Archive for December, 2008
Posted by languageandgrammar on December 30, 2008
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: While not all of us care about using proper grammar at all times, we all have at least one language pet peeve. As you’ll notice from the Pet Peeves page on our site, language pet peeves can certainly be grammar related, but they might also be a word or phrase that’s redundant, annoyingly trendy, or just doesn’t make any sense.
I recently saw a blog about Texas Rangers’ pitcher Kevin Millwood, who has to pitch a certain number of innings in order to be guaranteed the final year of his contract. If he reaches the requirement, then he will make $12,000,000 in 2010. An article about Millwood’s contract status said that Millwood had “12 million reasons to pitch 180 innings in 2009.”
The blogger on mlbtraderumors.com wonders why every dollar is a reason (Odds and Ends: Abreu, Wiggington, and Millwood). That sounds like a pet peeve to me, and by the way, I couldn’t agree more. I would hope that Millwood, a professional athlete with years of experience, would want to pitch well for reasons that go beyond money, such as the benefit of the team, pride, and because it’s the right thing to do.
Of course, since the original article (Millwood Steaming Toward Next Season) states that he’s lost 12 pounds and is determined to rebound, perhaps that wasn’t the case. Wait, 12 pounds with 12 million dollars on the line—–that’s a million dollars per pound of fat!
–Paul
Paul’s book–Literally, the Best Language Book Ever
Sherry’s Grammar List
Posted in grammar, language, writing | Tagged: 12 million reasons, English, Kevin Millwood, language pet peeves, major league baseball, mlbtraderumors, writing | 3 Comments »
Posted by languageandgrammar on December 23, 2008
It is with great shame that I must report that I have to write about one of my own language failings. When it was bitterly cold the other morning, I reported that I’ve never been that cold before.
While I thought it was an honest statement, with the slightest bit of research (I am a meteorologist, by the way), I quickly was able to prove that this was not the case. The temperature was 7 degrees with a wind chill of -14. It was, indeed, horrendously cold. I have, however, been exposed to much colder conditions at various times in my life, most notably when I was paperboy some 30 years ago and when we had a -17-degree day about 13 years ago.
Those details don’t matter, of course; the point is that saying I’ve never been that cold before tells the listener nothing of importance–unless the listener knows me well enough to make a judgment based on my past experiences. If he knew that I was from Miami, then he would understand the statement; if he knew that I was an Arctic explorer, then he’d be impressed with the statement. Otherwise, the person to whom I’m speaking would have no way to put my experiences into his perspective in order to understand how cold it was.
It would be much more effective to communicate in a way that the other person understands, which means taking the personalization out of it. For example, I could talk about how the biting wind made it feel as if there were ice cubes where my eyes used to be or that it was so cold that I wanted to eat ice cream so that I could feel the warmth going down my throat—all much better and much more descriptive than I’ve never been that cold before.
–Paul
Paul’s book–Literally, the Best Language Book Ever
Sherry’s Grammar List
Posted in grammar, language, writing | Tagged: English, grammar, I've never been that cold before, imprecise language | 7 Comments »
Posted by languageandgrammar on December 22, 2008
It’s late in December, and that means that it’s time for one of the most annoying traditions of the year (no, I don’t mean Christmas, but seriously, haven’t we had enough of Christmas already?).
It means that it’s time for top 10 list after top 10 list after top 10 list. To be accurate, some of the lists are top 25 or top 100, but you get the point. It’s time for every major media outlet to review the year that was: 2008.
The funniest thing is when someone is reviewing the year’s events and feels the need to review something that just happened or is still fresh in the news. “Our number 9 story on the greatest scandals of the year involves Illinois governor Blagojevich…” That almost slipped my mind–I hadn’t heard anything about that for five minutes.
Anyway, in keeping with the spirit of the season, here is my top 10 list of annoying top 10 lists:
Number 10: Top 10 movies of 2008
Number 9: Top 10 songs of 2008
Number 8: Top 10 political scandals of 2008
Number 7: Top 10 weather stories of 2008
Number 6: Top 10 sporting events of 2008
Number 5: Ryan Seacrest on New Year’s Eve (I know it’s not a top 10 list, but it’s very annoying)
Number 4: Top 10 vegetables of 2008 (hey, Food TV needs to get in on the act)
Number 3: Top 10 bank collapses of 2008
Number 2: Top 10 Bush lies of 2008
And my Number 1 annoying top 10 list: Top 10 top 10 lists of 2008
–Paul
Paul’s book–Literally, the Best Language Book Ever
Sherry’s Grammar List
Posted in humor, language | Tagged: Christmas, new year's, top 10 lists | 1 Comment »
Posted by languageandgrammar on December 17, 2008
I heard someone on television (one of my favorite resources for grammar errors) use the grammar error Alls, as in Alls I know is…. It’s not an error that I hear often, but it has been around for a very long time. I remember a childhood family friend saying it—and that was eons ago!
