Archive for April, 2009
Posted by languageandgrammar on April 30, 2009
We’ve all done it–either misstated something or slightly mangled a common statement or cliche, and the result was a humorous sentence that didn’t make sense. I call this “close but no cigarette.”
One of our blogger friends, Pamela Villars, recently posted a comment about such an example. She’d heard a news report stating that “The city will replant the trees that it has cut down.” I doubt that planting those now-dead trees is going to work; they’d be better off planting new trees.
I recently came across a Web site that highlighted many erroneous statements, most of which were written in non-English-speaking countries, which makes the mistakes more understandable–but not any less funny.
Here are a few examples (for the entire article, read Whoops! That’s not what I meant):
In an Acapulco hotel: The manager has personally passed all the water served here. (He must spend a lot of time in the bathroom.)
In a cemetery: Persons are prohibited from picking flowers from any but their own graves. (Remind me not to go to this place when the moon is full.)
In a Japan hotel: You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid. (Talk about customer service!)
–Paul
Posted in grammar, humor, language, writing | Tagged: cliches, grammar, humor, humorous language mistakes, language, mangled cliches, writing | 2 Comments »
Posted by languageandgrammar on April 29, 2009
Sometimes, learning grammar rules can be torturous. Or is it tortuous?
Be careful with these two words; the second “r” makes all the difference. Torturous has torture as its root, and it means that something is very painful, that is, causes torture. Having to sit through a 45-minute meeting on the evils of using the word “problem” instead of “issue” when talking to clients was torturous.
Tortuous (without the second “r”) refers to something that has many twists and turns, as in Malibu Canyon is a tortuous road. Tortuous also can refer to something that has many twists and turns psychologically, that is, is circuitous, as in His argument was so tortuous that I never quite saw his point—except for the one clearly perched on top of his head.
So, is learning grammar rules torturous or tortuous? I suppose depending on who’s doing the teaching, it can be both.
Sherry
Posted in grammar, language, writing | Tagged: English, grammar, language, tortuous, torturous, word choices, writing | 1 Comment »
Posted by languageandgrammar on April 27, 2009
Richard Nixon once said, “…when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.” Well, that might be true of wire-tapping without court-approved warrants and opening the mail of private citizens without legal consent (I know, I know, but I really am talking about Nixon, not about a more recent President), but I’m almost certain that it does NOT hold true for grammar, punctuation, and pronunciation errors.
NOW, speaking of former President Bush……while he consistently pronounced the word “nuclear” as NUCULAR, the word is pronounced the way it is spelled: NU-CLE-AR.
Enough said——-trust me.
Sherry
Posted in grammar, language, writing | Tagged: English, George Bush, grammar errors, nuclear, nucular, pronunciation errors | 1 Comment »
Posted by languageandgrammar on April 23, 2009
We at languageandgrammar.com don’t throw around the term “great” loosely, but Forbes.com has a great article on the evolution of words. Actually, we’re just having a little bit of fun. It wouldn’t be fair for us to comment on the quality of the article—since we wrote it.
We did think that our regular readers might appreciate being directed to the article, though; it’s called Why Language Changes.
Our article is part of a larger feature on neologisms. You can see the entire feature here.
Posted in grammar, language, writing | Tagged: forbes.com, grammar, language, neogolisms, paul yeager, sherry coven, why language changes, writing | 5 Comments »
Posted by languageandgrammar on April 22, 2009
This is another installment of your pet peeves, taken straight from the comment section of the Your Pet Peeves page. We’re doing this because we ran out of topics–I mean because we want to highlight your pet peeves.
Seriously, one of the great things about the blog has been hearing what bothers other people–whether it be a grammatical mistake or just an annoying or misused phrase.
