Prosecutors have charged a Metropolitan Police officer with murder after he shot rapper Chris Kaba in London last year.

  • reverendsteveii@sopuli.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    The headline is technically grammatically correct but ambiguous. "…shot and killed unarmed black man" would have been better. If you absolutely need to stick to word/character count, "shot unarmed black man dead" would be less ambiguous and more in keeping with how people actually use "shot dead". I've watched a lot of westerns and I can think of quite a few where someone says "I shot him dead" but not one where someone says "I shot dead him".

    • stillwater@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      The US and the UK have different figures of speech and idioms. People in the UK don't usually sound like cowboys.

      • reverendsteveii@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        I'd love to see an example of "I shot dead him". I'm not trying to be defensive, I'd really enjoy seeing it. Dialects fascinate me.

        • stillwater@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Well, it's an expression that only comes up in the third person, not the first person. You'd see "Tim shot dead Eric". I think if they'd say anything like that in the UK, it would just be "I shot him".