The nature and scope of what companies add back to EBITDA has broadened significantly over the past few years, to the point that modern-day debt covenants will often reveal three or more pages of expected cost savings and other items that can be added back to boost earnings.

Sometimes it feels like there’s no limit to what companies and their lawyers can come up with. But when it comes to the timeframes for achieving some of these cost savings, good old-fashioned English grammar might impose a hard stop.

Note the difference between these two sentences: