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English: This is wrong, right? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6442 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 1 of 13 18 February 2012 at 7:00am | IP Logged | |||||
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There's a product called Chantix that advertises on American TV. It's a "stop smoking" medication. The fine print in their commercials says:
"In studies, 44% of CHANTIX users were quit during weeks 9 to 12 of treatment (compared to 18% on sugar pill)." What is "were quit"? How can you be quit? You can quit something, for example: "he quit smoking." Or you can have quit something, for example: "he has quit smoking." But you cannot be quit. "44% of CHANTIX users were quit?" That doesn't make any sense. Quit is a verb, not an adjective nor a noun. I checked dictionary.com and "quit" is only a verb. Has anyone her this usage before? It sounds really wrong to my ears. Their website says it, too. Chantix.com Here's a pic from their website: 
That is wrong, right? What do you think happened? An editing mistake that never got corrected? Edited by IronFist on 18 February 2012 at 7:01am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kyle Corrie Senior Member United States Joined 4834 days ago 175 posts - 464 votes | Message 2 of 13 18 February 2012 at 7:48am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm sure it must be a mistake.
It should read: In studies, 44% of CHANTIX users were ABLE TO quit during... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6625 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 3 of 13 18 February 2012 at 8:09am | IP Logged | |||||
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Actually, quit is also an adjective and a noun in some cases. So, your dictionary is perhaps somewhat abridged.
One of its meanings is to be released from or rid of. So I could say: "I was quit my debt." or "I was quit my bad habit." etc I think this is probably the way they meant it. However, I agree that it sounds rather odd. I feel it would sound better to say, "...44% of Chantix uses were quit the habit..." or something like that. It think probably the reason they chose to say "were quit" instead of "they quit" or "they were able to quit" is that they wanted Chantix to get the credit for the quitting. Saying "they quit" gives more a flavor of it being something the people did themselves. So it's sort of a passive vs active thing. (I hope that makes sense.) 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6442 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 4 of 13 18 February 2012 at 8:11am | IP Logged | |||||
Right? Or "44% of CHANTIX users had quit during..." or something like that. I actually think "...had quit by weeks 9 to 12..." sounds best. I've seen it on TV and on the website, though, and I've seen it this way for months. Maybe no one has caught it? Edited by IronFist on 18 February 2012 at 8:11am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6442 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 5 of 13 18 February 2012 at 8:13am | IP Logged | |||||
Whoa, it turns out you're right: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quit
It still sounds weird! But I guess it makes sense if "quit" is to mean "rid of." Even then, it sounds like the commercials should say "...44% of CHANTIX users were quit smoking during weeks 9-12..." Edited by IronFist on 18 February 2012 at 8:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| July Diglot Senior Member Spain Joined 5278 days ago 113 posts - 208 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishB2 Studies: French | Message 6 of 13 18 February 2012 at 2:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I just get the impression that it's probably phrased like that for legal reasons. If they
used 'quit during' or 'had quit during' or even 'were able to quit during' it sounds more like an ongoing status - implying that they quit and didn't smoke again. Where as 'were quit during' suggests that they gave up smoking while using the medication, but then probably a lot of them then went right back to smoking at the end of the treatment (something that the company would rather not mention). 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| fiziwig Senior Member United States Joined 4870 days ago 297 posts - 618 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 13 18 February 2012 at 6:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
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To me it sounds as if their meaning was "... remained free of smoking during ...". I would take "quit" to an ongoing state ("be quit"), not the beginning of a new state as in "to quit". Anyway, that's how I would interpret that use of "quit".
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4914 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 8 of 13 18 February 2012 at 10:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
The useage you mention is more or less correct, however you would have to say "I was quit of my debt." That little word makes all the difference. Also, this is still using it as a verb, by the way. Edit: looked it up, and apparently "quit" is an adjective when used this way. Huh... Edited by Jeffers on 18 February 2012 at 10:16pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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