Month: September 2008

“The reason’s why are threefold:”

Apostrophes, Plurals, Possessives

I saw this at Freetricity.com.

Problem:
An apostrophe appears where it should not.

Explanation:
“The reason’s why are threefold:” — with an apostrophe between the noun “reason” and the letter “s” — appeared on a Freetricity.com Web page about the E2D Windmaster and the three reasons that less than 3% of U.S. homes have a renewable energy-source product.

An apostrophe has very limited use in the formation of a plural noun. Here are the situations:

  1. to form plurals of lower-case letters;
  2. to form groups of years;
  3. to form plurals of numbers;
  4. to form plurals of symbols;
  5. to form plurals of some short words.

However, most authorities recommend omission of the apostrophe for situations 2 through 4, given that there is no possibility of misreading when the apostrophe is omitted.

Given that the noun “reason” does not match any of these five situations, we have the solution.

Solution:
“The reasons why are threefold:”

“meet” vs. “meet with” vs. “meet up with”

Pronouns, Verbs, Versus

I started to think about this comparison after hearing someone say “meet up with” a couple of days ago.

Problem:
Only two of these three are proper English.

Explanation:
I recently heard someone on the radio say “I was going to meet up with Chris in Galveston.”

This sentence contains an unnecessary preposition. The expression “meet up with” means exactly what “meet with” means but contains the unnecessary preposition “up” and therefore is not proper English.

In contrast, “meet with” is proper English but does not mean what “meet” means.

  • If I “meet John”, then he and I interact with one another for the first time.
  • If I “meet with John”, then he and I already know one another and are having another meeting together.

Solution:
Use “meet” for an initial, introductory meeting between two parties. Use “meet with” for subsequent meetings between two parties. Avoid “meet up with”.

“Home Theater Install Unit”

Adjectives, Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Nouns, Verbs

My wife saw this yesterday on the side of a delivery truck.

Problem:
The sign maker used a verb where an adjective was required.

Explanation:
The delivery truck belonged to a retailer that sells home-theater systems.

The retailer uses the truck to deliver new home-theater systems for installation.

This gives us the solution. The word “Install” is incorrect on the sign because it is a verb. The sign maker should have used the word “Installation”, which is a noun that can be used as an adjective.

Unfortunately, at least in American English, it has become a common English blunder to use the verb “install” as if it were a noun, which it is not.

I believe that the misuse of “install” as a substitute for “installation” is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It is simpler to write the seven-letter, two-syllable word than to write the twelve-letter, four-syllable word.

Solution:
“Home Theater Installation Unit”