A monthly column in which we attempt, however futilely, to defend the English language against misuse and abuse
Department of Redundancies Dept.
In The New Yorker, of all places, we found this in a story on ballerina Misty Copeland: “I met a friend of hers, eighty-year-old Raven Wilkinson, an elegant older woman . . .” Eighty and older? Ya think?
“The point is is that”: a lawyer on Imus in the Morning, talking about gun control. The “double is” continues to rear its ugly—and redundant—head.
Commerce, Maybe. Grammar, No Way
The New Castle County Chamber of Commerce website published a bio of the “Business Woman of the Year,” noting that “Her and her husband . . . love history, antiques, people and animals.” Her is a possessive. She would have been the correct pronoun.
Media Watch
• In a letter to the News Journal, the chairman of Delaware Democrats wrote: “It is not our fault they [Republicans] have ran candidates with no messages….” The chairman was groping for have run here.
• Democrats aren’t alone in their confusion over the present perfect verb tense. Take sportswriters, for instance—like Matt Breen of The Philadelphia Inquirer: “Brown told the team that ‘their friend, their teammate’ has went through an incredible, personal tragedy.” That would be “has gone.”
• Peter MacArthur on WDEL: “Less young people are driving nowadays.” People is plural, therefore fewer is required here. Unfortunately, for many people, the word “fewer” simply doesn’t exist.
• Similarly, the consistently grammar-challenged Mika Brzezinski, on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, uttered this recently: “Next, a report on a state that is reducing the amount of prisoners being executed.” Again, a plural—prisoners—means that number is the word Mika should have chosen.
• The almost-infallible Ray Didinger, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a sportswriter, committed this error recently as a 94.1WIP talker: “I don’t know if that’s the tact he [Eagles Coach Chip Kelly] will take.” The word Ray wanted was “tack,” which is of nautical origin and means course or approach. Tact, of course, means diplomacy, discretion. Tact’s similarity to tactic (scheme, maneuver) probably has something to do with this common mix-up.
• Not “media” exactly, but a reader reports that, in a program for a Delaware Theatre Company production, Executive Director Bud Martin said: “Thank you for welcoming my team and I.” It’s “my team and me,” the latter being the object of the verb “welcoming.”
How Long, Oh, Lord, How Long?
(In which we document the continued abuse of that most misused punctuation mark, the apostrophe).
Once again, we go to our default culprit, the News Journal. In a story in the Oct. 26 edition, one of our readers found this: …”with it’s growing prosperity . . .” That should be its (the possessive—no apostrophe).
And an online NJ photo had this caption: “The Newark Halloween Parade makes it’s way down Main Street on Sunday afternoon . . .” See previous comment.
Misnomers
• It’s vale of tears, not “veil,” as some people think. In this ancient idiom, “vale” means “world.”
• Methodology is a popular “synonym” for “method,” especially in corporate America, where language is pummeled daily. Methodology means “the science or study of method.”
• Any equestrians out there? How about horsemen and horsewomen? Ah, but I repeat myself. Anyway, I have always believed that those flared-at-the-thighs riding pants favored by riders (along with short, black jackets and black helmets) were called “jod-furs” and spelled similarly: Jodphurs. Not so, according to a recent “Usage Tip” from Bryan Garner. Seems the spelling is Jodhpur and pronounced JOD-puhr. The name (almost always used in the plural) is derived from the city of Jodhpur, India. According to Garner, the error even pervades the horse-riding industry.
Seen a good (bad) one lately?
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Word of the Month:
chimera
Pronounced kee méera, it’s a noun meaning an illusion or fabrication of the mind; especially an unrealizable dream, a fancy. E.g., “Economic stability in that country is a chimera.”
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