An entry for our “Fun with Headlines” category … the iGoogle news headline for this story is:
“Students shot at Detroit bus stop”
(click here for the real story)
What comes to your mind?
Here’s what came to ours:
Posted in General, GrammarGag Reel (fun stuff), GrammarGarnish (wordplay), tagged bus, bus stop, confusion, Detroit, English, fun, gang busters, grammar, headline, iGoogle, language, news, shot, stop, students, usage, Web, words, writing on June 30, 2009| Leave a Comment »
An entry for our “Fun with Headlines” category … the iGoogle news headline for this story is:
“Students shot at Detroit bus stop”
(click here for the real story)
What comes to your mind?
Here’s what came to ours:
Posted in General, GrammarGoofs & Gaff(e)s, GrammarGrave (lost causes), GrammarGripes (pet peeves), tagged advertisement, blog, cable, commercial, confusion, copywriter, correct, discover, English, eTrade, gaffe, goof, grammar, Hanes, language, learn, loss, mistake, pet peeve, slim, SLIMQUICK, spot, tv, usage, Walmart, weight, words, writing on June 30, 2009| Leave a Comment »
A while back, we wrote a post called “Breaking with the past …” in which we explored some rules for and exceptions to forming the past tense, especially with the “… ink” words.
Last night, we saw a TV commercial … for SLIMQUICK™ … that riled us up again.
Here’s the quote from the not-so-slim cartoon woman on the TV ad … she says to/about her slimming male counterpart:
“We’re trying to lose weight, so we cut out junk food. I shrunk one size. He shrunk six sizes.”
Goodness! This is slim (actually, grim) grammar. Come on, the past tense of shrink is shrank …
Just to make sure we heard correctly, we replayed the spot several times, in disbelief. Why are we always so shocked at advertising grammar goofs? (click here to see another example) After all, an advertising great (copywriter for such brands as Hanes, Walmart, Discover, and eTrade) once wrote to us, and we quote, “… honestly, grammar doesn’t mean much in advertising.” Still, it ruffles our feathers when we hear companies allow such blatant English language slaughter on the TV airwaves (and cable). Maybe our consolation must be that if there are not these gaffes, we wouldn’t have much to blog about?
Your thoughts?
Posted in General, GrammarGag Reel (fun stuff), Vocabulary Builders, tagged confusion, definition, dictionary, English, fun, grammar, headline, health, language, learn, mosquito, news, novel, People's Pharmacy, technique, usage, vocabulary, Web, words, writing, zap, zapping on June 30, 2009| Leave a Comment »
We love the health site, The People’s Pharmacy. Not only do they offer wonderful tips for safe and healthy living, their headlines often provide great fodder for our “Fun with Headlines” blog posts. For example, one of today’s headlines reads:
“Novel Technique for Zapping Mosquitos”
(click here for the real story)
What comes to your mind?
Here’s what came to ours:
Let’s look at our word of the day: novel.
1. novel. noun.
2. novel. adjective.
3. novel. noun.
Source: dictionary.com
Posted in General, GrammarGrave (lost causes), GrammarGripes (pet peeves), PunctuationPerils, tagged blog, comma, confusion, correct, definition, dictionary, English, fun, grammar, Harvard, issue, language, mark, oxford, punctuation, question, serial, tweet, twitter, usage, Web, Wiki, words on June 29, 2009| 2 Comments »
We have been asked several times, “what’s your opinion on the Oxford (or serial) comma?” So, we’re going to cross-post an entry from our sister site: Comma Clout for our readers here …
From last week:
A lot of buzz around this issue today … Barrett got us blogging when he sent this tweet:
Per Wiki, the serial comma (also known as the Oxford comma and the Harvard comma) is the comma used immediately before a grammatical conjunction (usually and, or, and sometimes nor) preceding the final item in a list of three or more items. More simply, as per AskOxford.com, the ‘Oxford comma’ is an optional comma before the word ‘and’ at the end of a list.
For example, this three-media list can be punctuated as either “Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter” (with the serial comma) or as “Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter” (without the serial comma).
There is no consensus among writers and editors on the usage or avoidance of the serial comma. Most American English authorities recommend its use, but it seems to be less frequent in British English. In many languages (e.g., French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish) the serial comma is not the norm; it may even be explicitly forbidden by punctuation rules – but it may be allowed or even recommended in some cases to avoid ambiguity or to aid understanding when reading.
Wikipedia actually has an excellent section on this topic. Take a look:
Contents
1 Arguments for and against
2 Ambiguity
3 Usage
4 References & External links
We have relaxed our own position on the use of the serial comma. Before text limits of 140 characters or thereabouts, we would insist, but now, we say lose any extra character you can while preserving meaning.
There are many views on this little mark. Click here to read one solution. What’s your view?
sources: Wikipedia, dictionary.com, AskOxford.com, Twitter
Posted in General, GrammarGag Reel (fun stuff), GrammarGarnish (wordplay), Vocabulary Builders, tagged celebrity, complex, confusion, death, definition, dictionary, English, fun, grammar, headline, language, meaning, Michael Jackson, multiple, music, news, noun, object, people, perception, Quincy Jones, R.I.P., Rest In Peace, rip, tear, tear up, usage, verb, vocabulary, words, writing on June 29, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Given several untimely celebrity deaths of-late, and the content of our yesterday’s blog post on the multiple definitions of words, this post is eerily related.
We saw this People Magazine news headline today, and it just reinforced the fact that our English language is complex. Many words have many meanings and perceptions can frequently transport us among those meanings …
“Quincy Jones Tears Up When Hearing Michael’s Music”
(click here for the real story)
What comes to your mind?
Here’s what came to ours:
We are truly not trying to be irreverent here … let’s just take a look at an interesting four-letter word: tear.
1. tear. noun. pronounced [teer]
tear. verb (used without object)
tear. Idiom
2. tear. verb (used with object). pronounced [tair]
tear. verb (used without object)
tear. noun the act of tearing.
tear. Verb phrases: tear at, tear down, tear into, tear off, tear up
tear. Idioms: tear it, tear one’s hair, tear one’s hair out
More coincidence …
Rip is a synonym for tear [tair], as in to break, split, or shred. And, R.I.P., as you likely know, stands for Rest In Peace, which is what we wish for all who have met their mortality.
Source: dictionary.com
Posted in General, GrammarGoofs & Gaff(e)s, GrammarGripes (pet peeves), tagged comma, confusion, correct, email, English, goof, grammar, Grammar Police, language, mistake, pet peeve, phish, punctuation, spam, their, their vs. there, there, they're, they're vs. their, usage, Web, words on June 27, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Got this spam/phishing email a few weeks ago about unusual bank activity and a possible suspension of a bank account … yeah, right.
Anyway, the email is in need of the Grammar Police and Comma Clout, so here goes …
“Dear Bank Customer_ ,
Because of unusual number of invalid login attempts on your account, we had to believe that, their might be some security problem on your account…”
Comma Clout needed:
Grammar Policing needed:
See the Grammar Police blog post: “There you have it … ” for more on There vs. Their (and They’re).
Posted in General, GrammarGag Reel (fun stuff), tagged bill, change, climate, confusion, English, fun, grammar, headline, hot, language, law, news, Reuters, senate, United States, usage, Web, words, writing on June 27, 2009| Leave a Comment »
More weekend fun with headlines …
Today, Reuters reports (with this news headline):
“Climate Change Bill to Heat Up Senate”
(click here for the real story)
What comes to your mind?
Here’s what came to ours:
You must be logged in to post a comment.