Timeline for "Of course, it cost the companies some money, but also helps increase their profit." Is this sentence correct?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 5, 2014 at 5:35 | vote | accept | Xuan Nguyen | ||
| Oct 4, 2014 at 15:09 | comment | added | Colin Fine | With that context, I believe cost is simply an error for costs. The sentence is grammatical, but does not have a reading which makes sense there. | |
| Oct 4, 2014 at 12:17 | comment | added | Araucaria - Him | So it seems grammatical to me then! ("someone are" isn't though ...) :) | |
| Oct 4, 2014 at 12:03 | comment | added | Xuan Nguyen | @Araucaria : Here is the context of that sentence. "I know someone are wondering about the good deal of dollars required to do charity. Of course, it cost the companies some money, but also helps increase their profit. When people see the good things that the companies do for the community, they believe more in the companies so they increasingly buy their products or apply to the companies." | |
| Oct 4, 2014 at 10:55 | comment | added | Araucaria - Him | @TimLymington I think we get that reading because we don't know what the antecedent of it is. If "it"= those companies having become part of an industry association, then it cost them money in the past, but helps them increase their profits now/generally. Or so it seem to me ... | |
| Oct 4, 2014 at 9:21 | comment | added | Colin Fine | Tim: absolutely not. I banged my knee and it hurts. I'm looking forward to seeing you, and will meet you at the Station at 2. It started yesterday and is still going on. | |
| Oct 4, 2014 at 9:18 | comment | added | Colin Fine | Edwin: Certainly I would use them as per your dictionary excerpt. I have had a look at the corpora, and BNC has 2 instances out of 50, and COCA 2 out of 27 where 'costed' is used as the past of meaning 1 above. So it appears that some people do use it as I've said, but fewer than I thought. | |
| Oct 4, 2014 at 9:18 | comment | added | Tim Lymington | Mixing tenses within a sentence (at least without repeating it) is one of the most basic instances of ungrammatical. | |
| Oct 4, 2014 at 9:06 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | Surely the form costed is always reserved for particular usages? AHDEL has: cost v. cost, costing, costs v.intr. To require a specified payment, expenditure, effort, or loss: It costs more to live in the city. v.tr. 1. To have as a price. 2. To cause to lose, suffer, or sacrifice: Participating in the strike cost me my job. 3. [past tense and past participle costed] To estimate or determine the cost of: The accountants costed out our expenses. // RHK Webster's would be better (if it didn't misnumber). | |
| Oct 4, 2014 at 8:59 | history | answered | Colin Fine | CC BY-SA 3.0 |