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Tue 21 Jul, 2015 03:18 am
Well, if I rewrite it as "167 people were killed", will there be any different in meaning?
I've remembered a grammatical rule: don't start with Arabic numbers. So using "killed" as the beginning of the sentence is to abide by the rule?
Context:
GROUP HATRED AND TERRORISM
On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols engineered the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Killed were 167 people, including 19 children. Subsequently, McVeigh was found guilty of the crime...
@oristarA,
It's a thing you see more in the USA than here in the UK. It seems to me more like a journalistic device, because of a wish to emphasise/ draw attention to the fact that there ware people killed.
@McTag,
Thanks.
Is there indeed a grammatical rule: don't start with Arabic numbers?
@oristarA,
Quote:Is there indeed a grammatical rule: don't start with Arabic numbers?
To prefer writing ordinal and cardinal numbers as words e.g. five million, six hundred and fifty, second, rather than 5,000,000, 650, 2nd, is a style preference rather than a rule. There is no rule about where in the sentence numbers or quantities may be.
@oristarA,
Quote:Is there indeed a grammatical rule: don't start with Arabic numbers?
Not that I am aware of.
TYN got it right. In text, words are preferred to (their equivalent expressed as) numbers.
@McTag,
Yes, the difference is that there is more emphasis on the word Killed. It strikes out at you more. Grammar is used for emphasis as well as correct English.
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