Grammar Girl to the rescue!

Heard a brief segment on NPR this morning about podcasts by Grammar Girl. Just checked out her blog, which has some posts and podcasts about some common grammar questions and mistakes. She includes some good examples, too. Guess she's been getting a lot of press these days.

Lose the "loose"!

Back in October I posted a brief note about the AP misusing "loose" in an article.

But it seems that the incorrect use of "loose" is everywhere.

I've seen it incorrectly used a lot lately. I recently saw it again in an article about the Anna Mae He case on the Nashville City Paper Web site: "'Basically what's going to happen is that we're going to have to file paperwork to start the appeals process, or we're going to loose that right,' Baker said."

Folks, in that sense as a VERB, the correct word/spelling is "lose" (pronounced with a long "O" and a "Z": looz) -- one "O"!

Now, I realize that the long "O" sound may confuse some of you into spelling it with a second "O" -- but it is WRONG!

The word "loose" (pronounced with a long "O" and an "S") can be used as verb (meaning to let loose or release, to free from restraint, untie, to make less tight, etc.), but it is often used as an adjective.

Here's a phrase to help you remember that "loose" is not pronounced or used as "lose": Goose on the loose.

Some examples of each:

The little girl's tooth is loose. She's afraid of losing it if she bites into an apple.

Be careful of what you say around her -- she's got a loose tongue.

I'm going to lose my mind soon with people's loose use of these words.

Beijing cleans up English translations

"Tired of Laughter, Beijing Gets Rid Of Bad Translations"

(The WSJ may restrict access to this article to subscribers after a few days. If so, can probably find it by doing a Google search.)

"For years, foreigners in China have delighted in the loopy English translations that appear on the nation's signs. They range from the offensive ('Deformed Man,' outside toilets for the handicapped) to the sublime (on park lawns, 'Show Mercy to the Slender Grass').

Last week, Beijing city officials unveiled a plan to stop the laughter. With hordes of foreign visitors expected in town for the 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing wants to cleanse its signs of translation nonsense. For the next eight months, 10 teams of linguistic monitors will patrol the city's parks, museums, subway stations and other public places searching for gaffes to fix."

A little loose copyediting

USA Today posted an AP article about the air sample tests conducted after the North Korean nuclear test: "Samples are rushed back to labs in the United States for study before they loose their radioactive properties."

Hmm, just noticed the same mistake in an SF Gate article. Tsk, tsk.

Shrub needs advising

On Google News this morning I saw the headline "Woodward: Kissinger Advices Bush" for a Washington Post article.

Advice is a noun. Advise is a verb.

So "Kissinger Advises Bush."

The WP got it right. Unfortunately, the folks at Google need some advising.

BTW, Shrub needs more than just advice -- perhaps a kick in the ol' keister, but that's another post for another day.

Er, what's that you say?

So I was listening to NPR this morning and had to shake my head at a statement by the general consul for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce:

"I think the inclination ... is going to be to err on the side of not taking any even slightly adverse action ..." -- but he pronounced "err" like "her" instead of as with "error."

Looking "err" up on the Merriam-Webster site, which has audio pronunciation clips for dictionary entries, I was surprised to find that "er" is actually listed as a pronunciation for "err."

I have never heard the word pronounced that way before. Then again, I'm from the Midwest.

I pronounce "soften" and "often" without the "T." Coke is a brand of pop, not a soda (although in California, I quickly realized that I needed to ask for a "soda" from store clerks to avoid having them look at me like I just spoke gibberish to them).

I think I speak without a strong Midwestern accent (as in "Fargo"), but people in San Francisco have told me I say "Minnesota" with a long "O" as in Min-ne-SOH-ta.

The other week I lugged a bunch of groceries up three flights of stairs, and as I dumped them on the kitchen table, I found myself saying, "Uff da!" I had to laugh. If my mother had heard that, she probably would have just nodded her head and said, "That's my girl. She takes after me."

A friend posted this the other day, and I had to take this quiz myself. I'm 110% Minnesotan.

How Minnesotan Are You??

