NEW POST - NEW WEBSITE

A new blog post All 'bout Deletions Using Apostrophes has been posted on the new Proof That website - http://proofthatblog.com   Come see future posts there!

Grammar Giggles - Wait . . . Who Was Arrested?

Sometimes a comma just shouldn't replace the word "and"

Although Correct, Though is Less Formal.

While most sources did say that "although" and "though" mean the same thing and can basically be used interchangeably, I was able to find a bit of a varying definition for each word:

• Although = even though and in spite of the fact that
• Although he was the best worker at the plant, he did not get a raise.
• Though = however
• The dog didn't bite him, though.

Although and though are used interchangeably so often that it is now acceptable to use though in formal writing although some people (typically old school learners/practitioners) may not like it. I have to admit that I don't like it and change it every time, but will now rethink that practice unless the definitions above make a difference (see below).

There are, however, times when although and though cannot be used interchangeably.

• At the end of a sentence.
• The car is cherry red. It doesn't go very fast, though.
• With "as"
• She acted as though she was the boss.
• With "even"
• Even though the team gave it their all, they lost the championship.

Otherwise, you should be able to use either although or though in your sentence.

• Although/though there was not a cloud in the sky, rain was smearing the windshield.
• NOTE: While this sentence would be correct either way, if I'm using the definitions above, I would use although - "In spite of the fact that there was not a cloud in the sky, rain was smearing the windshield."
• The job sounded like a dream job although/though the pay was not very competitive.
• NOTE: In this sentence, either word would work even with the definitions - "The job sounded like a dream job in spite of the fact that the pay was not very competitive." AND "The job sounded like a dream job however the pay was not very competitive."

So go forth and use either although or though with wild abandon, though you need to remember the exceptions.

Grammar Giggles - School Newspapers

I found this on Twitter. The thing that is most disturbing is that this person proofreads the school newspaper but can't spell "principal." That does not speak well for the quality of the newspaper.

Then, Than, and Admitting Mistakes.

The last Grammar Giggles had a glaring error in it. I knew when I started this gig that my audience was going to be one of the toughest out there, but decided to go for it anyway. The people who follow me have been much more than kind when I do make a mistake (yeah, it happens). One of my friends sent me a very nice email with a great graphic to ask me if she was correct and I was wrong, I'm going to use her "infographic" as my blog post this week. In the Grammar Giggles, it said that something "was easier then trying to explain." "Then" should have been "than." I have lots of things I can blame it on, but it was wrong and I knew better. Thanks to Stephanie for being so nice about my error and giving me a great example for a topic for this week.

"Then" has an element of time.

• He ate dinner and then decided on dessert. (After dinner the next thing in time that happened was deciding on dessert.)

"Than" refers to a comparison.

• He would rather take the light rail to work than drive to work every day. (Comparison between riding the light rail and driving.)

Grammar Girl says to make it easier to remember, note that "then" and "time" both contain the letter "e" and "than" and "comparison" both have the letter "a."

I will take more time to read my posts rather than a cursory review so that the entries are then correct.

Grammar Giggles Week - Zombie Proofreading

Passing along an article that was easier than trying to explain just the picture. While it's not something I would have noticed (because I have no idea what channel I'm watching at any given time), it does show the importance of proofreading everything--not just documents or letters.

Grammar Giggles Week - Dallas Hornets?

Proofreading isn't always about the words . . . 

Grammar Giggles Week - He Was on Drugs, I Mean He Played Drums

When one small letter makes one very big difference.

Grammar Giggles Week - Gift Cards

I've been getting so much information from Twitter lately, it's time to share a Grammar Giggle A Day.  Enjoy!

Grammar Giggles - Too Bad It's Not Candid Camera

This week's Grammar Giggle was found on Twitter (which is a virtual treasure trove of material). Can you spot the error? Then smile!

I Feel Good But Not Well

I don't get sick often, but every once in a while something comes along to kick my butt. The latest "cold" has done just that. Three days in bed, missing my personal blog post deadline, and missing a day of work later, I'm feeling semi-human and thought being sick opened a whole new topic!

Good and well are misused a lot.  Good is an adjective.

• She did a good job on the project the boss gave her.

Well is usually used as an adverb with action verbs, but can be used as an adjective when referring to someone's health.

• She ran well. 

