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Is the following sentence correct?

"... the goods will arrive later. These will be, should be packed, will be stored in our third shed"

I don't know if it does make sense to you guys, but since it does to me, I'd like to know if it's a correct form (even if it's a little odd).

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3 Answers

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I don't understand what the sentence is supposed to mean. I'm pretty sure it's wrong and you should definitely avoid whatever you got there.

Consider using the following:

The goods will arrive later. They should be packed and stored in our third shed.

If this is not what you were going for, please, update your question and I'll try to update my answer.

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Well this is what I'll go for instead indeed. But are you a 100% sure the one exposed in my question is wrong? What if the first will be refers to the goods that will arrive or will be available? won't that fix the sentence? The thing is I'm sure I've read this kind of form somewhere and now I'm all confused about its effectiveness. Thank you – Miloud B Aug 1 '11 at 12:49
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"The goods" is plural. "They should be packed ... " – Colin Fine Aug 1 '11 at 14:01
@Miloud B The sentence as it is doesn't make sense, independently from the fact the first sentence contains later or not. – kiamlaluno Aug 1 '11 at 14:01
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The sentence you wrote is made of three different phrases that are joined together with a comma; it is called a run-on sentence (or comma splice), which is what the following sentence is too:

An archer fish can shoot a jet of water as far as five feet, consequently, it can knock an insect from an overhanging branch.

The sentence you wrote can be re-written as:

The goods will arrive later. When they arrive, they should be packed, and stored in our third shed.

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Makes sense. I've read "my" form in an agreement I've read 2 hours ago, then it reminded me of something I might have read (could be novel from Ledlum which's likely to be the bourne ultimatum) but I'm not sure anymore. – Miloud B Aug 1 '11 at 14:18
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It's grammatical, but very unclear to me. In particular, the goods "will be" what?

The likely interpretation is that they will be packed, and they should be packed, but this is redundant, and the "will" subsumes the "should". It's the sort of thing we often say, thinking out the sentence as we go; but it's unclear in written text.

Edit in response to @Miloud B's comment below:

Ah! You're thinking that "will be" can be a sort of pro-verb, standing in for "arrive (later)"?

It can't. "Will" on its own can do that, or "will do", but not "will be". ("Will be" could stand for a passive verb " ... will be brought. These will be ... ")

"... the goods will arrive later. These will (do), should be packed, and will be stored in our third shed"

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Your first sentence is exactly what's confusing me because I do kinda think it does make sense somehow "the goods "will be" what?" the answer to this question is in the first part to me "... the goods will arrive later"; which could also be anything like will be made, will be created... I think the source of my thinking is the definition of to be. – Miloud B Aug 1 '11 at 14:05

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