There is no alls; the standard word is All, as in All I know is that we were supposed to meet at 8:00.
Sherry
Posted in grammar, language, writing | Tagged: alls, English, grammar error, language, writing | Comments Off
Posted by languageandgrammar on December 16, 2008
While British English allows for period placement outside quotation marks, in American English, the period goes inside the quotation marks.
He referred to the people being wrestled to the ground and the shoes flying in mid-air as a “disagreement.”
Paul said, “If you can’t park it, then don’t drive it off the lot.”
She called their actions “a sad commentary on contemporary culture.”
When asked if she was leaving because of poor client relations, she said, “Yes.”
Sherry
Posted in grammar, language, writing | Tagged: English, grammar error, language, quotation marks, writing | Comments Off
Posted by languageandgrammar on December 15, 2008
It’s our one-year anniversary (belated by a couple of days), and we wanted to briefly thank all of you for making our first year such a success.
It’s been an exciting year, not only because it was our first year writing a grammar and language blog but also because of the publication of Paul’s first book. We appreciate those of you who have helped to make the book such a success, and we thank those of you who have contributed to the tens of thousands of blog page views, some in search of grammar help and others in search of just a little entertainment. We hope to continue to be a resource for grammar and language information for years to come.
It’s been a pleasure to make new friends—and humbling to be welcomed by being added to so many blog rolls—and we hope to write a post in the near future about some of those new friends.
That’s for another day, though—when it’s not our anniversary.
–Paul and Sherry
Posted in language, off topic | Tagged: Happy Anniversary, language and grammar blog | Comments Off
Posted by languageandgrammar on December 12, 2008
What does supposably mean? Is it supposed to mean in a supposed way? How about able to be supposed? No, I don’t suppose; those don’t make sense. In reality, supposably is a non-word that is mistakenly used for the correct word supposedly.
She supposedly went shopping for a new saxophone, but I think I saw her having dinner with my husband!
This supposedly comes with a one-year guarantee, but I didn’t find any paperwork in the box.
Sherry
Posted in grammar, language, writing | Tagged: English, grammar error, language, supposably, supposedly, writing | Comments Off
Posted by languageandgrammar on December 11, 2008
While flipping around the dial (that’s what we used to say back in the good old days), I heard the host of a travel show tell a traveler that Italy is the most user-friendly country. A country is user friendly?
User friendly, a trendy term that is pretty useless as far as I’m concerned since we already have words to describe things that are easy to use—such as easy to use—means easy to use! The problem, in this case, is that a country cannot be easy to use. You don’t use a country. You travel there, you live there, you film a documentary there, you take a vacation there, you enjoy the scenery there, and you do lots of things there, but you don’t use it. You use its services, but you don’t use the country. I’m not even sure what she meant by saying that Italy is user friendly. Did she mean that Italians are friendly? Did she mean that the geography is such that it’s easy to find your way around? Did she mean that they have superior services for foreigners?
User friendly: a ridiculous term made even more ridiculous by people who don’t know how to use it.
Sherry
Posted in grammar, language, writing | Tagged: easy to use, English, grammar, language, user friendly, writing | Comments Off
Posted by languageandgrammar on December 10, 2008
Whenever I hear someone give a logical reason, I wonder how many illogical reasons they’ve given.
A reason is the basis or cause of a belief or action, and it’s assumed that that these beliefs or causes are based on logic. We don’t generally make our decisions based on a lack of logic; at least I hope we don’t. That’s why a logical reason is redundant, at least for most of us.
–Paul
Paul’s book–Literally, the Best Language Book Ever
Sherry’s Grammar List
Posted in grammar, humor, language, politics, sports, writing | Tagged: grammar, grammar error, language, redundancy, redundant language, writing | 1 Comment »
Posted by languageandgrammar on December 8, 2008
The economy is a very serious problem now, but I’m going to talk about a much less serious problem—our obsessive use of the term credit crunch.
Credit crunch is everywhere. During car commercials (local or national), I hear that you shouldn’t let the credit crunch keep you from buying a car. On the local news, I hear about how the credit crunch is hurting small business owners. On the national news, I hear about how the credit crunch is affecting the economy. On the street, I hear people talking about bailouts and the credit crunch.
I have on question: Does anyone know what credit crunch means? It’s hard to imagine that a very complicated national problem that has world-wide economic implications—a problem that the greatest economic minds on the globe are debating how to address—can be reduced to a two-word term that says it all–credit crunch. Somehow, that’s what we’ve done.
Speaking for myself, I’d prefer hearing a little more detail about the problem and what the potential solutions are rather than yet another mindless catch phrase.
–Paul
Paul’s book–Literally, the Best Language Book Ever
Sherry’s Grammar List
Posted in politics, writing | Tagged: credit crunch, economic crisis, economy, language, politics, writing | Comments Off