It is not proper, however, to say "She ran good" because "ran" is an action verb.

• He said he didn't feel well when he woke up that morning.

Good can also be used with linking verbs. For instance in the response to "How are you?" it is perfectly acceptable to answer "I am good" when they are inquiring about your general status. If you are recovering from a long illness and someone asks how you are, saying "I am well" indicates to them that you are healthy.

To feel well means "to be in good health" and to feel good means "to be in good spirits."

Once I get completely over this illness, I am hoping to be a healthy person. Healthy means to be in good health and healthful is to promote health (like healthful food).

One more illness-related set of words that are confused a lot are nauseous and nauseated.  Nauseous means to induce nausea so a pile of something disgusting makes you feel nauseous, but if your stomach is upset, you feel nauseated.

So I am good, I feel well (at least better anyway), and I do not feel nauseated. Things are looking up!

Grammar Giggles - I'd Rather Have a Pitcher!

Seems kind of high priced for wings and a PICTURE of beer . . .

To Hyphenate or Not to Hyphenate: That is the Question

Another confusing proofreading issue is hyphenated words. This is particularly true when the words are sometimes hyphenated and sometimes not depending on how the word is used. There are, of course, rules regarding hyphenation.

• Always hyphenate ex, elect, and designate when attaching them to titles. For example "Ex-President Carter."

• You can also use "then" before a title to indicate that the person was acting in that capacity at the time you are describing. Used in this way, it will be hyphenated when it would be confusing otherwise.
• Then Governor Mecham was impeached in Arizona. This could be read to mean that Governor Mecham's impeachment happened next.
• Then-Governor Mecham was impeached in Arizona. This would be read to mean that Governor Mecham was acting governor at the time he was impeached.

• Family titles starting with grand (such as grandmother) are written without a hyphen; however, family titles starting with great (like great-grandmother) are written WITH a hyphen for each great (for instance her great-great-grandmother).

• When used as nouns, terms such as African Americans or French Canadians are not hyphenated. When they are used as adjectives such as African-American politicians or French-Canadian residents, they would be hyphenated.

• Fractions written out would be hyphenated, such as one-third and three-fifths.

• Compound numbers such as thirty-five and six hundred eighty-four should be hyphenated.

• An age that modifies a noun is hyphenated.
• My 40-year-old neighbor has three barking dogs.

• An age that is an adjective phrase that comes after the noun is not hyphenated
• My granddaughter will be 13 years old soon.
• The twins are two years old.

The biggest hyphenation issue that I see consistently is third party. Hyphenating third party depends on how it is used. 

•  When third party is used as a modifier, it should be hyphenated.
• The bill for the third-party vendor was past due.
• It would NOT be hyphenated when not used as a modifier.
• The bill was sent to the third party for payment directly to the vendor.

For an easy test to see if the phrase is a modifier that requires a hyphen, try each word alone with the noun. If it doesn't make sense, you need a hyphen. If it DOES make sense, then you do not use a hyphen:

• In the example above, third vendor does not make sense so third-party vendor should be hyphenated.
• She prefers high-quality clothing. High clothing does not make sense so high-quality should be hyphenated.

Grammar Giggles - Happy Easter!

In honor of Easter, I couldn't resist sharing this from an email this week. Enjoy your EATER egg hunts!

Grammar Giggles - Would You Like Hors D'oeuvres With That?

On the executive floor of a hotel I recently stayed in, this sign was on the lounge door. I had to look a couple of times because while it didn't look right, I (and obviously others) have a difficult time spelling the word correctly. A quick Google search confirmed that it was, indeed, incorrectly spelled.

The Cost of NOT Proofreading

I read an article recently about a typo that cost the New York City transit system $250,000 to replace maps that had a typo in the minimum cost of the pay-per-ride card. Paying attention and proofreading are valuable skills in the marketplace. I wondered what other errors might have cost businesses and government agencies money and embarrassment that could have easily been prevented. Here are just a few examples that I found in my research:

