Month: March 2009

“… tom | orrow …”

Hyphens

I saw this last night on the Fox TV program “Hell’s Kitchen”.

Problem:
The subtitle editor split the word “tomorrow” in the wrong place when making it span two lines.

Explanation:
The TV program “Hell’s Kitchen” sometimes must display subtitles because the audio was poorly recorded or because the producers believe that an American audience will not understand chef Gordon Ramsay or one of the contestants in the program.

I do not recall the entire subtitle, but at one point during last night’s episode someone said a sentence that contained the word “tomorrow”.

If a sentence does not fit on one line in a subtitle, the subtitle editor must make the sentence run across two or more subtitle lines.

I put the vertical bar (|) in the title of this blog post to indicate that this is where the subtitle editor chose to split the word “tomorrow” such that the first part ended one line and the second part started the next line.

Because subtitles are added in post-production and are not the equivalent of closed captioning of a live event, the subtitle editor should have had time to compose each subtitle correctly.

So it seems to me that the editor did not know how to split the word “tomorrow” into two lines.

  1. The editor split the word at the wrong letter.
  2. The editor failed to include a hyphen at the end of the first part of the split word.

A dictionary tells the reader where to split any word, and a hyphen is always required at the end of the first part of the split word.

Solution:
“… to- | morrow …”

“It has the granite countertops.”

General

I heard this two nights ago during an episode of “My First Place” on the HGTV channel.

The real-estate agent in the episode was showing a house to a husband and wife who were about to buy their first house together.

The agent was promoting the house’s features. When she walked into the kitchen with the couple, she said, “It has the granite countertops.”

The definite article “the” caught my ear because I would have omitted it and said, “It has granite countertops.”

Pondering the agent’s use of “the” in front of “granite countertops”, I realized that “the granite countertops” sounded more expensive than would the phrase “granite countertops” without the definite article “the” in front of it.

But why?

I believe that adding “the” gives a feeling of “one and only”, which gives a feeling of exclusivity, which gives a feeling of higher value.

So try starting a phrase with “the” when you want to increase perceived value.

If you split-test this in your own marketing and see a statistically significant difference, then please let me know what happened — even if I am full of bunk!

“inverse” vs. “converse”

Adjectives, Adverbs, Versus

I heard someone say “inversely” yesterday to introduce a contrary opinion to what he first stated.

Problem:
The adverbs “inversely” and “conversely” are not synonyms, just as the adjectives “inverse” and “converse” are not synonyms.

Explanation:
When I heard someone yesterday state one opinion and then introduce an opposing opinion with the adverb “inversely”, I thought that it sounded odd.

I was expecting him to say “conversely” instead of “inversely”, so I decided to learn more about the adjectives “inverse” and “converse”.

This adjective “inverse” dates back to around 1610 from a Latin verb that means to turn inside out or upside down.

So an example of valid use of the adjective “inverse” is “The inverse form of the fraction 3/4 is the fraction 4/3.”

The adjective “converse” dates back to the second half of the 1300s from a Latin verb that means to turn around.

So an example of a valid use of the adjective “converse” is “The converse perspective to ‘The glass is half-full.’ is ‘The glass is half-empty.'”

It may help to look at the words “inverse” and “converse” when they are used as nouns in mathematics.

Given the statement “if p, then q”:

  • “if not p, then not q” is the inverse;
  • “if q, then p” is the converse.

Notice how the inverse “turns inside out” the original statement and how the converse “turns around” the original statement.

Solution:
Use the adjective “inverse” to label something that is upside down or inside out. Use the adjective “converse” to label something that is contrary or turned around.