Here are about 20 more of yours:
- “Further” for distance (instead of farther)
- Using “may” when it should be “might”
- “Then/Than” confusion (Example: My pet peeves are better then yours)
- “They’re/there/their” confusion (They’re, Their, They’re)
- Using “of” instead of “have” (Could Of, Should Of, Would Of–I Mean, Have)
- Misuse of “Person and me” (Example: Languageandgrammar.com is written by Sherry and myself or Languageandgrammar.com is written by Sherry and I) (Fun with Pronouns) (Me and You)
- “whole entire” redundancy
- “attempt to try” redundancy
- “desire to want” redundancy
- “same exact” redundancy (If It’s The Same, then It’s Exact)
- “whole generation” redundancy–am I repeating myself?
- “hunker down” “hunker in the bunker” overuse by the media
- mispronunciation of “negotiations” as “nego-see-a-shuns” (I never thought of that, but I think she’s right–now I’ll be annoyed when I hear it.)
- “Healthy/healthful” confusion (Is it healthy or healthful?)
- “I will be going to…,” “I will be asking…,” and “I will be giving,” instead of “I will go,” “I will ask,” and “I will give”
- “as per” and “going forward” (overly trendy) (Example: Going forward, we’ll follow the rules as per our agreement) (Meeting Doubletalk)
- Overuse of “awesome”
- Overuse of, like, “like” (It Was Like a Nightmare or Something)
- “Two choices” when it’s two options (two, I mean, too subtle)
- “Buy now and save” (Spend and Grow Rich)
Posted in grammar, language, writing | Tagged: grammar, language, pet peeves, writing | Comments Off
Posted by languageandgrammar on April 19, 2009
Spring is that special time of year. Flowers bloom, little woodland creatures awaken from their long winter’s nap, and the grass and trees start to green up.
Wait a minute. Everything starts to green up? What does that mean?
Maybe the term is simply a charming little Pennsylvania term–minus the charm. Or, it’s part of the national obsession of turning nouns into verbs–more specifically, in this case, the trend of turning colors into verbs.
Green is, of course, an adjective, and it describes the way something looks. In the example, it’s a green table cloth, the word green describes the tablecloth. In the example, it’s starting to green up, the word green means that you didn’t pay attention in English class.
In order for green to be a verb, it would have to be used in different tenses. For example, in the sentence I turn green when I’m sick, turn is the verb. You could also say I turned green…, I will turn green…, I have turned green…, etc. There are more tenses, of course, but you get the point.
Let’s try different tenses with green as a verb. The grass greens up; the grass greened up; the grass has been greening for some time now. At the risk of repeating myself, what does that mean? We would never say (I hope) that the grass browns down in the winter or that the leaves orange up in the fall.
Let’s show green up the lack of respect it deserves.
–Paul
Posted in grammar, language, writing | Tagged: grammar, green up, language, using nouns as verbs, writing | Comments Off
Posted by languageandgrammar on April 16, 2009
I was shocked by a recent article that claims that teenagers use curse words 80 to 90 times per day on average (Curse words trendy language among teenagers). I was shocked because I thought it would be more like a thousand.
The need to use so many swear words says something–either about the state of our language or the state of our teenagers–but I choose to focus on the effectiveness of curse words.
The effectiveness of a curse word is in the effect that it has on the speaker or the listener. I’m not a psychologist, but I’m sure that both are reasons that teenagers use so many. They want to be perceived as tough or cool or trendy, so they use curse words; they also like the shock value that the words have on adults. Swear words and teenagers–it’s a match made it heaven–I mean hell.
While some of us can work five swear words into a sentence about grandma, puppies, and rainbows, it might be good to remember that they lose their effectiveness with overuse just like any other word. Back in the heyday of stand-up comedians in the late 1980s and early 1990s, most stand-up comedians prided themselves on how many swear words they could include in a 15-minute set; in fact, they depended on them for their comedy. At the end of the show, you’d be lucky to remember one f-filled joke. Most of those comedians, I will note, had a shorter shelf life than a carton of milk in a sauna.
That contrasted dramatically with Jerry Seinfeld, who refused to rely on curse words. In the one instance in which Seinfeld decided to use a swear word on his television show, it was done in the context of his being a mentor to a young boy. It was funny and memorable–because it was in context and was the exception to the rule.
