I have posted to this blog a few times about words that start with the “re-” prefix.
Here are some examples:
A common English blunder these days is to add “back” after any of the “re-” verbs.
The reason that it’s a blunder is that the “re-” prefix in these verbs means back.
The other meaning of the “re-” prefix is again or anew.
Unless you know that you are dealing with an again or anew instance, it is safest to avoid putting “back” after a “re-” verb.
I saw this here.
Problem:
A comma is missing, or the adjective “incredible” is inappropriate here.
Explanation:
“Foxit Reader is a … viewer …, with incredible small size …” contains two adjectives in a row.
Either the writer wanted each adjective to modify the noun “size”, or the writer wanted to modify the second adjective to modify the first adjective.
If the writer wanted “incredible” and “small” to modify “size”, then a comma should go immediately after the first adjective — yielding the first solution.
If the writer wanted to modify “small”, then a different solution is required.
When one wants to modify adjective Y with adjective X, one must convert adjective X into an adverb.
Converting adjectives to adverbs usually requires adding “ly” and sometimes requires dropping a letter or two.
Converting the adjective “incredible” to an adverb yields “incredibly” — and the second solution.
Solutions:
“Foxit Reader is a … viewer …, with incredible, small size …”
or
“Foxit Reader is a … viewer …, with incredibly small size …”
I saw this in the closed captioning on Usher’s “Make Love in this Club” video on one of my gym’s TV sets this morning.
Problems:
A comma and an apostrophe are missing.
Explanation:
First, there is a natural pause when one says someone’s name and then says the rest of the sentence. This pause should be indicated by a comma, so there should be a comma between “BABY” and “LETS” (sic).
Second, “LETS” is a contraction of “LET US”. A contraction requires an apostrophe to indicate the omission of one of more letters, so the omitted “U” in the contraction requires the apostrophe as its substitute.
Granted, closed captioning for live events will have typographical errors.
A music video, on the other hand, should have no typographical errors, given that it is not live and that producers spend small fortunes to produce them.
I searched Google for the lyrics and found them — with the same errors — here and here (among many sites).
This shows that the omissions in the closed captioning were not typographical errors; the omissions are in the original lyrics.
I believe that both of these omissions are consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It’s simpler to omit the comma and the apostrophe than to include them.
Solution:
“BABY, LET’S MAKE LOVE.”