Author: Kirk

“friend of Jim’s”

Apostrophes, Hypercorrection, Possessives

I saw a phrase like this the other day.

Problem:
The possessive preposition “of” before a noun should not be used with a possessive apostrophe-‘s’ after the noun.

Explanation:
The phrase “friend of somebody” translates to “somebody’s friend”.

So, “friend of Jim’s” would translate to “Jim’s’s friend” — a meaningless concept.

It seems that the author fell prey to hypercorrection, using both the possessive preposition “of” AND the possessive apostrophe-‘s’ to indicate friendship with Jim.

Solutions:
“friend of Jim”
or
“Jim’s friend”

Seven Ways to Get “Free” Kindle Ebooks

General

Improve YourCommunicationDecember, 2015, has arrived!

With Chanukkah and Christmas just around the corner, you may be looking for ways to stretch your money. If you are an Amazon customer, then you may have remembered that now is the time to get your “free” Kindle ebook.

But, did you know that there are (at least) seven ways to get free Kindle ebooks?

  • Giveaways at Websites
  • $0.00 Price-Matching
  • Kindle MatchBook
  • Kindle Unlimited
  • Kindle FreeTime Unlimited
  • Kindle First
  • Kindle Owners’ Lending Library
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“It was an eloquent software solution.”

Adjectives

I heard someone say this yesterday in a business meeting.

Problem:
He used the wrong adjective.

Explanation:
He should have used “elegant” to describe the software solution.

As Dictionary.com says, “eloquent” refers to speech or expression.

As soon as I heard him say “eloquent”, I expected him to make a correction. Alas, he did not.

I have to give the speaker credit for this: “eloquent” and “elegant” have the same number of syllables, start with the same two letters (“el”), and end with the same two letters (“nt”)!

Hearing what he said reminded me of the mistake of using “People take it for granite.” when what is meant is “People take it for granted.” instead.

Solution:
“It was an elegant software solution.”