Episode 50 of Alarming Grammar: ADT - The house next door was broken into

I started collecting examples of bad grammar this past February. I started with weekly entries. I was concerned that I would run out of examples too quickly if I published examples every day of the week. I started with the classic Progressive commercial with "Them Are Here." My concerns were quickly eliminated as I started collecting more and more example. I am backlogged at this point in time. I was looking at some of my old draft columns when I came across an oldie and a goody.

I ran into my first example of alarmingly bad grammar from ADT this past March. They were advertising the ability to monitor package deliveries at a person's home while that person was away at work. This might have come in handy this past Christmas when various delivery companies through televisions over fences or criminals stole the merchandise off the suspect's front porch.

 Someone broke the English language for ADT a second time and I want to know whom. ADT is talking about how a burglar broke into their neighbor's home. That is all that they had to say.  The voice-over said: "The house next door was broken into." I could argue that it should be "The house next door to us (our babysitter, my parents, etc) was broken into (while they were______.)" Ending a sentence with a preposition has been the most common grammatical error that I have recorded here in this blog.

There are a number of other ways around this grammar graveyard. It could have been: "Someone was having a party in our neighbor's home. Our neighbors didn't know that they had uninvited visitors until it was too late." Create a sense of urgency. Another way to create a sense of urgency would be to say "Our new neighbors had an unpleasant welcoming committee visit their home. Their home was burglarized while they were at work." This would be another way to spur someone into action.

The best time to install a system is while you are building a home. The second best time to install a system is before you move into an existing home for the first time. It is always better to install a system before your home has a fire or a burglary.

It would also be a better advertisement if they finished by saying "We can protect you while you are asleep or awake." or "We can protect you home while you are home or while away on vacation."

One last option: Protect your home before someone steals your sense of security.

Thank you for 50 episodes of bad grammar. There will be more examples next week.