Monday, March 8, 2010

Misplaced Modifier and Wrong Tense


Below is the first paragraph extracted from a full-page advertisement in an English daily.

15th Edition Le Tour de Langkawi 2010, Asia's premier cycling event, is back. With a new look inspiring change and a better future, Ministry of Youth and Sports promises Le Tour de Langkawi 2010 is going to be the best ever event been held.

Is the part highlighted in bold referring to/modifying the Ministry or the event? One will realise that the answer is the latter for all intents and purposes. The been is the past participle of 'be', the use of which must be accompanied by the auxillary verb 'have/having'. As such, the use of the present particle 'being' is more appropriate there.

Consequently to be grammatically correct, the sentence in question should be "15th Edition Le Tour de Langkawi 2010, Asia's premier cycling event, is back. With a new look inspiring change and a better future, Le Tour de Langkawi 2010 is promised by Ministry of Youth and Sports to be the best ever event being held." The dropping of 'going' (which is considered redundant) is to provide smooth reading to the sentence, the meaning of which remains the same despite such drop.

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