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My latest gripe with the news culture copying mistakes from every other news outlet is the misuse of the word "after."
From my local TV station's website, Pedestrian suffers life-threatening injuries after being struck by vehicle.
How horrible! First the person was hit by a vehicle, then afterward suffered life-threatening injuries? ...Of course not... For God's sake stop using 'after' plus a progressive tense as a synonym for 'when' plus a simple past tense. The injuries didn't happen after. They happened when!
Note the difference between this and a similarly constructed sentence, "Pedestrian dies after being struck by vehicle..." It's a very possible sequence of events, where the sentence quoted above is very unlikely.
From my local TV station's website, Pedestrian suffers life-threatening injuries after being struck by vehicle.
How horrible! First the person was hit by a vehicle, then afterward suffered life-threatening injuries? ...Of course not... For God's sake stop using 'after' plus a progressive tense as a synonym for 'when' plus a simple past tense. The injuries didn't happen after. They happened when!
Note the difference between this and a similarly constructed sentence, "Pedestrian dies after being struck by vehicle..." It's a very possible sequence of events, where the sentence quoted above is very unlikely.