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Correct English


westyrf

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Not wanting to sound too pedantic, but should "Needs Archived" be "Needs Archiving"? "Needs Archived" doesn't make sense!

 

Yes, it should be. Or "Needs to be Archived." Or "Needs Archival." But "Needs Archived" is common phraseology in some parts of the US.

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Not wanting to sound too pedantic, but should "Needs Archived" be "Needs Archiving"? "Needs Archived" doesn't make sense!

If you're not there to Found it, not trying to Didn't find it, and not Needs Maintenance, what is the closest option to what you want to do? Since you want to Needs Archiving, you have to Needs Archived. That makes sense. :anibad:

Edited by kunarion
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LOL! I have Scottish roots and spent a lot of time in Pittsburgh when I was younger, so I'd forgotten the "needs washed" construction was even an issue. I wonder how many people are struck when I use it without me knowing? Yes, it's a regionalism from the area in the U.S. around western Pennsylvania, although I think it's becoming more widespread throughout the states. I hear it came over long ago with immigrants from Scotland.

 

If it helps, think of "needs" as an auxiliary verb instead of a transitive verb. Think of "needs" in "needs archived" being of similar function as "was" is in "was archived". Until now, you've always thought of it as functioning the same as "needs" in "needs a car". As a transitive verb, it requires an infinitive thrown into the mix. (Or should that be "it requires an infinitive to be thrown into the mix"? It turns out most people find that acceptable without the "to be" even though it's structurally the same issue. Does "I need a cache archived" strike you as wrong, too?)

 

One thing I was reading suggests that the "needs washed" construction gives an increased urgency. Saying "needs archiving" means only that the archival process should commence, while "needs archived" emphasized that the process should be completed. I like that idea as a justification for the construction in general, but I have to admit that that argument suggests we should use "needs archiving" in geocaching even if we accept "needs archived" as valid English, since a NA log does, in fact, suggest only that the process should be started and should always leave open the possibility of the process going somewhere other than the cache actually being archived.

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I see it as a contraction. They took out the "to be" for brevity. Sort of like if you trip over your daughter's shoes in the middle of the hall and you give her the look and succinctly bark out: "Needs moved." :D

 

Is that a bit like, instead of me saying "You are an idiot", I just say "You, idiot"? Sort of like.....

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Not wanting to sound too pedantic, but should "Needs Archived" be "Needs Archiving"? "Needs Archived" doesn't make sense!

 

No, correctly it should be "Needs Reviewer Attention". The entire purpose of the log is to bring to the reviewer's attention to a cache that may need to be archived.

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The United States is a big country and terminology that is normal in one part of the country sounds strange in another part. We also have probably five or six different accents from different parts of the country. The first time I traveled in some of the southern states I had to listen real close to figure out what the person was saying. The same holds true for the US and Europe. Many years ago I worked with a guy from England and between his accent and his terminology it was quite some time before I fully knew what he was talking about at times.

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