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Usenet Posted 23 years ago
Usage

Them were hit.

Reuters, 8 Aug
Tikrit, Iraq

Doctors at a local hospital told Reuters
they had treated six people, all male,
whom they believed were hit in the same
early morning incident.
Apparently, the Iraqi doctors claimed that "them were hit" in the incident, and Reuters is having a little fun mocking the Iraqi doctors' poor English skills.
\\P. Schultz
  

Top answer

[nq:1]Reuters, 8 Aug Tikrit, Iraq Doctors at a local hospital told Reuters they had treated six people, all male, ... [/nq] Would anyone else read this much into it? It's just a journalist's common-or-garden mistake.

  • [nq:1]Reuters, 8 Aug Tikrit, Iraq Doctors at a local hospital told Reuters they had treated six people, all male, ...
  • [/nq] Would anyone else read this much into it?
  • It's just a journalist's common-or-garden mistake.
  • ) **Why "six people, all male" rather than "six men"?
  • Adrian
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5 Answers
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[nq:1]Reuters, 8 Aug Tikrit, Iraq Doctors at a local hospital told Reuters they had treated six people, all male, ... "them were hit" in the incident, and Reuters is having a little fun mocking the Iraqi doctors' poor English skills.[/nq]
Would anyone else read this much into it? It's just a journalist's common-or-garden mistake. (Or maybe it's an elliptical way of stating that the doctors be
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[nq:2]Reuters, 8 Aug Tikrit, Iraq Doctors at a local ... a little fun mocking the Iraqi doctors' poor English skills.[/nq]
[nq:1]Would anyone else read this much into it? It's just a journalist's common-or-garden mistake. [/nq]
That's quite unthinkable. This is REUTERS! They're English, for goodness sake. They would NEVER make a "whom" error. Only Americans do stuff like that.
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[nq:1]Like that brainless plonker from the Royal Air Force who appeared on TV in camouflage kit (Air Force? camouflage? TV ... a time even the RAF would have had the sensitivity to debag the bounder and cover his ***** with boot-polish.[/nq]
I know the one you mean. The slightly podgy duffer with the too-perfect tan. I suspect that he is a leading light in his squadron's amateur dramatics soci
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[nq:2]Reuters, 8 Aug Tikrit, Iraq Doctors at a local ... a little fun mocking the Iraqi doctors' poor English skills.[/nq]
[nq:1]Would anyone else read this much into it? It's just a journalist's common-or-garden mistake. (Or maybe it's an elliptical way of stating that the doctors believed the men's** account of what befell them...) **Why "six people, all male" rather than "six men"?[/nq]
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[nq:2]Like that brainless plonker from the Royal Air Force who ... to debag the bounder and cover his ***** with boot-polish.[/nq]
[nq:1]I know the one you mean. The slightly podgy duffer with the too-perfect tan. I suspect that he is a ... biscuits, as I recall, and he didn't like female journalists. He kept getting caught on camera muttering about '****** women!'[/nq]
I must have missed

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