part of the mission counts on it take

[suprunp]

We are sticking with good old fashioned chemical rockets - besides which part of the mission counts on it take a few months to get to Mars whilst other planning goes on so it wouldn't be good if the missions were too quick!
(From one forum, the author claims to be from the UK)

Is it Ok to say so and can I paraphrase it this way: "part of the mission counts on it taking a few months to get to Mars..."?

Thanks.

[5jj]

can I paraphrase it this way: "part of the mission counts on it taking a few months to get to Mars..."?

That's what it should be.

[bhaisahab]

There should be a comma after "besides which".

[suprunp]

Is it something that one can hear on an everyday basis or is it a one-time slip of the tongue?

Thanks.

[emsr2d2]

Is it something that one can hear on an everyday basis or is it a one-time slip of the tongue?

Thanks.

I think it's probably just a standard typo. He might have been thinking:

... besides which part of the mission counts on the fact that it will take a few months to get to Mars ...

or

... besides which part of the mission counts on it taking a few months to get to Mars...

and he just got distracted and typed "take" instead of "taking". There's no way of telling. I wouldn't worry about it at all.

[5jj]

I think it's a one-off slip.

I also think (and this is not a criticism) that your posts suggest you have rather over-optimistic expectations of native speakers.

The informal conversation of over half the British population, the language of song lyrics, what you see written in teen magazines and chatrooms, etc make one wonder sometimes whether people who produce grammars of English are living on a different planet. The everyday language of many native speaker is rather different.

Whatever they may claim, most coursebooks, even in their 'conversation' sections, use a moderately semi-formal language that is understood throughout the world by most native speakers, and by most reasonably proficient non-native speakers. Most grammars are based on a similar style, and the combined corpora contain fewer words than are spoken in English in one day.

In a forum such as this, many of us who pontificate regularly try to write a moderately conservative English, unless we clearly state otherwise. However, despite the fact that we are quite well educated teachers, academics, writers etc, we still occasionally come out with an unfortunate turn of phrase from time to time - and please don't mention the typos!

Do not be surprised if you frequently encounter native speakers who say and write what you have been told is incorrect. It happens to all of us.

I am sure the situation is the same in many languages. I know from personal experience that it is in French and German.