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Sentence:

South Africans are demanding 'world's largest diamond' is returned from The Queen's crown jewels

Source: Unilad News

Q: Could anyone please explain me about this sentence structure? The two words "is returned" sounds rather confusing to me, shouldn't the use of "to be returned" correct? As the jewel has not been returned in this case.

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  • 4
    It's ungrammatical.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Apr 17, 2023 at 14:41
  • 1
    Please tell us where you read this sentence. Apart from anything else, 'the queen jewel' makes no sense.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Apr 17, 2023 at 14:50
  • 2
    It's "headlinese", reduced from something like South Africans are demanding [that] the world’s largest diamond [should] be returned [to South Africa, from The Queen's crown jewels].
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Apr 17, 2023 at 15:06
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    @FumbleFingers - I wouldn't capitalise 'The' in 'the queen', and as a Guardian reader, wouldn't do so for the queen either.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Apr 17, 2023 at 15:09
  • 2
    Nityananthan, the sentence as quoted accurately is 'headlinese' and not required to be strictly grammatical. Michael has provided a correct version as a proper sentence.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Apr 17, 2023 at 17:59

1 Answer 1

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As noted in comments, this is headlinese, with the usual compression and omitted words that is common in the style.

The structure is

South Africans(subject) are(aux verb) demanding(participle, forming present continuous) ...(object)

The object is a content clause (aka nominal clause, ie a clause acting like a noun), these are often marked with a subordinator "that", but it has been omitted in this case. The structure of the content clause is:

'worlds largest diamond' (subject, by marking it in quotes it means "the thing that is called the world largest diamond, even if this isn't literally true") is (aux verb) returned (past participle, forming passive voice).

This content clause could have used the subjunctive "be returned". But in modern British English, that isn't required.

Finally there is a prepositional phrase which is supplemental to the content clause "from (prepostion) The Queen's crown jewels (object)"

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  • The subjunctive is definitely required in American English here. As John Lawler said, this is ungrammatical here.
    – tchrist
    Commented Apr 17, 2023 at 16:56
  • @tchrist The queen would have disagreed with you.
    – Araucaria - Not here any more.
    Commented Apr 17, 2023 at 22:31

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