Sunday, January 30, 2011
That common mix-up between descriptors and status
Yesterday I had a tweet about this article (or, post). The fun bit was the phrase "ex-RBI employee for 7 years" which now seems to be replaced by "who has been an ex-RBI employee who has worked with them for 7 years". This is even more confusing.
This is a somewhat common mistake around status and a descriptor. An employee is a status and, an ex-employee is a descriptor. So, you cannot be an ex-employee for 7 years :) You can, however, be an "employed with <insert organization> 7 years ago".
Take another example - you cannot be an ex-student for 4 years. You are either a student or, an ex-student. Or, were a student at the said institute 4 years ago.
Niceness ehh ?
Labels: Decriptor, English, English Grammar, Grammar, Status
- posted by sankarshan @ 1/30/2011 07:28:00 AM
