Shrink-Shrank-Shrunk-Shrinking

Grammar-punctuation blog of Tampa-Bay Publications--Sister Blog of NYT-Washington Post Grammar-punctuation Blog:

grammargrinch.blogspot.com

Bill Adair

St. Petersburg Times Washington Bureau Chief and editor of PolitiFact

Total defense forces also shrunk, from 3.3-million to 2.9-million.

Not only should “shrunk” be “shrank,” but the comma after "shrunk" is also wrong.” It cuts off a restrictive adverbial prepositional phrase.

Romney is also correct that the naval fleet shrunk.

As if once were not enough, Le Adair repeats the “shrunk” gaucherie to nail down his illiteracy.

Washington Bureau chief Adair and the beauteous local SPTimes political editor Adam Smith both cuff around grammar and punctuation. They make the Bay-Area press sound like Dogpatch scribblers.