Hacker News Reader

Comment by nprincigalli | Hacker News Reader

  > a camera I had stolen in Peru

Not the slightest bit of guilt? or maybe you meant

  a camera stolen from me in Peru

View on HN

The construction you are making fun of means "someone stole my camera" just as much as it means "i stole a camera". From context, though, it's clear that the first is what the author means. No rephrasing is necessary to convey the message; the sentence is 100% correct as-is.

It's obviously pretty unclear in the worst possible way, though, and pretty awkward, too. I disagree that the context makes it completely clear. There are any number of ways to write that sentence without the ambiguity.

You're extending the OP's context to his reply, which is not a given (IMHO, specially at first-level replies, which could be approaching the posted link from any angle).

From the little context provided by his reply, and his reply only, he could could just as well be a literate camera thief hanging out here on HN and using stolencamerafinder.com to upgrade himself from just a thief to a thief + stalker! And the sentence would still be correct as-is! :)

I take it as "you wanted to nitpick to my nitpicking". Fine, heh, I'm just as guilty of nitpicking, but I see it like this: from the ridiculously easy to come by counter-example above, your nitpicking is not standing on solid ground.

Happy nitpicking! ;)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com