I can't take it anymore. Part 2 (meaning, sentence, examples, British)
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I just happened to think of this since it irritates me every time I hear it or see it in an ad: "Save up to 50% or more!" Uh, yeah ....
Speaking of commercials, "Dentures are very different to real teeth."
Just heard this same error on a show about sharks on one of the, um, er, educational channels. Something to the effect that the bull shark's hunting strategy is different to that of its larger open-water relative, the great white.
I realize that on television they sometimes take grammatical or syntactical shortcuts to use as few words as possible in the time they have to get their ideas across, but the correct word above--from--also has a single syllable, and would take no longer to say. This is clearly just an incorrect choice of words.
Back to commercials, and speaking of taking verbal shortcuts, I realize that incorrect syntax might shorten a sentence so the message fits into an ad's 30-second (or whatever) time slot. I understand how this can be useful with limited time, but these syntactically awkward sentences still jar me a bit:
[Drug being advertised] should not be used by women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant.
Yes, if there's some possible bad side effect, then I guess it's true that the product should be avoided by women who are may become pregnant.
and
Are you a veteran, own a home, and need cash?
Hmm . . . Are you a veteran? Are you own a home? And are you need cash?
Brits do a lot of funny things. I don't know what the actual term is, but I call it the "collective plural" ... meaning, a word that is singular but its makeup is many people. One dear to my heart is that they'll say "NASA are", where we would say (correctly, I think ...) "NASA is". There are numerous other examples.
Holy Guacamole, I hate when that happens! Cheese and rice, human beans need their tacos! What the shell! (I might be cracking, here. I should stop before everyone has a beef with me.)
Brits do a lot of funny things. I don't know what the actual term is, but I call it the "collective plural" ... meaning, a word that is singular but its makeup is many people. One dear to my heart is that they'll say "NASA are", where we would say (correctly, I think ...) "NASA is". There are numerous other examples.
Have to admit, I'm a bit lost on why "different to" is an example of the "collective plural."
That collective plural practice is interesting, though. We do that too, with the word "people," for example. We say "the people are," rather than "the people is," even though "the people" refers to a single large collection of persons. The British do apply this idea more widely, for sure, with examples like yours, "NASA are," or the committee or the faculty, etc., are.
Doubtless down one or more of them were the Finders that he sought, hiding at the edges of his awareness, taunting him, however inadvertently, like children playing a game of blindman's buff.
So the Finders were naked?
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I don't know what the actual term is, but I call it the "collective plural" ... meaning, a word that is singular but its makeup is many people. One dear to my heart is that they'll say "NASA are", where we would say (correctly, I think ...) "NASA is". There are numerous other examples.
Dinner @ the Grand Guignol
