Outsider’s Perspective

“… not affluent in that language …”

Foreign Languages, Outsider's Perspective

I heard this the other day while watching an instructional video.

Problem:
The speaker used the wrong adjective.

Explanation:
The instructional video was about Keyword Elite, a tool for generating keywords and optimizing the placement of advertisements on search engines.

I believe that the narrator of the video is Brad Callen, a genius when it comes to Internet marketing.

Brad was discussing how a non-native-English speaker very easily can misspell a keyword when searching for something.

He then picked on himself and said that he likely would misspell a keyword, too, if he were “not affluent in that language”.

I strongly suspect that Brad’s use of the adjective “affluent” where the adjective “fluent” was required was simply a slip of the tongue.

So I am not picking on Brad, who seems to be a native speaker of American English or perhaps Canadian English. I could not quite pinpoint the accent.

Instead, I believe that his gaffe teaches us two lessons:

  1. It teaches us to lighten up when it comes to language mistakes. Anyone can make them — even geniuses. And you have to admit that being “affluent in that language” is a humorous phrase!
  2. It teaches us to have patience with non-native speakers of our language. After all, if someone as smart as Brad can slip up with his own language, then imagine how easy it is for a non-native speaker to use the wrong word.

Solution:
“… not fluent in that language …”

“Ten-gallon hat”

Foreign Languages, Mispronunciations, Outsider's Perspective

This term has generated at least two plausible speculations about its origin.

Contrary to the first impression at hearing or reading the term, a ten-gallon hat does not hold ten gallons. Such a hat would best befit a clown, not a cowboy.

No, “ten-gallon” does not refer to the internal volume of the hat.

Instead, there are at least two possible origins to the term.

Both origins are from Spanish, both origins relate to distinguishing this type of hat from a sombrero, and both origins represent the effect of an outsider’s perspective in hearing a foreign-language term and corrupting it into something in the listener’s native tongue (in this case, English).

The first possible origin is based on the idea that a “ten-gallon hat” is for the upper classes, in contrast to the lowly sombrero for the lower classes. Upper-class cowboys were considered to be more gallant than commoners. The phrase “so gallant” in English is expressed as “tan galán” in Spanish.

If you “squint your ears” at the sound of “tan galán”, you easily could get “ten gallon” in English.

The second possible origin is based on the fact that a vaquero — Spanish for “cowboy” — would be awarded for cowboy expertise a narrow band, often braided, around the crown of the hat. Ten of these narrow bands on one hat represented the ultimate in cowboy skills. The Spanish word “galón” refers to such a band; “galones” is the plural of this word.

A non-Spanish-speaking, native-English-speaking listener could easily misinterpret “galones” into “gallons”.

The other meaning of “galón” is, in fact, “gallon”, so a native-English speaker with a knowledge of this primary definition of “galón” could easily interpret “diez galones” as “ten gallons” instead of “ten bands”.

“… you will not feel any air being blowned …”

Common English Blunders, Outsider's Perspective, Verbs

I saw this on a website this morning.

Problem:
The past participle is a nonsense word.

Explanation:
I was researching which way a ceiling fan should turn in the winter versus the summer when I discovered this.

The full sentence was “In the winter, you will not feel any air being blowned to you since it will be pulled up to the ceiling.”

Admittedly, seeing the past participle of the verb “blow” as B-L-O-W-N-E-D is essentially humorous, but there is instructional value in discussing this blunder.

The verb “blow” has these basic forms:

  • Blow — present simple, as in “The fan at top speed can blow the dust away.”
  • Blew — preterite, as in “He blew up the balloon.”
  • Blown — past participle, as in “She has blown it out of proportion.”
  • Blowing — present continuous, as in “The wind is not blowing.”

A common English blunder for young children and for those who are learning English as a second language is to write or say “blowed” — spelled B-L-O-W-E-D — as the preterite or past participle of the verb “blow”.

In other words, the blunder is to add E-D to the present simple form because many preterites and past participles are formed in this way. For example, the verb “form” has “formed” — spelled F-O-R-M-E-D — as its preterite and as its past participle.

Here are examples of use of the nonsense word “blowed”:

  • As a preterite:
    • “He blowed up at her.”
    • “The wind blowed last night!”
  • As a past participle:
    • “She has blowed her chances.”
    • “If you guys had not blowed the money in Atlantic City, you would not be begging me for a loan today.”

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following (without the quotation marks) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “blew” — 19,800,000 matches
  • “blown” — 33,100,000 matches
  • “blowed” — 541,000 matches

This tells me that Web authors have used the correct “blew” or the correct “blown” versus the incorrect “blowed” by a ratio of 36.6-to-1 or 61.1-to-1, respectively, each of which is very good, but over a half million instances of “blowed” is nothing about which to brag.

Another blunder is to say or write “blown” as the preterite of the verb “blow”, as in “He blown it.”

I had never heard or seen the word “blowned” until today. I suppose that it would be reasonable to add E-D to the end of B-L-O-W-N, if someone believed that “blown” were the preterite — because some past participles are formed in this way.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following (without the quotation marks) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “blown” — 33,100,000 matches
  • “blowned” — 86,400 matches

This tells me that Web authors have used the correct “blown” versus the incorrect “blowned” by a ratio of 383-to-1, which is superb.

Solution:
“… you will not feel any air being blown …”