t tell what’s wrong with that sentence, it’s probably to your advantage to read up on your grammar. The rest of you, surely recognize immediately that it should have read, “was bitten.”
Bitten, of course, is the participle form of bit, which means that while the shark bit the person, the person was bitten by the shark and beachgoers could run the risk of being bitten by sharks as well.
I was sitting in my office at good old Channel 37 when I heard one reporter too many say it incorrectly. So I sent an email to the newsroom — they’re probably sorry I know how to email all of the newsroom employees with a single click — reminding them of this basic principle of grammar. One of the anchors, who later admitted to wanting to jump through the camera upon hearing another reporter make the same mistake, thanked me for reminding our colleagues.
Grammar is a big part of communication. Bad grammar from a reporter or anchor makes them stop communicating, because the listener gets so distracted by the error that he or she stops listening for at least a couple of sentences while shaking their head at the blunder.
Something will bite someone again one day. Perhaps sooner than later. And I’ll be ready with my memo…and my finger over the send button…again.
GONE MISSING OR GONE STUPID??
The dictionary reference is to a usage that does not apply in the U.S. to a person who is not where expected. It is a British usage referring to other situations.
The discussion is about the usage that is proper in the U.S. news when the wherabouts of a child or adult are not known to those who care. This is a relative state of being: No one is “missing” from their own life. Some others simply do not know where that person is located.
“Missing is a state of being.” “Go” is an action verb.
One can go shopping or go for a walk.
One does not go elated, go happy, go intelligent, or go proud.
ONE DOES NOT “GO MISSING.”
If a child “went missing,” does he then “come found”?
The Ramones’s song, “I’ve Gone Mental,” is one example of bad grammar, but they were not trying to be grammarians. They were punk rockers.
“Gone stupid” is in common colloquial usage as a derogatory or funny term.
If a news story reporting on school scores on standardized testing announced that the kids had all “gone stupid,” we would laugh or cringe.
If a news story reports that a child has “gone missing,” many of us also laugh or cringe. The seriousness of a child being abducted or wandering off is dampened by the idiotic-sounding incorrect grammar.
ALL OF THESE ARE CORRECT:
THE BOY IS MISSING.
THE BOY HAS BEEN MISSING SINCE SATURDAY.
THE BOY WAS REPORTED MISSING ON SATURDAY.
THE PARENTS NOTICED THEIR SON WAS MISSING ON SATURDAY.
THE BOY IS NO LONGER MISSING.
The boy did NOT “GO MISSING.” The reporter has simply GONE STUPID. And we all WENT MENTAL from hearing it. Or maybe we WENT POSTAL.
But the boy did NOT “go missing,” or “went missing.”
And while we are on the subject of grammer, when did we start saying “when Susie went missing� Like Susie had a choice in her kidnapping and murder. Someone please help me because I think I’m going to kill the next reporter who says that phrase!
That’s one of the most common complaints I hear from viewers. “Went missing” or “to go missing” is a British expression that has made its way here. In part, it is to avoid automatically labeling a disappearance as a “kidnapping” when it is not yet known whether the person disappeared on their own or with someone else’s unwanted assistance.
You know what is sad, I didn’t even get what you were talking about when I read the quote. My mind put “bitten” in there and I had to go back and read it actually said “bit”. I see what you mean. And while we are on the subject of grammer, when did we start saying “when Susie went missing”? Like Susie had a choice in her kidnapping and murder. Someone please help me because I think I’m going to kill the next reporter who says that phrase! De 😉
Here’s one for you that fits in your category maybe and with the “language changes” aspect. I hate that if I’m just quoting someone, I have to put the period inside the quotes, or the comma inside the quotes. To my thinking, what I’m quoting might not have a comma or period inside. And if I’m now using that phrase or whatever as my own in a way, then I want to end my own sentence, not theirs. If it’s dialogue, fine, that’s that way it’s “supposed to be”.
Hmm? Thanks for the fun.
I agree, except that grammar is not immutable. It, and everything else about language, changes over time and space.
I teach, and often see kids interchange your and you’re.
I often get the “language is ever changing” argument and I agree with it, of course.
However, using the example you next provided, I assume (and hope) that you still correct children who interchange your and you’re. No matter how much the language changes or likely will change over time, there are basic rules that seem worthy of maintaining.
Did anyone write back, “bite me�
Ha! Good response, Rick. Although they probably know better than that when it comes to me…I might be tempted to do it! 😉
I agree, except that grammar is not immutable. It, and everything else about language, changes over time and space.
I teach, and often see kids interchange your and you’re. That one always annoys me. To me, they even SOUND different, so I don’t understand how people can confuse them.
Also, there’s a weatherman on the radio who pronounces accurate as “a kurr ut” rather than how it is said here, “a kyoor ut” and it drives me crazy every time I hear it.
Did anyone write back, “bite me”? 🙂