Common English Blunders

“He did not try to sell me on an expensive system.”

Common English Blunders, Prepositions

I heard this during a radio ad yesterday.

Problem:
The preposition “on” does not belong in this sentence.

Explanation:
The speaker was describing the sales technique of the company running the radio advertisement.

She could have been trying to simplify a longer sentence such as “He did not try to sell me on the idea of an expensive system.”.

Instead of simplifying it by removing “the idea of”, she made it more difficult to understand.

Or she could have been trying to sound more sophisticated by inserting “on” in a sentence that originally did not include it.

Instead, she made it more difficult to understand.

Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly common to hear the preposition “on” inserted mistakenly but immediately or soon after verbs.

Solution:
“He did not try to sell me an expensive system.”

“Bring” vs. “Carry”

Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Verbs, Versus

Just as I often hear “bring” when the speaker means “take” instead, I often hear speakers confuse “carry” with “bring”.

Problem:
The verbs “bring” and “carry” are not interchangeable.

Explanation:
One should use “carry” when one is telling the listener to transport something to a location other than where one currently resides.

One should use “bring” when one is telling the listener to transport something to a location where one currently resides.

I believe that the use of “bring” instead of “carry” supports my “Devolution toward Simpler” hypothesis. The verb “bring” (with one syllable) is simpler to say than is “carry” (with two syllables).

Solution:
Use “bring” when the person making the request is at the destination.
Use “carry” when the person making the request is NOT at the destination.

“WOOD BASE HIGH END FURNITURE”

Adjectives, Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Hyphens, Nouns

I saw this in a television commercial.

Problem:
Hyphens and a comma are missing.

Explanation:
The noun “WOOD” and the noun “BASE” are used together as a modifier of the noun “FURNITURE”, so “WOOD” and “BASE” must be hyphenated together.

The adjective “HIGH” and the noun “END” are used together as a modifier of the noun “FURNITURE”, so “HIGH” and “END” must be hyphenated together.

We end up with two modifiers — “WOOD-BASE” and “HIGH-END” — of the noun “FURNITURE”, so we insert a comma between the two modifiers to get the solution.

It seems that the advertising copywriter fell prey to today’s prevalent copywriting style of avoiding hyphens and commas at all costs.

I believe that this style is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” hypothesis. It’s simpler to leave out the hyphens and comma than to include them.

Solution:
“WOOD-BASE, HIGH-END FURNITURE”