Decomposing composition
July 20th, 2012
This is one that has irked me for years, and it seems no one is learning the error of their ways as yet. Here’s a typical sample from a description of a computer game package:
“VICTORIA COMPLETE comprises of the full VICTORIA and VICTORIA REVOLUTIONS …”
Freakin’ idiots. “Comprising” is one of those handful of words that has a different composition for each of its various forms. These are:
A comprises B and C
A is comprised of B and C
Confusing the two forms seems rampant these days. Fortunately there is a simple rule to help you poor fools remember how it works: “Rises alone”. That means “comprises” (rises) is used on its own, without any modifiers. Therefore, conversely, only “comprised” is accompanied by “is” and “of” (or in my first example, just “of”).
So now you know the rule. No more excuses.