Month: April 2008

“He did not try to sell me on an expensive system.”

Common English Blunders, Prepositions

I heard this during a radio ad yesterday.

Problem:
The preposition “on” does not belong in this sentence.

Explanation:
The speaker was describing the sales technique of the company running the radio advertisement.

She could have been trying to simplify a longer sentence such as “He did not try to sell me on the idea of an expensive system.”.

Instead of simplifying it by removing “the idea of”, she made it more difficult to understand.

Or she could have been trying to sound more sophisticated by inserting “on” in a sentence that originally did not include it.

Instead, she made it more difficult to understand.

Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly common to hear the preposition “on” inserted mistakenly but immediately or soon after verbs.

Solution:
“He did not try to sell me an expensive system.”

“Bring” vs. “Carry”

Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Verbs, Versus

Just as I often hear “bring” when the speaker means “take” instead, I often hear speakers confuse “carry” with “bring”.

Problem:
The verbs “bring” and “carry” are not interchangeable.

Explanation:
One should use “carry” when one is telling the listener to transport something to a location other than where one currently resides.

One should use “bring” when one is telling the listener to transport something to a location where one currently resides.

I believe that the use of “bring” instead of “carry” supports my “Devolution toward Simpler” hypothesis. The verb “bring” (with one syllable) is simpler to say than is “carry” (with two syllables).

Solution:
Use “bring” when the person making the request is at the destination.
Use “carry” when the person making the request is NOT at the destination.

“Missed Direct Calls”

Devolution toward Simpler

I saw this in a telephone call-routing presentation.

Problem:
This is an error on top of an error, and this phrase is not what the presenter intended to say.

Explanation:
The presentation in which I saw this phrase was about interactive voice-response (IVR) systems.

The presenter was talking about misdirected calls.

It has become a bad habit among IVR folks to refer to misdirected calls — calls that are directed to the inappropriate customer service representative — as “misdirect calls”.

I believe that this growing trend to use “misdirect calls” — with “misdirect” inappropriately used as an adjective — as the substitute for “misdirected calls” is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” hypothesis.

It’s simpler to say “misdirect” (three syllables) than to say “misdirected” (four syllables, with extra care required to say the “ed” ending).

Unfortunately, whoever created the presentation heard “misdirect calls” as “missed direct calls”, so we got an error on top of an error. Whew!

Solution:
“Misdirected Calls”