Verbs

“… it was passed 3:00 pm …”

Prepositions, Verbs

I saw this in an email message this morning.

Problem:
The writer used a past participle where a preposition was required.

Explanation:
The word “passed” — spelled P-A-S-S-E-D — in the expression “it was passed 3:00 pm” is the past participle of the verb “pass”.

The message writer was trying to say in the complete sentence that the time was after 3:00 p.m. when someone saw something.

The word “after” in this context is a preposition.

In other words, the message writer should have used a preposition instead of a past participle, and this preposition should sound like “passed” — spelled P-A-S-S-E-D — and act as a synonym for the preposition “after”.

This gives us the solution. The writer should have used the preposition “past” — spelled P-A-S-T — which means beyond in time.

Solution:
“… it was past 3:00 pm …”

“Powerful plant base cleaner”

Common English Blunders, Hyphens, Verbs

I saw this in a television commercial for Arm & Hammer “Essentials” cleaner.

Problems:
1. One of the words should be in past-participle form.
2. A hyphen is missing.

Explanation:
The advertising copywriter was promoting the environmentally friendly and non-harsh nature of the cleaner.

So the copywriter was trying to say that the cleaner was derived from or based on plants.

This gives us the solution to the first problem: The writer should have used the past participle “based” — spelled B-A-S-E-D — instead of the word “base” — spelled B-A-S-E.

Also, the copywriter was modifying the noun “cleaner” with two words in a compound fashion.

This gives us the solution to the second problem: The writer should have put a hyphen instead of a space after the word “plant”.

Both of these problems — not recognizing the need for a past participle nor the need for a hyphen — are, unfortunately, common English blunders.

Solution:
“Powerful plant-based cleaner”

“Tangenting here, …”

Verbs

I heard this last evening on the City of Houston’s HTV television channel.

Problem:
The word “tangent” is not a verb.

Explanation:
The person who said “Tangenting here, …” was Harry J. Hayes, Director of the Solid Waste Department for the City of Houston.

Mr. Hayes was talking to the television interviewer about Houston’s recycling program, and he wanted to take the conversation in a tangential direction.

Unfortunately, the word “tangent” is not a verb, so “tangenting” is nonsensical.

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

  • “tangent” — 15,300,000 matches
  • “tangential” — 3,390,000 matches
  • “tangentially” — 1,080,000 matches
  • “tangenting” — 3,750 matches

This tells me that Web authors have used the word “tangent” or one of its variations correctly vs. incorrectly by a ratio of greater than 4,080-to-1, which is superb.

Solution:
“Going tangentially here, …”