LogFAQs > #928684321

I think mc is missing the fact that this post IS written in english. It's not, like, a sloppy translation where the grammar is incorrect; the person who wrote this is what I would describe as fluent in english. But they are not native in english, and there are certain choices of phrasing that make that clear to me, things that are "technically correct" but are not the way I would write something. The biggest 'smoking gun' for me is this paragraph:

"But playing fair also includes appropriate pre-and post-match conduct, especially when a player accepts recognition for winning in a broadcast. When we think about the suspension, six months for blitzchung is more appropriate, after which time he can compete in the Hearthstone pro circuit again if he so chooses. There is a consequence for taking the conversation away from the purpose of the event and disrupting or derailing the broadcast."

Nothing in this paragraph is incorrect so to speak, but there are two things that stand out to me here.

1) "When we think about the suspension..." It's really difficult for me to pinpoint the exact reason why this phrasing is odd, but it is, and I just know it when I see it. If I were writing a formal statement like this, I would probably start this sentence as something like, "after further consideration..." Starting this out as "when we think" clearly comes across to me as someone who learned a slightly odd way of saying things. Something about the tense is just wrong here.

2) "There is a consequence..." No, there are consequences. Again, it's difficult to pinpoint exactly why this is wrong, but the phrasing here clearly would be "there are consequences." It would not occur to me to say "there is a consequence." It might slip out in casual conversation as a result of me conjuring up words in a slightly disjointed order, but it wouldn't occur in writing.

I'm not an expert on this sort of thing, but I have seen a lot of words before, and I've seen enough words written or spoken by people of other linguistic backgrounds to know it when I see it. This isn't a knock on people who only know english as a second language, since the subtleties here are so precise that I can't even describe WHY they are the way they are, but it just... is.

I don't even know what I should take away from any of this I just think it's neat