Glossary entry

English term or phrase:

Did they come back?

English answer:

Did they come back?

Added to glossary by B D Finch
Jan 14, 2020 20:12
4 yrs ago
1 viewer *
English term

Did they come back?

Non-PRO English Other Marketing / Market Research Marketing
You (or your market researchers) should be asking: What did each customer see at Zero Moment Of Truth, and what did they do when they came to the
store? Did they come back? How often? In other words, what was their flight path and where did they land?



Shouldn't it be "will they come back"?
Change log

Jan 15, 2020 05:27: Edith Kelly changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"

Jan 17, 2020 12:11: B D Finch Created KOG entry

Jan 17, 2020 12:12: B D Finch changed "Edited KOG entry" from "<a href="/profile/570330">B D Finch's</a> old entry - "Did they come back?"" to ""did they come back?""

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (3): Tony M, Francisco Chagas, Edith Kelly

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Discussion

Francisco Chagas Jan 14, 2020:
Tidbit of info. regarding my choice of words* As far as I may tell -- in both style and tone -- the abovementioned passage seems to evoke a rhythm not too dissimilar from one frequently observed along some educational settings, informal chats or simple introspective processes. One that is barren of sophistication and merely wants "to get to the point" (thus, comparable to a colloquial modus).

Too, through a frantic succession of questions, does the author look to imprint these basic questions onto the mind of the reader.

(Of course, as Tony M correctly stated "the questions are being asked about something that happened in the past relative to the moment of asking")


Responses

+7
10 mins
Selected

did they come back?

Why assume the writer made an error? Unless this question is in the past tense, the following "How often?" would be unanswerable.

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Note added at 18 hrs (2020-01-15 14:25:28 GMT)
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@Asker
No, I think Francisco is quite wrong and his use of the word "frantic" is completely inappropriate.
Note from asker:
Is It colloquial as Francisco said ?
Peer comment(s):

agree David Hollywood : not broke don't fix it
2 mins
Thanks David
agree Francisco Chagas : "In-did". The original passage aims to draw a conclusion from any and all customer reactions, and it does so in a frantic (and colloquial) manner. One could even call it a form of "soft-alliteration" [DDDD], something all too frequent in mnemonic devices.
20 mins
Thanks Francisco. However, I think you need to check on the meaning and usage of "frantic" and there's nothing particularly colloquial about it. Also, I don't see any alliteration being used here.
agree Ali Sharifi
1 hr
Thanks Ali
agree Tony M : It's not "colloquial" at all — it's just normal EN tense usage, the questions are being asked about something that happened in the past relative to the moment of asking
2 hrs
Thanks Tony. Quite!
agree Tina Vonhof (X) : 'Did' is consistent with the other sentences.
5 hrs
Thanks Tina
agree Demet Demirtas : The rest of the text refers to the actions in past tense, so the same should follow.
11 hrs
Thanks Demet
agree David Knowles : Horrible passage but, as Tony M says, the grammar is normal.
13 hrs
Thanks David. Indeed.
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
13 hrs

Would they come back?

If the whole thing is referring to the past (have they been back since the first visit) then it’s fine. But it could also possibly mean "would you come back again?" Difficult to tell from the context.
Something went wrong...
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