Tag Archives: grammar

May 27, 2010 · 8:06 am

Golden anniversary

Today is Word Nymph’s 50th blog post.  I never thought I’d have that much to say.

Milestones are good occasions to look back. 

In 50 blog posts I have learned:

  • Readers have as many peeves and curiosities as I do when it comes to language.  The ones they would like to explore further include “less” versus “fewer,” “use” versus “utilize,” “that” versus “who” and “that” versus “which,”  among others.
  • Most readers don’t take themselves or me too seriously, which is the object of the game here, though occasionally someone does school me with pronounced severity.
  • The search phrases leading to my blog (which I can see on the back end) are, shall we say, interesting.   I definitely underestimated the overall interest in anything nymphish.  Also, there are far more people interested in that silly mayonnaise commercial than I would have thought.  And far fewer people writing about it.  Hence, I might soon attain the title of Mayo Queen.  Thank you, Kraft!
  • I really shouldn’t blog before coffee.

Also on the occasion of this milestone, here’s what I’d like my readers to know:

  • If you see a typo in a post, check back later.  Chances are that it’s been fixed.  After the aforementioned coffee.
  • I appreciate your indulging this experiment of mine.  More than anything, your participation is what makes it fun. 

I hope you’ll stick around.

4 Comments

Filed under All Things Wordish, Family and Friends, Technology and Social Media

Tagged as , , , , , ,

May 22, 2010 · 8:06 am

Justice I am, without one plea

I am feeling a little Andy Rooneyish today.  I can almost hear him narrating this post.

Last month, I was handed a uniform traffic citation outside my home state.  Because there is a court date looming, I realize I am taking a risk by blogging about it.  But I can’t resist.

To recap, a state trooper pulled me over for driving 69 miles per hour in a 55 mile-per-hour zone.  Then he wrote me a ticket for 70 mph, which could have consequences beyond a simple fine.

Following this incident, I received letters from seven of that state’s law firms, pitching their services in helping me get the charge reduced or dismissed.

I finally sat down and combed through all the letters.  The first one hit me with its rash of unnecessary quotation marks, so I decided one way I’d sort the letters would be to weed out those that didn’t pass the Word Nymph test. 

Here’s where Andy Rooney comes in.  Just picture him sitting there behind his cluttered desk, amidst the open envelopes, letters and the waivers they all come with (in case you haven’t been so fortunate as to receive one).

The first letter comes from a “Community Oriented Law Firm.”  In quotes, but no mention of who said it.

The second claims, I am not a Big City law firm.  Is this supposed to be a selling point?  Or is Big City a municipality in that state?

The third letter talks about fines for running a Stop Sign or Red Light.  Capitalized.

The fourth displays the following tagline below the firm name:  honoring Him by serving those with legal challenges in our community with integrity and excellence.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

The fifth one touts its postage-paid envelope for sending back the waiver:  No stamp necessary!  Exclamation point! Wow, if this saves me 44 cents, then they’ve got MY business.

The sixth letter went straight to the bottom of the stack for twice using the obnoxious parenthetical numeral.  That’s in case you wouldn’t otherwise know  – Traffic offenses generally cause insurance points to be assessed against you that will result in increased premiums for a period of three (3) years.  For example, premiums can be doubled for a traffic violation that carries four (4) points.   I’m glad they made that clear, as I was absent the day they taught us how to spell numbers.

The seventh letter begins a paragraph with, If you have not already plead guilty…  Isn’t it pled?  Or pleaded?

The reality is that, if I choose to obtain legal representation, I place my fate in the hands of one of these firms.  And I do so humbly because I am being charged with a violation that has nothing whatsoever to do with grammar or punctuation.  Traffic law is the great equalizer.

Anyone out there have a cousin Vinny?

Word Nymph will resume on Monday, after spending Sunday asking forgiveness for her irreverent headline.

1 Comment

Filed under All Things Wordish, Foibles and Faux Pas

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

May 21, 2010 · 7:50 am

They is wrong

According to the Fake AP Stylebook’s April 21 Facebook post:  “Avoid using masculine pronouns in sentences where the subject’s gender is not specified.  Broads find it offensive.”

