Top Ten Top 10 Lists of 2008

Posted on December 22, 2008 by languageandgrammar

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

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Alls Is a Grammar Error

Posted on December 17, 2008 by languageandgrammar

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

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You Can Quote Me on That

Posted on December 16, 2008 by languageandgrammar

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

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Happy Anniversary

Posted on December 15, 2008 by languageandgrammar

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

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It’s Supposedly, Not Supposably

Posted on December 12, 2008 by languageandgrammar

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

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User Friendly Is Just Easy to Use

Posted on December 11, 2008 by languageandgrammar

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

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Logical Reason

Posted on December 10, 2008 by languageandgrammar

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

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Credit Crunch

Posted on December 8, 2008 by languageandgrammar

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

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Insensitive Communication

Posted on December 2, 2008 by languageandgrammar

Here at languageandgrammar.com, one of the points that we like to make is that communication goes beyond grammar. Grammar is important, of course, and we’ve written many posts about it (and will continue to do so), but it’s also important to understand how and why we say the things that we do–and how they will be received by the listener.

Many of the things we say might be poor communication for myriad reasons, including being insincere to inarticulate to too informal to too trendy. All of those affect your communication since you, then, appear to be insincere, inarticulate, inappropriate, or overly trendy. That’s not exactly the type of image you want to foster, now, is it?

Some of the things we say might also be too insensitive to others, and here’s just one good example (The Washington Redskins and Political Correctness).

–Paul

Paul’s book–Literally, the Best Language Book Ever

Sherry’s Grammar List

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The New Economics

Posted on November 29, 2008 by languageandgrammar

A true optimist sees opportunity during times of despair, so perhaps the marketing world has a few optimists.

Given the state of the economy, most retail outlets (Walmart aside) are suffering through difficult times, but a couple of companies are trying to sell their products as affordable alternatives—even going to the extreme of directly correlating their products to the word economics.

Mazda is running a sales campaign that uses the term Mazdanomics since their product is fuel efficient and affordable, and DiGiorno Pizza (It’s not delivery–It’s DiGiorno fame) has coined the awkward term DiGiornonomics.

Even an optimist might have a tough time thinking that’s going to catch on.

–Paul

Paul’s book–Literally, the Best Language Book Ever

Sherry’s Grammar List

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