A BAsI CONSTRUCTION one must master to read German expository prose is EXTENDED MODIFIER or EXTENDED ADJECTIVAL construction. One soon learns that German morphology, phonology, and particularly syntax have a way of being remarkably concise, if not downright blunt. The extended modifier saves verbiage of a relative clause and avoids trailing effect of modifiers that follow noun by tucking all punch up front between article and noun, as in this example: ein anfangsfiirjeden Studenten ziemlich schwieriges Problem. Word-for-word phrase translates as 'an initially for every student rather difficult problem,' or, restructured into more idiomatic English syntax, 'a problem that is initially rather difficult for every student.' The word-for-word translation sounds strange in English. Follett's Modern American Usage censures any such English structures, classifying them indiscriminately as Germanisms and rejecting them as deeply at variance with genius of [English] an agglutination of ideas into complex phrases ... against normal articulation of thought and an insult to reason. For him, the language has no need of such fallacious compressions, which corrupt both style and thought. 1 Anyone at home in both Germanic languages is made doubly uncomfortable by Follett's abrupt dismissal. Not only has construction been accepted and utilized for decades in one Germanic language, German, but in recent years it has been gradually working its way into another, English. No dosage of grammatical prescription will be sufficient to cure spread of American extended modifier, because reasons for its popularity and growth are much same as those for its original use in German: economy and impact. Journalists, sponsors, commentators, advertisers, entertainers, gossip columnists, and editors alike are utilizing it to deliver most message with fewest words. What once might have been esthetically odd or ugly is now functionally striking and attractive. After all, medium is message.