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The essential holiday checklist
Give someone your spare keys:
"This means someone can keep an eye on your home while you're away, and you'll be covered should your set go missing."
I read the above in The Metro newspaper.
Is "set go missing" a fixed expression? Is "set" the main verb "in should you set go missing "?
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 7/8/2010
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No
"Your set" is the noun.
Your set of keys
You don't have to repeat the noun (keys) which has been previously mentioned.
It is the possessor that is important
Your set and their set
So it is a bit like the pronoun 'your ones' - but that doesn't sound good. 'set' is better.
They use "set" because those are separate things. Whereas the word keys can mean both the physical objects and their purpose.
They are different keys - your keys and the spare keys you have given your neighbour.
But they are also the same keys - they open the same thing (the keys to your house, not the keys to your car.
Give your spare keys to your neighbour.
That way, they can check on the house for you.
If your set [of keys] goes missing (you can't find them/ they get stolen), you will be covered - you will still be able to get in the house - if your neighbour has a set of keys as well.
I think it should be goes not go. Plural keys but singular set of keys. But this is the Metro, so churn the stories out fast, and they were thinking in the plural.
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Location: Livingston, Scotland, United Kingdom
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thar wrote:
I think it should be goes not go. Plural keys but singular set of keys. But this is the Metro, so churn the stories out fast, and they were thinking in the plural.
the key words are should your set/keys go missing. The modal should is followed, correctly, by the bare infinitive go.
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Ah, yes, of course. I had no issue when I first read it but my version using 'if' ended up with the different verb. I just saw the difference and forgot the original structure was 'should it go'. And didn't check. My mistake.
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Thanks
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