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> detained the bodyguard as collateral for a deal went wrong As a non-native English speaker, I'm confused whether this should have been "deal gone wrong" or "

> detained the bodyguard as collateral for a deal went wrong As a non-native English speaker, I'm confused whether this should have been "deal gone wrong" or "deal that went wrong", or whether it's a garden path sentence that I'm just unable to parse correctly.

DoreenMichele 8y ago
I'm a native speaker. I think it should be "deal gone wrong" (or "a deal that went wrong" would work too). FWIW. I will add that I think they were trying to make "deal gone wrong" past tense -- or even more past tense, since gone is already past tense. I think they were trying to indicate it was a prior event within the story line, not just prior event in relation to people reading it now.
- a3n 8y ago
  I see this kind of thing all the time, "even" in the NYT and similar first tier news sources. I assume that everything these days is written in one pass, and no one pays for copy editors anymore. It also wouldn't surprise me if "words per month," based on how fast a professional is expect to be able to type, were part of annual reviews, in keeping with the general corporate trend of abandoning hard, personal, contextual reviews in favor of easy, no personal responsibility "metrics." But that's all a guess, I'm not in the industry. All I can say for sure is I see it all the time. "It passed spell check." ... "Ship it."
  - DoreenMichele 8y ago
    I'm actually a freelance writer and blogger. Everything I have read indicates that real wages are down industry-wide. Good writers used to get paid enough to spends weeks or months on a single article. Now, they need to shovel it out the door as fast as they can to keep themselves fed. And, yeah, passing spell check leaves much to be desired. That isn't enough to insure it is excellent writing. I'm still wondering if I can ever develop an internet presence and Patreon support (etc) with middle class or better pay for my brilliance. So far, I still make peanuts, though there are confounding factors as to why, so I haven't outright given up...yet.
- bradknowles 8y ago
  Maybe it done went gone wrong? ;)
- boomboomsubban 8y ago
  If you look at the grammar rules, "gone" is a past participle and should always be preceded by an auxiliary verb. "Went" is the correct choice, though "gone" is probably more common.
52-6F-62 8y ago
I think Doreen's correct. "deal gone wrong" is just more idiomatic (you could probably say it's short for "[the] deal [in question is a deal] that has gone wrong")

DoreenMichele 8y ago

I'm a native speaker. I think it should be "deal gone wrong" (or "a deal that went wrong" would work too). FWIW. I will add that I think they were trying to make "deal gone wrong" past tense -- or even more past tense, since gone is already past tense. I think they were trying to indicate it was a prior event within the story line, not just prior event in relation to people reading it now.

a3n 8y ago
I see this kind of thing all the time, "even" in the NYT and similar first tier news sources. I assume that everything these days is written in one pass, and no one pays for copy editors anymore. It also wouldn't surprise me if "words per month," based on how fast a professional is expect to be able to type, were part of annual reviews, in keeping with the general corporate trend of abandoning hard, personal, contextual reviews in favor of easy, no personal responsibility "metrics." But that's all a guess, I'm not in the industry. All I can say for sure is I see it all the time. "It passed spell check." ... "Ship it."
- DoreenMichele 8y ago
  I'm actually a freelance writer and blogger. Everything I have read indicates that real wages are down industry-wide. Good writers used to get paid enough to spends weeks or months on a single article. Now, they need to shovel it out the door as fast as they can to keep themselves fed. And, yeah, passing spell check leaves much to be desired. That isn't enough to insure it is excellent writing. I'm still wondering if I can ever develop an internet presence and Patreon support (etc) with middle class or better pay for my brilliance. So far, I still make peanuts, though there are confounding factors as to why, so I haven't outright given up...yet.
bradknowles 8y ago
Maybe it done went gone wrong? ;)
boomboomsubban 8y ago
If you look at the grammar rules, "gone" is a past participle and should always be preceded by an auxiliary verb. "Went" is the correct choice, though "gone" is probably more common.

52-6F-62 8y ago

I think Doreen's correct. "deal gone wrong" is just more idiomatic (you could probably say it's short for "[the] deal [in question is a deal] that has gone wrong")