I guess I’m not saying that you shouldn’t swear but that you should pick your spots…
–Paul “F-bomb” Yeager
Posted in grammar, language, writing | Tagged: grammar, language, swearing, teenage trends, teenager swearing, writing | 5 Comments »
Posted by languageandgrammar on April 13, 2009
I recently heard the word pre-prepared, and not being a word historian, I don’t know whether this is an old word that’s being used again or a new word needed to meet the demands of our fast-paced society. (Please note the sarcasm.)
I’m guessing that it’s the latter–that somehow someone has decided that since some things, such as food, have two levels of preparation, we can call the first layer pre-preparing, as in How to Pre-Prepare Foods for Weight Loss. (By the way, the headline makes it seem as if it’s the food, not the person, who’s is being prepared, I mean pre-prepared, for weight loss–I guess when the food is eaten, it will weigh less.)
Prepare means to get something ready in advance, so pre-prepare must mean to get something ready before you get it ready in advance.
I’m not ready to be that prepared.
–Paul
Posted in grammar, language, writing | Tagged: grammar, language, pre-prepare, trendy words, writing | 1 Comment »
Posted by languageandgrammar on April 10, 2009
It’s time for more of your pet peeves, taken straight from comments left on the Your Pet Peeves Page. We’re grateful for all of the comments that we’ve gotten so far, so wanted to highlight them.
I’m listing them in the order that they were received and am including any links to posts that we wrote that match well with the peeve being mentioned.
- confusing you’re and your (You’re/Your)
- using the pronoun after stating the noun (such as a sportscaster saying “The Milwaukee Brewers they play the Cubs this afternoon)
- Saying “What’s your name from home?” instead of asking about a maiden name
- There she goes again coming back (What?!?!?)
- Misuse of “I feel,” such as “I feel this will be a difficult election year”
- Confusion between “every day” and “everyday” (Does this happen everyday or every day?)
- “Down” for direction (such as “going down to the park.”)
- Family name apostrophes on houses, etc. (Wilson’s residence)
- VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) Number
- Using a single hyphen instead of a double to indicate a dash (that was a shot at yours truly, but the problem was a glitch in my wordpress template–(double) how’s that for deflection?)
- Plan ahead
- Past history/past experience
- Mispronouncing “a” and “the” in front of certain words
- Where’s it at (Where are you at?)
- Using “whenever” when it should be “when”
- Skipping the “to be” verb (such as “Does it need painted?”) Note: This peeve is dedicated to western Pennsylvania
- “They finally won their first game of the season” instead of something like “They finally got their first victory.”
- “free reign” when it should be “free rein” (Wait–that was about a mistake in Literally, the Best Language Book Ever. If you don’t believe me, then you’ll have to buy and copy and look for the mistake–how’s that for not-so-subtle promotion?)
Posted in grammar, language, writing | Tagged: grammar, grammar errors, language, language pet peeves, writing | 5 Comments »
Posted by languageandgrammar on April 6, 2009
I apologize to all of the people I know who will read this and think I’m singling them out because they will most likely make some version of the statement during the next 24 hours. I’m not, and that’s part of the point of the type of statement I like to call “You Thought You Were Clever, But….” We all do it–we make that non-clever, obvious statement even though when we hear the very same statement, we roll our eyes and shake our heads.
Do your friends, family, and co-workers a favor, and don’t make any of these comments about the local Major League Baseball team after the first game of the season:
- The Pirates are going 162-0 this year
- At least we know that the Pirates won’t go 0-162 this year
- At least we know that the Pirates will win one game this year
There are probably other versions, but you get the point.
It’s not funny. It’s not original. It’s as annoying as saying “See you next year” on December 31.
–Paul
Posted in language, sports | Tagged: baseball, cliches, language, major league baseball, Pittsburgh Pirates, sports | Comments Off
