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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

BBC turns Olympics American

I have complained to the BBC about the use of "7-TIME Wimbledon Champion", "5-TIME Gold Medallist", "3-TIME Olympic champion" ad nauseam, to the point where they refuse to further reply to me. Am I being unreasonable in my complaints? Is Wimbledon not an event worthy of referring to Mr Federer as a "7-timeS Champion", both in commentary and in caption? Is it too much to expect British English to be used by the most British of all sporting events, by the most British of all broadcasters?

Then we have the Olympic Games in London. A once-in-a-lifetime triumph, ruined by the BBC. Sir Steven Redgrave - a British Olympian hero - appearing with the caption, "5-TIME Olympic Champion" and the same repeated by a supposedly British BBC commentator. If I were Sir Steve at the time, I would have been insulted and politely corrected such American-only spiel, which does not even make sense. Sir Steve is a 5-timeS Olympic Champion because he has been an Olympic Champion five timeS, not five time.

The replies I have received by the BBC I will quote gladly if asked, but they are useless and contradictory, so I won't post them just now. I would like to know if I am really being overly-obsessive, or if anyone else agrees that there is no valid reason to turn American, and if so, can EnglishForward.com help me in my cause?

Regards,

Lance.
  

Top answer

Hi Lance; Sorry, but English modifiers with numbers, units of measure, and hyphens, use the singular form of a noun, not the plural. Here are some examples: The horse jumped a five-foot fence. He is a four-time loser.

  • Hi Lance; Sorry, but English modifiers with numbers, units of measure, and hyphens, use the singular form of a noun, not the plural.
  • Here are some examples: The horse jumped a five-foot fence.
  • He is a four-time loser.
  • My six-year-old daughter's birthday is next week.
  • They put a fifty-kilometer-per-hour speed limit on that section of the highway.
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1 Answers
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Hi Lance;

Sorry, but English modifiers with numbers, units of measure, and hyphens, use the singular form of a noun, not the plural.
Here are some examples:

The horse jumped a five-foot fence.
He is a four-time loser.
My six-year-old daughter's birthday is next week.
They put a fifty-kilometer-per-hour speed limit on that section of the highway.
We nee

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