Hunter P
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2002
- Messages
- 1,483
Isn't that a bit obsessive? Oh, wait, I forgot this was the HTF!
Isn't that a bit obsessive?In various former lives, I was an English teacher and the technical editor of a professional journal. Old habits die hard.
M.
i cant stand when an apostrophe is used when something is pluralAgreed. And I find errors such as this to be most appalling when they are made by businesses in advertising material or signage. I saw a truck with its business sign on the doors and back with "tree removal" spelled "tree removeal". There is an auto shop in the area with a sign listing some of its services and "exhaust" is spelled "exast".
i cant stand when an apostrophe is used when something is plural. "this dealership has 50 car's". and i think it is funny that AOL's 'catch phrase' "you've got mail" is grammatically incorrect. they are basically saying 'you have got mail'. it may sound silly, but it makes more sense to say you've mail, if you wanted to use you've. or how about this.....you have mail? i dont think this is very difficult. but then again, i dont work for AOL
It is futile to protest that "near miss" should be "near collision." This expression is a condensed version of something like "a miss that came very near to being a collision" and is similar to "narrow escape." Everyone knows what is meant by it and almost everyone uses it. It should be noted that the expression can also be used in the sense of almost succeeding in striking a desired target: "His Cointreau soufflé was a near miss."forgive me if i dont hold too much faith in this website after i read this. "everyone knows what it means and everyone uses it" is the reason why this isnt an error in our language. maybe it isnt an error, but i'll need more evidence than that.
CJ
Usage Note: Irregardless is a word that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style, when in fact it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. Coined in the United States in the early 20th century, it has met with a blizzard of condemnation for being an improper yoking of irrespective and regardless and for the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir- prefix and -less suffix in a single term. Although one might reasonably argue that it is no different from words with redundant affixes like debone and unravel, it has been considered a blunder for decades and will probably continue to be so.by the way, what's the rule for using punctuation marks next to quotes? i think i was taught they always go to the left of the quote mark? as in
ted said, "what is your name?"