The most popular page on languageandgrammar.com (by far) is Sherry’s Grammar List, so I thought I’d highlight the page today. Sherry’s Grammar list contains over 125 common grammar errors, listed in alphabetical order.
–Paul
Fear and hope are opposite emotions, but like so many opposites, the difference between the two is slight. The question, then, is why live in fear when you can live with hope?
Living in fear is living with the belief that a negative outcome is inevitable, whether that means fearing that the job interview will go poorly, the next layoff will be you, sickness is inevitable, or love will never come your way.
Living with hope is living with the belief that a positive outcome is possible, whether that means trusting that the interview will go well, job opportunities abound, good health can last forever, and love is possible for you.
Either way, you’re unsure of the future, so why assume it will be negative when it might very well be positive.
Not Pollyanna
Living with hope is not living in an overly simplistic, pollyanna world where, if you smile, the sun will always shine, and you’ll get everything you want; however, living with hope is a way to increase the likelihood of a successful outcome.
In other words, living positively can mean that if the job interview doesn’t go well, you can take lessons from the failed interview and be more prepared for the next one. That’s better than feeling like a failure and assuming more will follow.
Living with hope can mean that if you get laid off, you can be more relaxed and confident that a better opportunity will follow. That certainly gives you a better opportunity to succeed than assuming that the lost job was the only one for you.
Living with hope can mean that if you become sick or injured, you might develop a greater appreciation of health when it returns, or an appreciation of family and friends. This gives you something positive to focus on during a difficult time, rather than focusing on your problems.
It can mean that if you don’t find someone to share your life with, you’ll learn to enjoy life on your own rather that wallowing in self pity.
Being hopeful is a choice that we can all make.
–Paul
That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. When you share your language pet peeves, we listen. In fact, we also highlight them in a blog post, just as we are today.
Here are about 20 of your pet peeves:
Ok, maybe I’m an idiot (perhaps I should close the comments for this post?!?), but I had no idea that a local store (part of a regional chain) called Just Cabinets sold nearly every type of furniture known to man–sofas, tables, chairs, beds, mattresses, and dining room sets.
Seriously, I have driven past this store over a thousand times, and I’ve never seen the fine print on the sign talking about other furniture because the words JUST CABINETS–about two feet high– seemed to say it all.
Why would I even think that they sold something else?
On the Web site, the logo says JUST CABINETS, with a furniture & more under it. The sign in front of the local store says JUST CABINETS, with small print saying wood furniture and kitchen cabinets hiding in the shadow of the massive words. The text is too small for a driver, at least one who is looking at the road, to notice. Even if I had seen it, I would have assumed that they had cabinets and other country-like pieces of wood furniture, not an entire stock of furniture.
This is like a full-service pet store being called Just Fish when they have the cats and dogs that more people are interested in.
I learned about their extensive inventory during a recent advertising rush—-associated with their Going Out of Business Sale.
And I thought the Scratch and Dent Sales were poor marketing.
–Paul
Just in case you haven’t yet tired of the spoofs of Kanye West at the MTV Video Music Awards last week, here’s one more–it turns out he doesn’t like our site as much as Beyonce’s:
http://kanyelicious.appspot.com/http://languageandgrammar.com
The image was courtesty of Tom from tornadotom.com–design with a twist.
–Paul
Football is not a complicated game. It’s a game of territory, where brute strength is often more important than finesse. It’s a game for big, strong men, not the soft-spoken, pensive type. That’s why it’s surprising to me that the use of inflated language, meaning using larger or more complicated words when straight-forward, simple words will suffice, has spread to the football field.
I recently heard a news story that quoted a coach as saying his young quarterback was intellectually advanced. I guess this young player is so smart that the word smart doesn’t do his vast intellectual capabilities justice.
The problem with inflated language is that it makes you sound as if you’re trying too hard–just say what you mean. It’s easier.
By the way, the word intellectually is often part of word pairs that fall into the inflated language category, such as:
I could go one, but I’m afraid that it would no longer be intellectually stimulating.
–Paul
I’ve said it before, and I’m sure that I’ll say it again: We all make mistakes, so we at languageandgrammar.com don’t usually play the gotcha game when we see a mistake; however, there are instances when language and grammar mistakes are a little too funny/ironic/disturbing to pass up.
All of the political signs shown here come from a community.livejournal.com site, linked here and linked from the images. These aren’t our images (believe me, they’re not!), so we want to make sure that proper credit is given. Follow the link for even more examples.
What Did the Pot Call the Kettle?
I can almost hear “Prowd too be an Amaricen” playing in the background.
Honk for BETTER-ER Spelling
I hope that they didn’t take that poor kid out of school for this–some more learnin’ are needed.
Boycott Third-Grade English Class
I also have to wonder who would possibly think a hyphen would be needed—-and he looks so darn proud of his sign.
I could show more, but I’m getting too disturbed…
–Paul
If you’ve read the blog much (or Literally, the Best Language Book Ever), you know that we favor direct, honest communication over indirect, insincere, trendy, or over-inflated communication, so I was thrilled when I heard President Obama use the rarely used l-word in his speech to the Congress last night.
That’s right–Obama said lie—L…….I……..E–about a lie being spread about his proposed health care reform. He didn’t say mislead, misinform, misspeak, factually inaccurate, disingenuous, or any other trendy word or non-word instead of the direct, straightforward word lie. Here’s that part of the speech:
Some of people’s concerns have grown out of bogus claims spread by those whose only agenda is to kill reform at any cost. The best example is the claim, made not just by radio and cable talk show hosts, but prominent politicians, that we plan to set up panels of bureaucrats with the power to kill off senior citizens. Such a charge would be laughable if it weren’t so cynical and irresponsible. It is a lie, plain and simple.
I found it refreshing.
I know that the word lie is often used in politics, but it’s not typically used as a way to refute a false statement. Lie is usually reserved for use in instances when a politician wants to create a distraction about something that is, in fact, true. For instance, when a politician is accused of flying to another country to have an illicit affair, he might say “it’s a lie” two days before he admits the truth and calls himself a repentant sinner.
Or he might yell out “liar” from the back of a crowded room when an honest statement is made that he doesn’t want to hear; however, it’s rarely used as it should be–to refute a dishonest statement.
A law dictating direct communication would pass by a unanimous consent here at languageandgrammar.com
–Paul
When given a choice between something positive or negative, always pick the positive. That’s the case in life and in language, and most negative words and emotions are closely related to positive words and emotions.
For instance, why be envious when you can be supportive instead?
Envy
An envious person is one who focuses on something that another person has in a covetous way–whether it be an accomplishment or a possession–leaving the envious person feeling negative and less hopeful.
This makes sense since the envious person is focusing on the negative–wanting the other person to fail or focusing on what he, himself, doesn’t have or hasn’t accomplished. This is not the approach successful people use.
Support
A supportive person is one who encourages another in a helpful way–by encouraging someone to do (or be) more or sharing the joy of another person’s accomplishment or abundance–leaving the supportive person feeling positive and more hopeful.
This also makes sense since the supportive person is focusing on what is possible, not only for others but also for himself.
A focus on the positive and a belief in the future–that’s a hallmark of success.
–Paul
Everyone makes mistakes (it’s not like the blog entries here, especially mine, are perfect), so we don’t often play the game of gotcha when we see a mistake; however, there is so much confusion between lose and loose that I wanted to highlight a recent error.
Notice the caption on this Getty image–he looses the ball instead of loses the ball. The ball is, indeed, loose after he loses it, but that doesn’t mean he loosed it!
–Paul
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