Month: August 2008

“Spend 15 minutes everyday with the words.”

Adjectives, Adverbs, Common English Blunders

I saw this in a Web article about English.

Problem:
“Everyday” is an adjective, but an adverb is required here.

Explanation:
I was searching the Web for the negative effect of spelling errors when I found this sentence.

The sentence appeared in an article titled “COMMONLY MISSPELLED WORDS“, which gave parents the recommended frequency and duration of helping their children to learn the correct spellings of words.

Unfortunately, one can spell words correctly but still make mistakes with grammar.

“Everyday” — spelled E-V-E-R-Y-D-A-Y — tells you what. For example, an “everyday event” is something that occurs daily. In other words, “everyday” is an adjective; it modifies a noun (such as “event”).

In contrast, “every day” — spelled E-V-E-R-Y-SPACE-D-A-Y — tells you when. “It happens every day.” is an example of the correct use of “every day” (with the space in the middle).

The goal of the article writer was to tell the reader when to spend fifteen minutes with words.

Solution:
“Spend 15 minutes every day with the words.”

“Number” vs. “Numeral”

Common English Blunders, Nouns, Versus

I was thinking recently about these two words.

Problem:
Some people use these two nouns interchangeably, but they are not synonyms.

Explanation:
As noted at Wikipedia, “A number is an abstract object, tokens of which are symbols used in counting and measuring.”

In contrast, a “numeral” is a symbol used to represent a number.

There are many different numeral systems. For example, the Roman numeral for five is “V”. The Hindu-Arabic numerals are the ten digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

Solution:
Use “numeral” to refer to the symbol; use “number” otherwise.

“11 NEWS IN HIGH-DEFINITION”

Adjectives, Hyphens, Nouns

I saw this title at the start of a local TV news broadcast.

Problem:
The hyphen between “HIGH” and “DEFINITION” does not belong.

Explanation:
The title appeared at the start of the 5 p.m. news broadcast from Houston TV station KHOU.

The TV station was promoting that it broadcasts with a high-definition television signal.

However, just as “BRIGHT GREEN” would not take a hyphen in a phrase such as “DRESSES IN BRIGHT GREEN”, the title in the TV broadcast should have no hyphen.

The reason for this is that “HIGH DEFINITION” is not modifying anything. Instead, the adjective “HIGH” is simply modifying the noun “DEFINITION”.

Solution:
“11 NEWS IN HIGH DEFINITION”