Saturday, February 19, 2011

Grammatically challenged

I'm not sure why stuff like this bothers me as much as it does. After all, I'm not sure how relevant a phenomenal command of the English language is when a runaway sewage pipe is in the midst of turning your beautifully finished basement into the second coming of the East River. If my plumber manages to stop the carnage, I'm perfectly willing to ignore his/her literacy skills.

Plumbers plumb, grammar wizards do their grammar-wizardry thing, and the two core comptetencies don't necessarily need to overlap. Still, things like this raise my blood pressure. You?

18 comments:

Janie B said...

I'm a teacher...so YES! IT DRIVES ME CRAZY!!!

Lindsay Hanson said...

Yes it doe's me too!

(What does "comptetencies" mean?)

:)

Real cab driver said...

words eh...... ok,

Did your plumber tell you what the vig was to work your block in NYC?

Hilary said...

It bothers me far more to find countless grammatical errors throughout the pages of leading newspapers.

Alexia said...

So will you join my SPCUA? (Society for the Prevention of Cruel Use of Apostrophes)

I have been known to erase errant apostrophes from blackboard menus and street signs - or add in missing ones - I carry a black permanent marker for the purpose;)

kenju said...

Yes, they drive me crazy - but - the older I get, the harder it is for me to remember what IS correct - so I am a bit more forgiving.

A Paperback Writer said...

I am an English teacher. This kind of thing drives me NUTS.

Anonymous said...

I couldn't finish reading the ad without an immediate frown!

Bob Scotney said...

For some reason it's the grocer's who are targeted in the UK.

Wayward Son said...

In the grand scheme of things...not so much. Try as I will, I'm as guilty as anyone when it comes to stray punctuation (especially when I write without much sleep) so I tend to be a little forgiving in that regard.
Advertising and print mistakes bug me a tad more since it seems those should be edited a bit more closely than your average Facebook post. On the whole though...I doubt I'd mention it to the guy trying to drain the basement. He might just pick up his apostrophe and go home!

Cathy said...

I'm a big offender too. In fact I just looked up the proper use of apostrophes (for the umpteenth time) a few minutes ago.

laurak/ForestWalkArt :) said...

hahahaa...i'm the SAME way...with gramatical & spelling errors! i have posted pic's before of misspelled signs...(in fact JUST posted 2 this morn!!) it drives me CWAZY!! :]

Ankita Sarkar said...

because you are a writer, carmi, because you are a writer. Have you ever checked out Bethany's blog of unnecessary quotes?

21 Wits said...

My daughter actually started a war on facebook, with her comment about a brochure that went out with mistakes which caused so much uproar...that's one of the things I like about blogging, a smart wiser group posting comments!

Catherine said...

I hate misplaced apostrophes, they make me wince every time. But as I think about it, "pros" without the apostrophe also seems a little odd written down. Even if it's correct.
I saw a worse example - a bookstore selling "book's"
Shouldn't a book store be all about literacy?

Mark said...

Drives me crazy. Correct your child, then see a sign beside the road that flies in the face of what you have been hammering home.

Pamela said...

ARGH! I'm afraid to comment now.

Not long ago I was directed to a new blog...written by some recent college graduate who was smitten with the idea of having some famous singer perform for an upcoming 21st birthday.

I started reading. The grammatical errors were numerous. BUT THE SPELLING mistakes were much worse.

He was either lying about his education, or it sucked.

Anonymous said...

Honestly, what I dislike more than the grammatical error is the ugliness of the advertisement, or most advertisements. It's just ugly. But, if I was attempting such an advertisement about ‘plumbing pros‘, the apostrophe does 'look' better (in my opinion). There simply trying to sell shit. That's pretty much the incentive to get something like this done, right?