• Proofreading errors have been made throughout history. The 1632 edition of the King James Bible left a word out that completely changed the meaning of the seventh commandment when that edition read "Thou shalt commit adultery." The printer was fined for the mistake and all copies of the Bible with the error had to be destroyed.
• Tattoo artists are sometimes sued for negligence in misspellings that are permanently inscribed in flesh. This happens much more frequently than one would think.
• The University of Wisconsin gave its 1988 graduates diplomas that said "University of Wisconson."
• Air Canada used luggage stickers reading "This Baggage Has Been X-Rated at Point of Origin."
• Australian Publishing Company Penguin Group had to reprint a cookbook at a cost of $18,500 because a recipe for pasta called for "salt and freshly ground black people."
• A trader on the Toyko stock exchange in 2005 was too quick to place his order and traded 610,000 shares at 1 yen each instead of 1 share at 610,000 yen. That mistake cost his firm $18.7 million.
• In 2010, a Chilean man authorized the production of 1.5 million 50-peso coins that misspelled the country’s name as “C-H-I-I-E.” The managing director of the Chilean mint was fired once the mistake was discovered. All 1.5 million of those coins remain in circulation to this day.
• In June 2010, the gift shop at Australia's Parliament House unpacked a delivery of mugs that had been ordered to celebrate Barack Obama's visit to Australia. The mugs, however, welcomed "Barrack Obama" in large letters. They lost approximately $2,000 in expected revenue.
• A new water tower in the city of Stoughton, Wisconsin, was painted with the word "Stoughon." The contractor fixed his error free of charge.
• A clerical error in 2006 may have cost an Italian airline $7.72 million USD. They advertised a flight from Toronto to Cyprus for $39 instead of $3,900. By the time they discovered the error, 2,000 tickets had been sold and the airline had to honor the price.

Everyone is busy, but slowing down and taking the time to make sure what you are doing is correct is obviously well worth it. 

Grammar Giggles - They're Paying for This Education?

It's frightening when you see grammar/spelling errors associated with educational institutions. Whoever was in charge of this should have received a refund of a portion of their college tuition.

Fewer People are Less Concerned About The Difference Between "Less" and "Fewer"

There seems to be confusion about when to use the word less and when to use the word fewer. Fewer should be used when you are talking about things that can be counted. Grammar Girl calls them "count nouns."

• He took three pencils and left fewer than four on her desk. 

Less is used when you are talking about things that cannot necessarily be individually counted. Grammar Girl calls those "mass nouns."

• If he used less sarcasm, he might have more friends.

Of course, we are talking about the English language, so there are exceptions. The word less is typically used for measurements of time, money, and distance.

• He had less than four hours of work left before his vacation.

An interesting fact is that the signs in the grocery store for "10 items or less" is actually grammatically incorrect because you can count the items you put on the grocery belt (count nouns). To be grammatically correct, it should be "10 items or fewer." That is one way to remember the difference (if remembering horrible mistakes helps you remember how it really should be). There is a belief, however, that in less formal writing, "10 items or less" sounds less stuffy, so is appropriate to use. Working for lawyers, however, has trained me that no writing is less formal, so I'm sticking with the "rule" and believing that all grocery stores are wrong! 

Grammar Giggles - TV Schedule

One of the funniest parts about this television schedule I found in a hotel room last weekend is that my granddaughter who is in the third grade is the one who found it. Perhaps she could get a job proofreading for the Hampton Inn!

Commas--More is Not Better

Commas are a mark of punctuation that seems to confuse a lot of people. Here are some common comma issues:

• Commas may be needed to set off a nonessential description. For instance, when I refer to “my grandson Jasper,” there is no comma between "grandson" and "Jasper" because if I just said “my grandson,” you wouldn’t know which of my three grandsons I was talking about. If I only had one grandson, I could set it off with commas because I could take that name out of the sentence and it wouldn’t change the meaning. If I was saying something about “President of the United States, Barack Obama,” the comma is OK because if you deleted his proper name, you would still know who I was talking about. If it doesn’t change the meaning of the sentence to take it out and the sentence still makes sense, use commas. If you need that language for the sentence to make sense, take the comma(s) out.

• With dates, the proper rule is to set off the year in complete dates with commas. “He started on February 23, 2011, in his new position.”

• Just because serial commas are correct does not mean that every time the word “and” appears, it should have a comma in front of it.  

• A comma’s intent is not to be used each time you would take a breath or pause in reading the writing. While that may be a good guide, it is not a good rule.

• Some words are always preceded and followed by commas: 

o   i.e. (that is)

o   e.g. (for example)

o   etc.

o   et al. (when it follows two or more names)

Commas have their place, just not necessarily as many places as people seem to want to put them.