Re: Future tense/using "you"

Subject: Re: Future tense/using "you"
From: chuck mccaffrey <cmccaffrey -at- SPYGLASS -dot- COM>
Date: Tue, 1 Aug 1995 12:16:37 -0500

In article <950728190601_702420 -dot- 204300_BHD81-52 -at- CompuServe -dot- COM>,
Karen_Mayer -dot- TOUCH_TECHNOLOGY -at- notes -dot- compuserve -dot- com wrote:

> Peggy wrote:

> The yellow indicator light flashes to let you know printing
> is about to begin. If the print job cannot complete, an
> error messages appears in the indicator window on the front
> of the printer.

> I am about to nit-pick here, but I see this a lot and it bugs me to no end:
> the use of the verb "complete" as an intransitive verb. AAAAACK! According
> to every dictionary I've ever looked in, "complete" is a transitive verb,

Then change it to "complete its task" or "complete printing" or whatever, or
put away your dictionary and listen to the way the software developers and
system administrators around you use the verb "complete" instransitively
without embarrassment or error. If it bugs you to no end, you're wasting
energy on something not worth a second's thought.


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