Common English Blunders

“Maybe there’s some truth to the fact …”

Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Nouns

I heard Susan Estrich say this during a Fox News Channel interview a couple of days ago.

Problem:
A fact by definition is true, so “some truth to the fact” makes no sense.

Explanation:
The phrase “some truth to the fact” is, unfortunately, a common English blunder.

I don’t know whether this political advisor to former President William Clinton made this blunder honestly or was using the political double-speak to which so many advisors fall prey.

If it was an honest blunder, then I believe that it was consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” hypothesis. It’s simpler (Try it!) to say “fact” than to say “claim” — the correct final noun for this phrase.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following phrases (with the quotation marks) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “some truth to the fact” — 273,000 matches
  • “some truth to the claim” — 15,200 matches

This tells me that Web authors have written the phrase incorrectly vs. correctly by a ratio of 17.96:1, which is dreadful! (“Oh, the humanity!”)

Solution:
“Maybe there’s some truth to the claim …”

“This is the exact same thing.”

Adjectives, Adverbs, Common English Blunders

I saw this in a PowerPoint slide yesterday.

Problem:
The writer used an adjective where an adverb was required.

Explanation:
An adjective such as “exact” must be converted to an adverb so that it can modify another adjective.

For example, it’s incorrect to say or write “the definite green blouse”; the correct form is “the definitely green blouse”. We must convert the adjective “definite” to the adverb “definitely” to modify correctly the adjective “green” in this example.

Similarly, it’s incorrect to say or write “the exact same thing”. The correct but rarely used form is “the exactly same thing”; the correct and more commonly used form is “exactly the same thing”.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following phrases (with the quotation marks) and got the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “the exact same thing” — 555,000 matches
  • “the exactly same thing” — 762 matches
  • “exactly the same thing” — 527,000 matches

This tells me that Web authors have written the phrase incorrectly by a ratio of 1.05:1, which is not good!

Solution:
“This is exactly the same thing.”

“This is a non-smoking terminal.”

Common English Blunders

I heard a skit about this on “Prairie Home Companion” yesterday.

Problem:
This airport sign doesn’t say to readers what the writer intended to say.

Explanation:
The sign writer effectively is saying that the airport terminal does not smoke.

The sign writer wanted to say that occupants in the airport terminal may not smoke.

Although many sign readers will know what the sign writer wanted to say, the sign still is poorly written — probably for the sake of brevity and avoiding saying “You may not …” (because people don’t like to say “may” anymore).

Solution:
“You may not smoke in this terminal.”