[X] You've been made fun of for your Northern accent
[X] You been to an ice hockey game before
[X] You've been snowmobiling before
[X] You know how the wind chill factor works
[X] You constantly make fun of Iowa (OK, not so much anymore)
Total: 5

[ ] You own skis or a snowboard, or snow shoes (Used to)
[X] You keep an ice scraper in your back seat (I think trunk counts since I'm now in Cali)
[X] You call the childhood game "Duck, duck, grey duck"?
[X] You know what the "Iron Range" is
[X] You've built a snowman before
Total: 4

[X] You consider 50 degrees in March a warm day
[X] You make fun of Wisconsin
[X] You know where yellow snow comes from
[X] At least one person in your immediate family hates the "Packers"
[ ] You go to "the cabin" on the weekends during the summer (Used to)
Total: 4

[X] You've taken a family vacation to either North or South Dakota before
[X] You're still mad at the LA Lakers for not changing their name (Stoopid Lakers)
[X] You know what the "North Shore" refers to
[X] You or your family owns a snowblower
[ ] You, your dad, or a close friends has a snowplow on the front of their pickup truck
Total: 4

[X] You expect school cancellations and delays to happen at least twice a winter (When I was still in school, yes)
[X] You still hear/tell stories about the "Halloween Snow Storm" of 91
[X] You know whether Minnesota really is the "Land of A Thousand Lakes"
[X] You know the names of the Twin Cities
[X] You've been to the city of Duluth
Total: 5

Grand Total: 22

Take your score and multiply it by 5. Repost this as "I'm 110% Minnesotan."

Oops!

At my office, we get the the printed version of the Wall Street Journal delivered daily. (I have to say that sometimes I miss reading printed newspapers, flipping through sections page by page instead of clicking and scrolling, clicking and scrolling.)

Wednesday's section of the Personal Journal included Avery Johnson's Travel Watch piece (page D5), which mentioned how airlines were starting to offer healthcare services onboard flights. Its subhead read: "Heath Care in the Air."

Personally, I love finding errors in printed materials. Must be the former proofreader in me. Errors like those also make me appreciate one of the benefits of online publishing -- mistakes can be quickly corrected.

Too be or not too be

Came across this article yesterday in the SF Gate by the AP ...

"First Lady Assails Sen. Clinton for Remark"

Referring to a comment by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ...

"Asked about the comment, Mrs. Bush joked that she didn't really think she could speak for God. Then she added that she believes Nagin wants New Orleans to be rebuilt.

'He wants people who lived in New Orleans to come back,' Mrs. Bush said. 'I do to, and I know the president does to. You know it's going to take a long time.'"

Now, I can understand the mistake of using "to" instead of "too" -- twice -- if the statement were actually written by Shrub, but for the AP to quote Mrs. Bush and get it WRONG is just bad, bad, bad.

Apostrophes gone wild

On Christmas Eve, I saw a sign on Ocean Avenue that read "Christmas Tree's" were for sale.

This year I've also seen many family holiday photo cards that read, for example, "Happy Holidays, The Doe's."

Since when does pluralization require an apostrophe?

Apostrophes indicate possessiveness or omitted letters, such as in the case of contractions. (Relative pronouns don't get apostrophes, of course: his, hers, ours, yours, theirs, etc.) Although, "it's" and "its" seem to cause people many problems. To clarify, "it's" is a contraction for "it is" or "it has," while "its" is the possessive form of "it" with no apostrophe.

When in doubt, add an apostrophe? NO! A while ago I saw someone had written "its' " as the possessive form for "it." I have to admit, that is the first time I had seen that and made a mental note to write a blog post about its incorrectness. It's never correct to write "its'."

Other apostrophe pet peeves include words such as "CD's" and "DVD's." I can see how pluralizing these words may be confusing, but they don't need the apostrophe. Single letters require an apostrophe to avoid confusion: His report card was full of A's and B's. (You wouldn't want to say he got As.) But multiple letter combinations do not need an apostrophe: He learned his ABCs.

So the lesson of today's blog post? An apostrophe is not to be used indiscriminately ...

Trees
CDs
DVDs
A's
ABCs
it's
its

The possessive form of words ending in "S" and other more complicated apostrophe rules will have to wait for another lesson when the Hyphenator is less stuffed with Christmas ham and holiday treats.