What this broad finds offensive is the subject/pronoun disagreement that often occurs as a result of a writer’s attempt at political correctness.

I am a firm believer that political correctness and grammatical correctness are not mutually exclusive.  (Though if I did have to choose?  Hmmm.)

It is incorrect to suggest that “everyone have their say” or “the winner deserves their prize.”  In these instances, because the subject is singular,“their” should be “his.”   “He” and “his” are considered gender neutral, even though they are masculine pronouns.  For those sensitive to gender equity in grammar, “his or her” is perfectly acceptable.  Or,  if we know that the subject, say “winner” in the earlier example, is female, we may say “the winner deserves her prize.  “Their” is just plain wrong.

Also, remember that “everyone” is singular, even though it sounds like a lot of people.  Every one.   So please do not say “everyone is entitled to their opinion.”  

I recently stumbled on a blog that claims to specialize in writing.  I won’t call out the blogger by name because I know how hard it is to churn out copy day after day, and I am the first to admit that, in so doing, I make mistakes regularly. There is a difference between making a mistake and deliberately breaking a well-known rule.

The blogger wrote this week, “It helps a writer’s ego as well as their ability to write if they have peers to read and give feedback on their work.” 

The writer is a “he” or a “she,” not a “they;” otherwise, it would be “writers’ egos” and “writers’ work,” plural.  And if the choice is to go plural possessive, please note where the apostrophe goes.

Six days earlier, the same blogger wrote:  “Everyone has read a bit of bad prose or poetry in their life and access to the Internet seems to make it easier to point out other’s grammatical and spelling errors as well as their downright awful writing in general.”

Oh, really?

3 Comments

Filed under All Things Wordish

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

May 15, 2010 · 8:39 am

Repeat redundancy

In my spare time I’ve been counting pleonasms.

Beginning with my own (that could be one), I am trying to become more aware of the human tendency toward redundancy.

Pleonasm is the use of word combinations that are unnecessary because the words mean the same thing, such as sum total or close proximity.  

Pleonasm isn’t necessarily wrong.  It has been shown in some cases to help clarify or reinforce an idea.

It’s hard to determne exactly when pleonasm is appropriate.  When the waitress tells me a dish includes Brie cheese or sherry wine, I never know whether she is committing a syntactic oversight or patronizing me pleonasmically (an adverb I just made up).

The legal vernacular is full of pleonasm.  Consider cease and desist, terms and conditions and null and void.

A few that make me shiver include ATM machine and PIN number, as well as Please R.S.V.P.

If your interest in this topic extends beyond these general observations, and if you are not afraid to see how many widely used examples are really out there, visit this blog of Pleonasms and Redundant Phrases.  Their list is so extensive it might make you fearful of speaking another word (is that one?)

If you want to make a little game out of it, go in and look at the list, pick one and then substitute a word.  For example, a bouquet of flowers – what else would be in a bouquet?  A bouquet of sneakers?

Try doing this with face mask, tuna fish or visible to the eye.  How about armed gunman?

Have fun with it.  After taking tomorrow off, I will be getting back to my regular routine.

2 Comments

Filed under All Things Wordish

Tagged as , , , ,

April 29, 2010 · 5:07 am

Lay down your peeves

Personally, I find the “Got milk?” ad—and every tired play on it—peeve-provoking.

I found myself tempted to ask, “Got peeves?”  in a tone of ridicule but thankfully, I had my answer before I had the chance to type those clichéd words.

Comments I received on a recent piece on poorly written song lyrics showed that my readers are bursting with word usage gripes, off the radio as well as on.

So, friends, this playground is safe.  Let ‘em out. 

I have a top 10 list of my own, in no particular order.  If there’s sufficient interest, we can explore each one in detail at some later time.  

Apostrophe used to form a plural.  I don’t like to look a gift horse in the mouth, but it’s tempting when the tag reads From: The Smith’s. 

