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grammar - An error message should display or should 'be' displayed?


If the writer means to say that an error message should 'appear' can he phrase the sentence as 'When user clicks the button, an error message should display' or is it more correct to say 'When user clicks the button, an error message should BE displayed'?


English is not my native language and I don't know grammar much but I have a feeling that first sentence is wrong i.e. error message should display because 'display' is an action (verb) that has to be performed on an object. I've never seen the use of word display like this.


Can someone please point out to an article which supports the argument that we can not say 'error message should display' and it should rather be 'should be displayed'? provided my understanding is right. Please correct me if I'm wrong.



Answer



Reg is right that the middle construction "the message should display" is grammatical and would be understood; but it is not how "display" is usually used in English.


"Display" is normally transitive, though the subject can be either the person or thing that causes the message to appear ("the program displays a message") or the surface or medium on which the message appears ("The screen was displaying a warning message").


The only intransitive use I can think of is the special sense of birds or animals showing some prominent feature as part of combat or mating rituals: we can say "The cock displayed to the hen".


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