“ATM Machine”

Common English Blunders, Redundancies

I often see and hear this.

Problem:
This phrase is redundant.

Explanation:
The initialism “ATM” means Automated Teller Machine, so “ATM Machine” means Automated Teller Machine Machine.

Out of curiosity, I searched with the quotation marks for “ATM machine” at Google and got about 1,460,000 matches. Yikes! This is a fairly common problem (at least on the Web).

It seems to me that people who say or write “ATM Machine” (or “ATM machine”)

  • have lost track of the meaning of the individual letters in “ATM”,
  • never knew the meaning of the individual letters, or
  • are comforted by saying a noun after saying an initialism.

Solutions:
“ATM” or “Automated Teller Machine”

“Supposedly” vs. “Supposably”

Adverbs, Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Versus

I hear “supposably” with increasing frequency when “supposedly” is the correct adverb.

Problem:
The adverbs “supposedly” and “supposably” are not synonyms.

Explanation:
The adverb “supposedly” means reputed or believed to be the case; purportedly.

The adverb “supposably” should be used only in the context of capable of being supposed, and this adverb is valid only in American English.

In a sense, most people who use “supposably” are lucky in that it is a “real word” (in American English). But these same people misuse “supposably” as a synonym for “supposedly” (which it is not!).

As I mentioned several days ago, here is an unorthodox but still fairly reliable method to determine which of “supposedly” or “supposably” is more likely to be the correct form: search Google separately for each of “supposedly” and “supposably”; the one with the dominant number of hits or matches is very likely the correct form (unless the language has fallen apart on the Web!).

For example, I just searched Google for “supposedly” and got about 2,770,000 matches; I searched for “supposably” and got about 66,200 matches. This nearly 42:1 dominance of “supposedly” over “supposably” is a very good indicator that “supposedly” is the correct form — at least, in most situations.

I believe that the misuse of “supposably” as a synonym for “supposedly” — especially in speech — is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” hypothesis. It’s simpler to say “supposably” than to say “supposedly” because the first adverb’s ending is simpler to say than is the second adverb’s ending.

Solution:
Use “supposedly” when “purportedly” makes sense as a replacement adverb; use “supposably” only with an American English-speaking audience and only when the intended meaning is “capable of being supposed”.

“Create two process-improvement opportunities.”

Self-negation

I saw this in an email message about worthwhile monthly goals.

Problem:
This goal negates itself.

Explanation:
This monthly goal seems to be written well.

The goal has “Create” — a popular verb for goal setters because one can usually determine (“measure”) whether something has been created.

The goal has “opportunities” — a very popular noun in the corporate world because businesses thrive on taking advantage of opportunities, wherever they may arise.

And the goal refers to process improvement, and who couldn’t love process improvement, right?!

Take a few moments to analyze the goal, though, and you find that it negates itself.

What is a process-improvement opportunity? It is an opportunity for process improvement.

What is an opportunity for process improvement? It is a situation where something is running inefficiently. In other words, it is an inefficient process.

In other words, Create two inefficient processes. is the actual meaning of this monthly goal.

Ouch! Surely, this is the opposite of what was intended. A good business might want to identify inefficient processes, or it might want to create suggestions for process improvement, but a good business would not want to create inefficient processes.

I believe that the writer got carried away with assembling popular corporate buzz-words into something that looked like a worthwhile goal but actually would be bad for business.

Solutions:
“Identify two process-improvement opportunities.”
“Create two process-improvement suggestions.”