3 ms·

Please stop treating this simple rule of grammar as some piece of esoteric knowledge. It is common sense that the antecedent of a pronoun defaults to the close

by codexon 17y ago

Please stop treating this simple rule of grammar as some piece of esoteric knowledge. It is common sense that the antecedent of a pronoun defaults to the closest noun. You don't get through college or even a PhD as Schmidt has (where you write many papers) by repeatedly making ambiguity mistakes like these. A research paper is useless if no one can make any sense out of it. Not to mention that he is a CEO: a job where you live or die by how well you communicate.

ErrantX 17y ago
Firstly the others are right: even smart guys write & speak "wrong" English :) Secondly don't forget this is spoken - emphasis and so forth change in the spoken language. I haven't heard it myself (anyone got a link to a recording?) but it could well be dependant on how it was spoken :) And finally I think applying strict grammar words to what someone has to say does them a lot of injustice :) people just dont work like that do they. Essentially it is saying were going to ignore any meaning or connotation or mistake and take everything literally - god forbid that becomes a fad! :)