Author: Kirk

“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.

“WERE MOVING OR HAVE MOVED!”

Apostrophes, Contractions, Devolution toward Simpler

My wife spotted this on an envelope.

Problem:
The contraction is missing an apostrophe.

Explanation:
“WERE MOVING OR HAVE MOVED!” was stamped in red beneath a business’s old address in the return-address section of an envelope.

The business obviously had a lot of envelopes that had been printed with its old address in the return-address section, and beneath that section the business had stamped a new message in red to let envelope recipients know one of the following:

  • The business was in the process of moving.
  • The business had already moved.

The new address appeared — also in red — beneath “WERE MOVING OR HAVE MOVED!”, so that envelope recipients would have the new address of the business.

The problem with the red-stamp headline is that it is missing an apostrophe.

When one creates a contraction — in this case from the pronoun “WE” plus the verb “ARE” — an apostrophe must be included to indicate the letter or letters that one has removed to create the contraction.

I believe that the omission of the apostrophe is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It is simpler to omit an apostrophe than to include one.

Solution:
“WE’RE MOVING OR HAVE MOVED!”