Nouns

“You are wright, Edward.”

Adjectives, Misspellings, Nouns

I saw this in a comment on someone’s blog.

Problem:
The commenter used a noun where an adjective was required.

Explanation:
The comment appeared below a blog post about three places to shop for Google Android applications.

The commenter wrote “You are wright, Edward.” and was indicating agreement with what another commenter — named Edward — had written.

The word “wright” — spelled W-R-I-G-H-T — is a noun that means someone who repairs or constructs something. For example, a “playwright” is someone who constructs theatrical plays.

The commenter should have used the adjective “right” — spelled R-I-G-H-T — which has many definitions, one of which is correct in opinion.

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

  • “you are right” — using R-I-G-H-T — 6,500,000 matches
  • “you are wright” — using W-R-I-G-H-T — 4,320 matches

This tells me that Web authors have used the correct spelling versus the incorrect spelling by a ratio of 1,505-to-1, which is superb.

Solution:
“You are right, Edward.”

“Republicans and Democrats reach across the isle …”

Misspellings, Nouns

I saw an expression that went something like this recently.

Problem:
The word “isle” — spelled I-S-L-E — is the wrong noun here.

Explanation:
I saw this expression in a comment attached to someone’s blog post about a technology and the impact of the two leading U.S. presidential candidates on that technology.

The comment submitter knew the expression “reaching across the aisle” by sound, where the noun “aisle” refers to the virtual or physical aisle that separates Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress, and where “reaching across” refers to coming to common agreement on a legislative bill or proposal.

However, the comment submitter apparently did not know that this “aisle” is spelled A-I-S-L-E.

The comment submitter’s misspelling paints a humorous picture: Democrats and Republicans reaching across an isle, or island, instead of reaching across an aisle, or walkway.

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

  • “reach across the aisle” — with A-I-S-L-E — 165,000 matches
  • “reaching across the aisle” — with A-I-S-L-E — 111,000 matches
  • “reach across the isle” — with I-S-L-E — 4,110 matches
  • “reaching across the isle” — with I-S-L-E — 10,500 matches

The counts for the two correct spellings sum to about 276,000 matches. The counts for the two incorrect spellings sum to about 14,610 matches.

This tells me that Web authors have favored the correct spelling versus the incorrect spelling by a ratio of 18.9-to-1, which is mediocre.

Solution:
“Republicans and Democrats reach across the aisle …”

“… recognize your Employee’s and Peers!!”

Apostrophes, Capitalization, Common English Blunders, Foreign Languages, Nouns, Outsider's Perspective

I saw this in a message from a corporation to its employees yesterday.

Problems:
1. Two exclamation marks appear where only one should appear.
2. Common nouns are capitalized even though they should not be.
3. An apostrophe appears where it does not belong.

Explanation:
The corporate message encouraged readers to nominate others for recognition.

The full sentence was “Please be sure to recognize your Employee’s and Peers!!”

One problem with this sentence is the second exclamation mark at the end of the sentence, as if the first exclamation mark were insufficient.

Can you imagine putting two periods at the end of a sentence? That would be nonsensical, right? Putting two exclamation marks at the end of a sentence is just as nonsensical.

Unfortunately, this seems to be an increasingly common blunder in American English.

Another problem is the capitalization of the two common nouns. There is nothing special about an “employee” or a “peer” that requires capitalization in this sentence.

Unfortunately, this also seems to be an increasingly common blunder in American English, as if a huge contingency of Germans had moved to the U.S. and started to misapply the German approach to capitalization to all nouns in English.

The third problem is the most glaring. An apostrophe was inserted with the pluralization of “employee”, which is incorrect.

Solution:
“… recognize your employees and peers!”