The Time for Silly Mistakes is Past

Listen up, kids: today we get a lesson in grammar and it's right there on the front page! In the far left column on page A1, the headline reads, "The Time for Games is Passed". This phrase, which is repeated in the body of the article, comes from the speech President Obama made at Target Center yesterday. What's the problem, you ask? The problem is that "the time for games is passed" is incorrect. The correct sentence should read "the time for games is past."

Let's break it down, shall we?

P-a-s-t is a noun, adjective or adverb. In the above example, "past" describes "the time for games". "Past" is synonymous with "over", meaning that the sentence could read "the time for games is over" and still make sense.

P-a-s-s-e-d, on the other hand, is the past (see? adjective!) tense of the verb "to pass". "The time for games is passed" has a tense problem, since "is" is present tense of the verb "to be", and "passed" is past tense. This is a sentence that can't make up its mind. It should be written, "The time for games has passed".

Since "passed" and "past" are phonetically identical, it's possible that someone transcribed the speech incorrectly, but this error shouldn't have made its way onto the front page of the newspaper. Sure, it's possible that this mistake originated somewhere in the Obama camp, but if that's the case, the Star Tribune editors should have made it clear that this wasn't the paper's mistake by including the [sic] bracket. The fact that [sic] appears nowhere on the page indicates one of three things: a) this was the Star Tribune's mistake and the editors ran out of espresso, or b) this mistake originated elsewhere and the editors didn't catch it, or c) the editors didn't know that they could use a [sic] bracket to exonerate them from this foul-up. Whether the answer is a, b or c, the end verdict is stil the same: this mistake smacks of unprofessionalism.