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I don't order things online, but sometimes others do so for me, and I'm always amused / bemused by wording such as this:  "Your package will ship on 1/23/25". Normally, I would expect "your package will be shipped on 1/23/25" or "we will ship your package on 1/23/25".  Now, however, "Your package will ship on 1/23/25" seems to have become almost standard.

Here's a real-life example, received this afternoon:

We have received and begun processing your gift selection. Your gift will ship via United Parcel Service, to the address you confirmed during the ordering process. We expect your gift to ship within 2 weeks.

This usage can also appear in the past tense:  "your package shipped on 12/23/24" instead of "your package was shipped on 12/23/24".

The intransitive in such constructions seems peculiar / odd enough that customers have to ask the shipping companies (Fedex, UPS, USPS, Amazon) what it means, and the shipping companies in turn have prepared explanations about what happens when "a package will ship" and what happened when "a package (has) shipped".

Ship:  past, present, and future; transitive and intransitive; active, pssive.

Selected readings

• "Grilling, staging, and landing" (5/5/11)
• "Past, present, and future" (12/4/14)

January 18, 2025 @ 9:03 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Grammar, Language and business

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