Correct the Grammar in This Headline
Or is that correct as is? I don’t think so, but in any case it takes the English language around the back of the bike sheds and kicks its ass, doesn’t it?
12 Responses to “Correct the Grammar in This Headline”
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November 30th, 2007 at 9:24 am
Should be “faces”. Liverpool is singular as it refers to the team and not the individuals.
Though I am American, so what the heck do I know? ;)
November 30th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Brits use the team name as plural.
November 30th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
I think Heather has it. or with a comma it could be
“Liverpool faces must-win scenario, Gerrard happy”
That’d be better… I think…
November 30th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
“Gerrard happy about must-win scenario for Liverpool”
“Liverpool face must-win scenario” is grammatically correct in British English, but it implies that Liverpool doesn’t really want to be in that situation.
November 30th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
Or “Gerrard happy that Liverpool faces must-win scenario”
How are these for headlines? Courtesy of the BBC:
“Fall girl’s mother dead in cave”
and the winner,
“Hotel death fall wife back in UK”
November 30th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
It’s not limited to sports teams either; “Microsoft ignore customers’ pleas to improve IE7″, it even works with bands where the name isn’t “The ___s”; “Coldplay are amazing live.”
English cats always do that just to freak us out.
December 1st, 2007 at 10:11 am
My brain read it this way:
“Gerrard happy Liverpool must face win situation.”
Which didn’t make sense. But if Gerrard is so dang happy, he might just forget his grammar because of gleeful hysterics. Or he might just be British…
December 1st, 2007 at 5:19 pm
The headline is fine as it is.
December 1st, 2007 at 5:20 pm
In British English, anyway.
December 4th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
This is correct in UK English. It’s one of the many interesting little differences between UK and American English. I was going to say North American English but Canadian English seems to pick and choose from the two versions.
December 5th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
I’ve always found English language newspaper headlines a pain. English has a lot of words that are spelled the same way when used as noun/verb/adjective, and there are a lot of grammar shortcuts that are “allowed” in headline speak.
February 20th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
The word “liverpool” refers to a class of name or noun called “Team”
As far as i’m concerned,such word could be both singular and plural.
I’m neither Brit nor American here,but as an Asian on and off learning such stuff-to say nothing of The Newspaper Headlines Grammar,I should however trust in An English-using writer.