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Old 12-07-2013, 05:39 AM   #258
Prestidigitweeze
Fledgling Demagogue
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Quote:
Originally Posted by forsooth View Post
Finally I see ad. It is very funny.

Worry, must Microsoft. (yoda!)

or

Worry Microsoft must. (yoda)

Which is best?
The first sentence is incorrect; the second uses an inversion that few modern readers could (or would be willing to) follow unless Microsoft were replaced with a pronoun.

The most commonly accepted versions might be these:

Microsoft must worry.

Worry, Microsoft!


However, those versions don't incorporate the wording of the Yoda quote, which would make the reference unrecognizable to the reader.

If you add a pronoun, you can keep the old-fashioned inversion that makes the reference clear:

Worry you must, Microsoft!

Keep in mind that if you weren't referencing a Yoda quote, that last version of your sentence would sound stagey and archaic. Ezra Pound actually yelled at W.B. Yeats for using inversions like that in his poetry, which compelled Yeats to edit or omit them subsequently -- and that was in 1911!

Last edited by Prestidigitweeze; 12-07-2013 at 06:45 AM.
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