Month: December 2007

“Select Items Storewide”

Adjectives, Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Verbs

I saw this in a “Blue Moon Sale, 20-60% Off” television advertisement for Ikea.

Problem:
There is a verb where an adjective should be.

Explanation:
The word “Select” is a verb, so “Select Items Storewide” implies that one may select items throughout the Ikea store for a 20-60% discount.

Imagine a shopper complaining to the Federal Trade Commission that Ikea is not honoring its “Select Items Storewide” offer. The shopper could reasonably complain that the offer tells television viewers that they may select items throughout the store for the 20-60% discount.

The writer of the television advertisement should have used the “Selected” as an adjective in front of the noun “Items” because “Selected Items Storewide” implies that NOT ALL items throughout the Ikea store qualify for the the 20-60% discount and that Ikea has selected only certain items for the discount.

I believe that the growing tendency in American English to use “select” as an adjective is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” hypothesis: it’s simpler to say “select” (and it sounds “more sophisticated”) than to say “selected”, even though the latter is necessary when one is modifying a noun.

Solution:
“Selected Items Storewide”

“A while” vs. “Awhile”

Adverbs, Common English Blunders, Nouns, Versus

I often see these two used interchangeably.

Problem:
“A while” is not the same as “awhile”.

Explanation:
The noun “while” means period or interval of time.

The noun phrase “a while” means a short time, so one correctly can say “He stayed for a while.”, which means He stayed for a short time., or one correctly can say “He stayed a while.”, which means He stayed a short time..

The adverb “awhile” means for a short time. Notice the “for” in the definition of “awhile”. So the meaning of “He stayed awhile.” would be He stayed for a short time. And it would be INCORRECT to write “He stayed for awhile.” because one would then have two “for”s in the translation: He stayed for for a short time.

Solution:
Use “a while” when you need a noun phrase; use “awhile” when you need an adverb.

“Step 1. Walkup to the bar.”

Common English Blunders, Nouns, Verbs

I saw this in a Jose Cuervo Black Medallion television advertisement.

Problem:
There is no verb in this (non-)sentence.

Explanation:
The word “walkup” is a noun and means an above-ground-floor apartment home or office with no elevator.

The writer of the television advertisement should have used the verb phrase “walk up” instead of the noun “walkup”.

The verb phrase “walk up” in the context of what was intended by the writer means go.

In other words, “walkup” and “walk up” are not synonyms!

Solution:
“Step 1. Walk up to the bar.”