“I” used as an objective pronoun, as in please send your response to Mary and I.  If Mary drops out, send your response to I?  Really?  Conversely, some of the same people bugged by I turn right around and say, she is as old as me.

“Myself,” other than as a reflexive pronoun, as in, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact myself.  You cannot contact myself because you are not I.  Also, “myself” is not an intelligent substitute for “I.”

“Different than” instead of “different from.”  This one appears to have cropped up lately and is getting out of control, even among the most articulate of speakers.  Someone please do something.

Prepositions as sentence-enders.  I realize the rules have relaxed on this one and I am willing to accept that, where it makes sense.  Where it does not make sense:  “How long were you gone for?”  “Where did you get that from?”  “How late will you be out til?”

Random quotation marks.  If you are going to put something in quotes, someone better have said it.  Who said, Wipe your “Feet?”   This example comes from the “blog” of “unnecessary” quotation marks  – check it out for a chuckle. 

Mispronunciation.  One example, Pulitzer is PULL-it-ser, not PEW-lit-ser.  NU-cle-ar, not NU-cue-lar.  I could go on—and will.

Punctuation outside the quotation marks, when writing in the United States.  I realize the Europeans do it differently but, until Jeopardy is filmed in the UK, I’d like the clue-writers to put periods and commas back inside the quotes.

Adverbs preceding absolute adjectives—such as unique, true, accurate or pregnant.  Nothing is “very unique,” “so true,” “completely accurate” or “a little bit pregnant.”  It is or it isn’t.

People who don’t think good grammar matters, especially public speakers.  I read an analogy once that likened good speech to a practiced art.  The commentator noted that, when we go to a musical performance and a singer hits the wrong note, we don’t say, “that’s all right, I know what note he meant to sing.”

Wow, it’s hard to stop at 10.

7 Comments

Filed under All Things Wordish

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

April 26, 2010 · 7:37 am

Today is history

My blood was literally boiling (just making sure you are paying attention).

Yesterday morning on Weekend Today, an error-filled news caption hit me like finger flick between the eyes.  Occasional errors happen—everyone’s human—and,  given it was Sunday, I decided to be charitable and give the show a chance to notice and correct it before the end of the piece.  It almost always happens that way.  A misspelled word or other error appears in the caption but the next time it appears, it’s been corrected.  Not this time.

The caption read, “Single Mom’s of Choice” and focused on women who opt for artificial insemination over waiting for a mate.  Of course the first thing that jumped off the screen (not literally but almost) was the misplaced apostrophe in Mom’s.  Then I noticed the erroneous preposition.  It should have read Single Moms by Choice, not of Choice.  Single moms of choice would mean someone chose them.  The whole caption needed to be scrapped.

Jenna Wolfe had introduced the piece by saying that “one out of four children are raised by a single parent.”  Come on, where are the editors?   As the sloppy caption popped up for about the fourth time, “Relationship Expert” Robi Ludwig explained that for women over 35, “their options for fertility is decreasing.” 

I had already choked on my French Roast during Jenna’s earlier blathering about something, I can’t recall what because all I heard was, “I was like…and Lester was like… and then I was like…and then he was like…”  Is this a morning news program or the cafeteria at San Fernando Valley Junior High?

That’s it.  Charles Osgood, I’ve loved you for years.  You are smart and articulate and your stories are intelligent and interesting.  I’ve seen the error of my ways.  I am moving to CBS where the writers, producers, anchors and reporters don’t share one brain cell.

4 Comments

Filed under All Things Wordish, Movies, Television and Radio, News, Rants and Raves

Tagged as , , , , , ,

April 17, 2010 · 8:16 am

Poetic license suspension

It’s tough duty being a fan of good word usage and classic rock. 

I spent my formative years in front of the radio, appreciating the Great Poets of my time—Elton John, Jackson Browne, James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt, to name a few.  To this day, the lyrics of the 60s and 70s occupy most of my cranial hard drive, leaving room for little else.

While so many of the classic lyrics are nothing short of pure poetry, there are some that still assault my ears like teeth on a fork.  I am betting you have a few examples of your own.

