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Comment by gnabgib | Hacker News Reader

Article title: Spirit Airlines Moves Toward Bankruptcy Filing After Frontier Drops Merger Bid (filing for!=moves toward)

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Thank you for pointing this out. Article titles should not mislead readers.

In English, "filing for bankruptcy" can be read in two ways: the one is the literal interpretation of filling out the forms. But the other is simply stating the inevitable destiny and which is worth highlighting since it has many implications (for employees, airports, debt holders, shareholders, etc.).

So I don't think the article title is intended to mislead.

I would argue these are still distinct meanings: one has speculative implications the other has tangible results. Announcing a marital engagement may be important, but the marriage is not formal until the marriage certificate is filed. In the context of news, its important to get right.

Not sure which English you are referencing, but "Filing for bankruptcy" only means the legal/literal definition, at least in my 40+ years in the PNW. "Declare Bankruptcy" tends to be used more colloquially...

Regardless of the intent, it is a misleading rewording of the original article title.

As - I think - a reasonably experienced English speaker, I strongly disagree. "Filing for bankruptcy" is not a phrase used to mean "going bankrupt soon, but not yet officially". It's always used literally.

That’s just plain not true.

"Filing" is distinct from "Filling". In this context "filing" means lodging the papers with the court, and that typically has an immediate automatic legal effect (the Automatic Stay).

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