BTW, after a thorough check of the greeting cards I received this year, I was happy to see that my relatives avoided using an apostrophe with their family names, either by pluralizing correctly (The Hyphenators) or avoiding the issue altogether (The Hyphenator Family).

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, Happy Holidays, and Season's Greetings from the Hyphenator!

Spell check, please!

According to an SF Gate article, "World Wide Web creator" Tim Berners-Lee has started up his own blog.

For his first blog post, he describes the beginning of the Web and how it "was soon full of lots of interesting stuff, but not a space for communal design, for discource through communal authorship."

Perhaps you shouldn't use such a big word as "discourse" if you don't know how to spell it correctly, or else use a spell check program.

Royal mistake

The other day on a news Web site, I saw a link for a story from a local TV station:

"Prince, Dutchess visit Washington"

Come on, people! I guess with TV reporting it doesn't matter if it's "duchess" or "dutchess."

Note for all you royal watchers ...

Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, will be in my 'hood on Monday evening for a dinner hosted by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and the British consul general at the newly opened M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park.

Oh, and in other nonroyalty, but celebrity news ...

Yesterday, Warren Beatty left me -- yes, ME -- a message on my answering machine. Granted, it was a recorded message, and it was about voting "no" on upcoming California propositions in the election, but it surprised the heck out of me. I have yet to delete it. My mom would probably get a kick out of hearing it.

Now, where is Governor "It's NOT a toooma" Ahhhhnold?

Proctor & Gamble needs a copy editor

I bought a bottle of Crest's new Pro·Health rinse the other day. So a few nights ago, as I'm swishing away plaque and preventing tartar buildup and gingivitis, I happened to read the label more closely.

The following two lines were above the product name:

Provides dentist
recommended benefits

I had to reread that statement. I thought to myself, "What dentist?"

The lack of hyphen, along with the line break, confused me for a second. The statement should have a hyphen: "Provides dentist-recommended benefits."

I suppose the folks at Proctor & Gamble thought it might be odd to have a hyphen dangling after "dentist" and didn't include it. (Maybe they used all their cleverness in deciding to add the bullet in the product name.)

Well, it probably won't matter for most consumers -- only those anal about both punctuation and oral hygiene.

Addition: Oops, I really need a blog editor, too. Oh well, I already have a disclaimer (see footer).

Addition (August 15, 11:39 a.m.): On further inspection of the product label the other night, I found another case for The Hyphenator! Underneath the product name, the label read "Alcohol Free." I wish alcohol were free.

I need a copy editor

Geesh, just reread my last post. I need a copy editor for my blog. Feel free to e-mail me corrections.^*

I found this post on compound-modifier hyphens by Bill Walsh:

My point is that compound-modifier hyphens, or the lack thereof, affect the way phrases are pronounced as well as the way they're read by those of us who can do so without moving our lips.

And here's another post by Walsh on using multiple hyphens.

I'm such an amateur copy editor. I'm not worthy.

Gotta love Reuters ...

On the 29th, Reuters ran an article titled, "Study shows radiation causes cancer but rarely," which stated the following:

A low dose of about 100 millisieverts of radiation -- the equivalent of 10 chest x-rays -- can be expected to cause cancer in one out of every 100 people, the report finds.

The next day Reuters ran a correction, or should I say a corretion?

CORRETION: Study shows radiation may cause cancer

Last Updated: 2005-06-30 15:15:23 -0400 (Reuters Health)

[In June 29 WASHINGTON story headlined "Study shows radiation causes cancer but rarely" please read in fourth paragraph "... the equivalent of 1,000 chest X-rays ..." instead of "... the equivalent of 10 chest X-rays ..." A corrected story follows]

First of all, it's bad enough to confuse 10 chest X-rays with 1,000 X-rays, but to post your correction with "CORRETION" is just too much.


*I may or may not make your suggested corrections. Gimme a break! I didn't say I was a good copy editor. I'm only human, and usually sleep-deprived. I do not guarantee that this blog is free of punctuation, spelling, grammar and usage errors. Check out my links for other blogs and reference sites.