The trigger for the panic

[Over the top]

Hi
Stock market around the world crashed Thursday as investors sold shares in a panic. The trigger for the panic started with Greek debts concerns but spread like a wildfire as a trade accidently placed an order to sell one billion shares of PG Inc.

1) Why is it 'crashed Thursday' not 'crashed on Thursday'?
2) Can I say the trigger of anger, the trigger of violent..etc to refer to anything that makes something starts?

Thanks

[emsr2d2]

Hi

Stock markets around the world crashed Thursday as investors sold shares in a panic. The trigger for the panic [started with Greek debts concerns] was concern over Greek debt, but it spread like a wildfire as a trader accidentally placed an order to sell one billion shares of in PG Inc.

1) Why it's is it "crashed Thursday" not "crashed on Thursday"? This is a frequent construction found in newspapers and magazines where space is at a premium so any extraneous words are left out. We do say things like "I'll call you Monday" instead of "I'll call you on Monday" so it's quite common.

2) Can I say the trigger of anger, the trigger of violent..etc to mean the thing that makes it start? The trigger is the thing that makes something start, but it's always "the trigger for", not of. (Well, you would say "trigger of a gun" obviously, but always "the trigger for + an event.)

We generally buy and sell shares in a company, not of.

Thanks

See above. Corrections are in red, and my comments are in blue.

[Over the top]

Thanks a lot.

[BobK]

...The trigger for the panic started with Greek debts concerns but spread like a wildfire as a trade accidently placed an order to sell one billion shares of PG Inc.
...

Please note that the trigger didn't spread anywhere, nor did the trigger start the resulting thing. A trigger initiates a process - perhaps the spread of the panic, in this case. I'm not sure how concerns can be a trigger though. There's only ever one trigger; mounting concerns triggered the attack (as 'the last straw broke the camel's back'.

So be careful about how you rewrite 'it' - that sentence, I mean - and I think it would be best to pay especial attention to the word 'it', which risks confusion between the trigger and the panic. One way to do this would be to make 'trigger' into a verb, so that the it has to refer back to 'panic' - 'the panic was triggered by... and it spread...'.

b

[Over the top]

Thanks.
Actually the text was written by a native English speaker who claims to be an English teacher. I only made a few mistakes while I'm copying I forgot the s in markets and the r in trader.
I think in colloquial we don't rewrite pronouns for example I want to travel but don't know where to go. Is this correct?

[emsr2d2]

Please note that the trigger didn't spread anywhere, nor did the trigger start the resulting thing. A trigger initiates a process - perhaps the spread of the panic, in this case. I'm not sure how concerns can be a trigger though. There's only ever one trigger; mounting concerns triggered the attack (as 'the last straw broke the camel's back'.

So be careful about how you rewrite 'it' - that sentence, I mean - and I think it would be best to pay especial attention to the word 'it', which risks confusion between the trigger and the panic. One way to do this would be to make 'trigger' into a verb, so that the it has to refer back to 'panic' - 'the panic was triggered by... and it spread...'.

b

Yes, I missed that on my version. "The trigger for the panic...spread like wildfire" does not make sense! In order to leave the start of the sentence as it was, it would be necessary to repeat "the panic" before "spread like wildfire".