Month: December 2008

“Safety Deposit Box”

Adjectives, Common English Blunders

I kept hearing this the other evening in a TV drama.

Problem:
“Safety” is the wrong adjectival modifier here.

Explanation:
I was watching an episode of the Fox TV show “Fringe”, and the drama began with thieves using a bizarre method to break into a bank safe filled with depositors’ boxes so that they could steal a particular box.

All of the actors referred to the mystery box in question as a “safety deposit box”.

The correct phrase is “safe deposit box” because the deposit boxes reside in a safe.

Using “safety” instead of “safe” in front of “deposit box” seems to be a common English blunder.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following (with the quotation marks, to avoid variations) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “safe deposit box” — 4,570,000 matches
  • “safety deposit box” — 2,000,000 matches

This tells me that Web authors have used the correct “safe deposit box” versus the incorrect “safe deposit box” by a ratio of 2.29-to-1, which is awful.

Solution:
“Safe Deposit Box”

“Open Til’ Midnight”

Apostrophes, Contractions

I saw this on a van yesterday morning.

Problem:
The apostrophe was in the wrong place, if the “Til'” — spelled T-I-L-APOSTROPHE — was meant to be a contraction for “Until”.

Explanation:
“Excelsior Learning Academy” appeared at the top of the sign on the van.

“Open Til’ Midnight” — with the apostrophe appearing after T-I-L — appeared immediately beneath the academy’s name on the sign.

Cross-referencing the telephone number, the multiply-named company actually seems to be a child-care center.

Discovering that Excelsior Learning Academy was essentially a child-care center answered my first question when I saw the sign: “Why would a ‘learning academy’ stay open that late?”

Perhaps this also explained the misplacement of the apostrophe for the omitted portion of the preposition “Until” when this so-called “learning academy” ordered a sign with a contraction for “Until”.

One might argue that Excelsior was creating a contraction of the preposition “Till” — spelled T-I-L-L — by dropping the final “l” and replacing it with an apostrophe, but I would counter-argue (1) that Excelsior and its sign maker probably were not that smart and (2) that it is a waste of an apostrophe to use it as a substitute for the similarly slim letter “l”.

Solution:
“Open ‘Til Midnight” or “Open Until Midnight”

“I feel bad.” vs. “I feel badly.”

Adjectives, Adverbs, Verbs, Versus

I thought again about these two forms after hearing someone claim that only one of these was correct.

Problem:
The verb “feel” can take an adjective or an adverb.

Explanation:
The verb “feel” is a loaded verb in that it relates to a state of health or emotion as well as to the sense of touch.

The verb “feel” can be used as a linking verb, which is called a “copula” in linguistics.

A linking verb ties the subject of a sentence with the predicate of the sentence.

As described elsewhere, the verbs “be”, “become”, and “seem” are called true linking verbs because they can be nothing else.

Examples include:

  • “I am rich!”
  • “You became wealthy.”
  • “They seem nice.”

In contrast, each of the following verbs can act as an action verb or as a linking verb:

  • “appear”;
  • “feel”;
  • “grow”
  • “look”;
  • “prove”;
  • “remain”;
  • “smell”;
  • “sound”;
  • “taste”;
  • “turn”.

Here are examples of these verbs used as action verbs, each of which can be modified by one or more adverbs:

  • “She effortlessly appeared from the bushes.”
  • “He barely feels that tack in the carpet.”
  • “Mary often grows hibiscus plants.”
  • “Look now at that cow crossing the road!”
  • “Can you quickly prove this theorem?”
  • “I can remain here.”
  • “Everyone should always smell the flowers.”
  • “Paul Revere urgently sounded the alarm.”
  • “Can they barely taste the ginger in that dessert?”
  • “Please slowly turn the car to the right at the next light.”

Here are examples of the same verbs used as linking verbs, each of which is followed by an adjective:

  • “She appears ill.”
  • “He feels odd.”
  • “Mary grows angry when she sees her hibiscus flowers destroyed.”
  • “Darling, you look marvelous!”
  • “Purchase of Manhattan proved inexpensive.”
  • “The dishes remain dirty.”
  • “You smell delightful.”
  • “His argument sounds correct.”
  • “This dessert tastes delicious.”
  • “His face turns red when you embarrass him.”

Solution:
Use “I feel bad.” to describe the current state of your emotions or health. Use “I feel badly.” to describe your ability to feel with your sensory neurons.