Month: June 2008

“Congradulations!”

Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Imperatives

My wife saw this on a banner in a grocery store years ago, and I have seen this increasingly often over the years.

Problem:
There is no such (properly spelled) word.

Explanation:
When my wife told a manager in the grocery store that the word on the banner was misspelled and even showed him where it was misspelled, the manager insisted, “No, it isn’t!”

Also, the manager did not suggest to my wife that it was a play on words — as in “ConGRADulations, GRADUATES!”

Instead, the manager argued that this was a properly spelled word.

I believe that spelling “congratulations” as “congradulations” is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis.

Because it’s simpler to say the ‘d’ in “congradulations” than to say the first ‘t’ in “congratulations”, many American English speakers mispronounce and hear it this way and subsequently believe that the ‘d’ belongs where the ‘t’ should go.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following words (without the quotation marks) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “congratulations” — 74,300,000 matches
  • “congradulations” — 1,360,000 matches

This tells me that Web authors favor “congratulations” over “congradulations” by a ratio of 54.6:1 — good, but not great, especially given the more than one million matches for the misspelled word, and even assuming that some of the instances of “congradulations” were a play on words.

Solution:
“Congratulations!”

“… distribute out [something] …”

Common English Blunders, Verbs

I hear this increasingly often these days.

Problem:
The preposition “out” is unnecessary here.

Explanation:
I hear “distribute out” in sentences such as these:

  • “I’ll distribute out the PowerPoint presentation tomorrow.”
  • “Can you distribute out the notes from what you found?”
  • “She would like for him to distribute out to us the notes from last Friday’s meeting.”

Here is yet another perfectly understandable verb — “distribute” — that has become seen by many speakers and writers of American English as requiring the preposition “out” after it. It doesn’t!

Look at the same example sentences with “out” removed:

  • “I’ll distribute the PowerPoint presentation tomorrow.”
  • “Can you distribute the notes from what you found?”
  • “She would like for him to distribute to us the notes from last Friday’s meeting.”

We do not lose any clarity by removing “out” from each of the original sentences, Instead, we gain clarity because the listeners or readers are not wondering why “out” was added.

Solution:
“… distribute [something] …”

“… communicate out [something] …”

Common English Blunders, Verbs

I seem to hear this increasingly often these days.

Problem:
The preposition “out” is unnecessary here.

Explanation:
I hear “communicate out” in sentences such as these:

  • “I’ll communicate out the results of the poll tomorrow.”
  • “Can you communicate out the meeting notes from today’s meeting?”
  • “She would like for him to communicate out to us what he finds in his research.”

Arrgh!

I simply have to wonder how a perfectly understandable verb — “communicate” — has become seen by many speakers and writers of American English as requiring the preposition “out” after it.

It doesn’t!

Look at the same example sentences with “out” removed:

  • “I’ll communicate the results of the poll tomorrow.”
  • “Can you communicate the meeting notes from today’s meeting?”
  • “She would like for him to communicate to us what he finds in his research.”

Did we lose any clarity by removing “out” from each of the original sentences? No!

Enough said.

Solution:
“… communicate [something] …”