This week, when the BBC was reporting on the disappearance of Steve Fossett, the adventurer, they reported that his family had gone to court in the US to “have him declared legally dead”.

Now, the BBC are usually the most fastidious of organisations when it comes to use of the English language, nonetheless, I stared at this sentence and I have decided that I don’t like it.

Dead seems such a definite thing, that qualifying the kind of dead seems unusual. I know you can be ‘brain dead’, so I’m sure I am being a bit too harsh in my assessment of this sentence.

However, I would have written it in a more circuitous manner, perhaps saying that his family had gone to court to have the court formally declare that he could be considered dead for the purposes of any legal issues.

Anyway, that’s my Speakey Engrish of today. Comments welcome.

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