Now I’m not talking about the obvious no-no’s that give rock music its character.  This may come as a surprise, but I’ve got no beef with “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.”  “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” happens to be one of my favorite songs ever.  And a phrase from The Vogues’ “Five O’Clock World” — “livin’ on money I ain’t made yet” — has become my personal tagline.

Further, I have less of a problem with liberties taken to force a meter or a rhyme than I do lyrics that their writers assumed correct, or likely deemed smart-sounding.  If only for their place just under the radar, there is a small sampling of well-known lines that mustn’t in good conscience go unchallenged.

So, at the risk of offending fellow fans of some of the greatest artists of my generation, I must take issue with:

“Touch Me” by the Doors – “til the stars fall from the sky for you and I”

“Heard It in a Love Song” by the Marshall Tucker Band – “I was born a wrangler and a rounder and I guess I always will”

“Live and Let Die” by Paul McCartney – “But if this ever-changing world in which we live in…”

I plan to someday write in this forum about lyrics I do find poetic and will ask you to share your favorites, irrespective of the genre.

But for now, what’s your lyrical peeve?

Reminder:  Word Nymph rests on Sunday but welcomes (and reads) your comments.

4 Comments

Filed under All Things Wordish, Music

Tagged as , ,

April 14, 2010 · 6:58 am

Did you want to ask me that again?

Here is another grammatical trend I am betting you haven’t noticed but, once you do, you’ll hear it everywhere.  I hear it in restaurants all the time.

I say, I’d like a cup of coffee, please.”  The server asks, “Did you want cream?”

I reply “yes” but in my head I am sarcastically responding, “Yes, I DID and I still DO.”

When did we move from “Would you like” to “Did you want?”

Yes, I did want fries with that and, once that burger comes off the grill, I am pretty sure I will still want them.

2 Comments

Filed under All Things Wordish, Food

Tagged as ,

April 13, 2010 · 7:41 am

Sort of a verbal pause

I’ve written before about generational shifts in language.  If this topic interests you, here’s a parlor game you can play at home alone or out with friends.  Count the number of times someone says “sort of” in conversation or a television or radio interview.

In everyday speech, we are all prone to using a verbal pause now and again, usually the “um” or “uh” that comes between words in a spoken sentence.   As with hemlines, forms of verbal pause change with the times. 

In the 1970s, “you know” was the verbal pause of the decade.  For example, “I was doing my homework, you know, and I couldn’t do this long division problem, you know, so I called Cindy, you know, and she told me how to do it.”  I became aware of this at an early age because sloppy language was not tolerated in our home.  We had what was called the You-Know bell.  Whenever any of us used “you know” as a verbal pause, my father rang the You-Know bell.  Whoever said it the most won the You-Know bell prize.  But I digress.

In the ’80s it was “like,” as in “Nancy and I were like so into Bonnie Raitt that we were like listening to her albums over and over like every night.”

I first noticed “sort of” in the late 1990s in a meeting of senior U.S. government officials and prominent industry executives.  “Sort of” is a bit more refined than its predecessors.  In fact, at the time I first tuned in to it, it seemed more a verbal tiptoe than a pause.  Here’s how it might have been used around the conference table that day.  “We need a policy framework that sort of gives companies sort of an incentive to offer innovative products while allowing them to sort of achieve sort of a reasonable return on their investment.”  This wasn’t exactly it but illustrates how “sort of” was not used to mean “a kind of” or “a little bit” but rather, was a simple substitution for “uh” or “um.”

“Sort of” has spread like wildfire, showing no signs of dying down even in this decade.  I hear it every day.  Recently Jennifer Love Hewitt was on the Today show promoting her new book.  I lost count of how many times she said it.  Disappointingly, I’ve noticed prominent cable news anchors have picked it up.

“Sort of” is a slight improvement over “like,” to be sure.  But once your ear is attuned to it, it becomes annoying to the point of distraction.

On second thought, forget this parlor game.  It’ll drive you sort of nuts.

7 Comments

Filed under All Things Wordish

Tagged as , ,