# Help! What's (gramatically) wrong with this sentence?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-whats-gramatically-wrong-with-this-sentence/172360
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 1, 2003, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-whats-gramatically-wrong-with-this-sentence/172360 "2003-05-01T13:02:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2003, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-whats-gramatically-wrong-with-this-sentence/172360/1 "2003-05-01T13:02:18Z")
I’m editing a paper that I will turn in this afternoon. Something seems wrong with the following sentence, but for the life of me I can’t figure out what…can our resident grammarians please tell me what it is.
> [@](#):
>
> These programs can assist consumers in locating those sites that organizations such as the BBB have evaluated and consider **to have high privacy standards.**
The bolded portion is where it reads wrong to me. I just can’t figure why. I think I’m switching tenses - any suggestions on how to fix it?
Thanks
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### Author:  [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2003, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-whats-gramatically-wrong-with-this-sentence/172360/2 "2003-05-01T13:05:00Z")
Change it to “high standards in privacy”, maybe?
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### Author:  [@mallocks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mallocks)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2003, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-whats-gramatically-wrong-with-this-sentence/172360/3 "2003-05-01T13:09:35Z")
it’s not in bold, but ‘those’ is unnessecary, and kinda helps the flow of the sentance I think.
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### Author:  [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2003, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-whats-gramatically-wrong-with-this-sentence/172360/4 "2003-05-01T13:12:55Z")
“high standards of privacy” perhaps?
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### Author:  [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2003, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-whats-gramatically-wrong-with-this-sentence/172360/5 "2003-05-01T13:13:58Z")
I don’t see a grammatical error.
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### Author:  [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2003, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-whats-gramatically-wrong-with-this-sentence/172360/6 "2003-05-01T13:16:13Z")
It does look funny, bit I think it’s technically correct.
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### Author:  [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2003, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-whats-gramatically-wrong-with-this-sentence/172360/7 "2003-05-01T13:19:15Z")
Not a grammatical error, but the reason it sounds wrong is that the descriptive phrase “to have high privacy standards” is too far away from what it really is intended to describe: the sites.
I’d reconstruct the sentence to be something along these lines:
“These programs can assist consumers in locating sites
that have high privacy standards, as evaluated by organizations like the BBB.”
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### Author:  [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2003, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-whats-gramatically-wrong-with-this-sentence/172360/8 "2003-05-01T13:21:13Z")
Thanks y’all.
I knew the Dopers could help!
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2003, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-whats-gramatically-wrong-with-this-sentence/172360/9 "2003-05-01T13:24:44Z")
There’s nothing wrong with the sentence, and I can’t figure out why you think the problem has anything to do with tense. The implicit embedded sentences within the sentence are “Organizations such as the BBB have evaluated those sites” and “Organizations such as the BBB consider those sites to have high security standards,” and there’s no problem with tense there. If the problem is that you think the sentence is too complicated, break it up, perhaps by rewriting it as “These programs can assist consumers in locating those sites that have been evaluated by organizations such as the BBB and which have been certified as having high privacy standards.”
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### Author:  [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2003, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-whats-gramatically-wrong-with-this-sentence/172360/10 "2003-05-01T13:24:53Z")
hen in doubt, recast the entire sentence, such as:
“Borrowing on the research of the BBB and similar consumer organizations, these programs help the public locate sites that comply with established privacy standards.”
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### Author:  [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2003, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-whats-gramatically-wrong-with-this-sentence/172360/11 "2003-05-01T13:26:03Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Lsura \*
> …
>
> ‘These programs can assist consumers in locating those sites that organizations such as the BBB have evaluated and consider to have high privacy standards.’
>
> The bolded portion is where it reads wrong to me. I just can’t figure why. I think I’m switching tenses - any suggestions on how to fix it?
> Thanks
What MLS said.
I think the reader has just accepted ‘the BBB’ as the current subject of the sentence (because they evaluate and consider) when suddenly it switches back to ‘those sites’ as the subject.
Alternatively, how about:
‘These programs can assist consumers in locating those sites that organizations like the BBB have evaluated as having high privacy standards.’
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2003, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-whats-gramatically-wrong-with-this-sentence/172360/12 "2003-05-01T13:26:42Z")
Oops, I meant that one of the embedded sentences was “Organizations such as the BBB consider those sites to have high privacy standards.”
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### Author:  [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2003, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-whats-gramatically-wrong-with-this-sentence/172360/13 "2003-05-01T13:31:24Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Wendell Wagner \*
> \*\*There’s nothing wrong with the sentence, and I can’t figure out why you think the problem has anything to do with tense. \*\*
Because I always manage to screw up my tenses somehow - whether in English or in other languages, so now it’s one of those things that I assume I’ve screwed up somewhere. :o
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### Author:  [@FranticMad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FranticMad)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2003, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-whats-gramatically-wrong-with-this-sentence/172360/14 "2003-05-01T13:31:32Z")
I agree with **Celyn** re:“high standards of privacy” because it’s the standards that are high, not the privacy. In the original phrase the mind stutters trying to decode what high privacy is.
The tenses were a little confusing
“These programs can assist consumers in locating those sites that organizations such as the BBB _have evaluated_ and\* consider\* to have high privacy standards.”
“Have evaluated” is in a past tense, “consider” is the present tense. **MLS** ’ rewrite , above, cures the problem.
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### Author:  [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2003, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-whats-gramatically-wrong-with-this-sentence/172360/15 "2003-05-01T13:57:12Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by FranticMad \*
> \*\*“Have evaluated” is in a past tense, “consider” is the present tense. **MLS** ’ rewrite , above, cures the problem. \*\*
While “have evaluated” refers to something previously done, it is in the present perfect tense and is compatible with the simple present tense.