When you know you've erred, but don't know how...
Posted: February 6th, 2017, 3:42 pm
Hi fellow pedants,
On another thread I've just typed the sentence:
" I don't expect many (any) people would have guessed the subtlety of which partner asks for the cancelling affecting when the cancelling is implemented from!"
I stumbled over it as I typed, but even after stopping to think about it for a few minutes I couldn't get it right.
The sentence is to do with Marriage Allowance (which is a tax mechanism where the lower paid spouse in a couple transfers some allowance to the higher paid spouse), and refers to the act of cancelling the allowance after it has been applied for. What I found out was that if the lower paid spouse applies for the cancelling it gets cancelled from date 1 whereas if the higher paid partner applies for it it gets cancelled from date 2. I found this very surprising hence my comment:
I don't expect many (any) people would have guessed the subtlety of which partner asks for the cancelling affecting when the cancelling is implemented from!
I didn't like the second half of the sentence and aside from it's overall clumsiness, I suspect I've made at least 1 tense error. Can anyone suggest a more elegant way of expressing the same sentiment?
TIA
Maylix
On another thread I've just typed the sentence:
" I don't expect many (any) people would have guessed the subtlety of which partner asks for the cancelling affecting when the cancelling is implemented from!"
I stumbled over it as I typed, but even after stopping to think about it for a few minutes I couldn't get it right.
The sentence is to do with Marriage Allowance (which is a tax mechanism where the lower paid spouse in a couple transfers some allowance to the higher paid spouse), and refers to the act of cancelling the allowance after it has been applied for. What I found out was that if the lower paid spouse applies for the cancelling it gets cancelled from date 1 whereas if the higher paid partner applies for it it gets cancelled from date 2. I found this very surprising hence my comment:
I don't expect many (any) people would have guessed the subtlety of which partner asks for the cancelling affecting when the cancelling is implemented from!
I didn't like the second half of the sentence and aside from it's overall clumsiness, I suspect I've made at least 1 tense error. Can anyone suggest a more elegant way of expressing the same sentiment?
TIA
Maylix