Month: April 2008

“… where it has a scar at now.”

Common English Blunders, Prepositions

I heard this today on a talk-radio show about gardening.

Problem:
The preposition should not appear in this expression.

Explanation:
The caller who said this was describing a location on her tree to the gardening-show host.

That point on the tree had a scar.

The caller made the common English blunder of applying “where at” — a mistaken way to use “where” — to the location of the tree’s scar.

What’s ironic is that the lady probably thought that “at” helped to clarify or emphasize “where” but instead confused many listeners because “scar at” ran together as “scarrat” — resulting in “… where it has a scarrat now” — leaving us wondering what a “scarrat” was.

Solution:
“… where it has a scar now.”

“Foxit Reader is a … viewer …, with incredible small size …”

Adjectives, Adverbs, Commas

I saw this here.

Problem:
A comma is missing, or the adjective “incredible” is inappropriate here.

Explanation:
“Foxit Reader is a … viewer …, with incredible small size …” contains two adjectives in a row.

Either the writer wanted each adjective to modify the noun “size”, or the writer wanted to modify the second adjective to modify the first adjective.

If the writer wanted “incredible” and “small” to modify “size”, then a comma should go immediately after the first adjective — yielding the first solution.

If the writer wanted to modify “small”, then a different solution is required.

When one wants to modify adjective Y with adjective X, one must convert adjective X into an adverb.

Converting adjectives to adverbs usually requires adding “ly” and sometimes requires dropping a letter or two.

Converting the adjective “incredible” to an adverb yields “incredibly” — and the second solution.

Solutions:
“Foxit Reader is a … viewer …, with incredible, small size …”
or
“Foxit Reader is a … viewer …, with incredibly small size …”

“Suggestive Overall Improvements”

Adjectives

I saw this subtitle in a brainstorming document.

Problem:
“Suggestive” is the wrong adjective here.

Explanation:
The document contained notes from a meeting in which participants thought of ways to improve a company’s services.

The adjective “suggestive” means evocative; that suggests; rich in ideas.

“She wore suggestive clothing.” is an example of the appropriate use of this adjective.

“Suggestive” clearly was not what was intended for the brainstorming document.

The writer of this document was introducing a section that contained overall improvements that had been suggested by the meeting participants. This gives us the solution.

Solution:
“Suggested Overall Improvements”