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Link to original post: [drupal=3324]"10 items or less" -- grammar misusage drives me up the wall![/drupal]
After going grocery shopping last night, I actually looked at that sign that you always see in the express checkout. Considering I just use the self-serve checkout (UScan, or whatever it's called), I never really paid attention to it until last night.
After reading the sign that said "10 items or less", I couldn't help but shake my head in disgust. Aside from the obvious sentence fragment which I can give some grace toward:
- You don't start a sentence with a number.
- It's FEWER, not less. Less is used when you are comparing a quantity that cannot be explicity quantified or measured. Fewer is used when comparing objects that can be discretely counted or quantified.
So the sign should have been (while keeping it as a fragment):
"Ten items or fewer"
After this little annoyance, I started to dwell on other common word misusage that I hear almost every single day.
Lie vs. Lay
Oh god. Next to affect and effect, probably THE worst offender out there.
Lie is an intransitive verb, meaning there is no direct object involved. It means "to recline".
lie - present tense
lay - past tense
have lain - past participle
lying - present participle (gerund form)
Lay is a transitive verb, meaning there *is* a direct object. It is defined as "to put or to place".
lay - present tense
laid - past tense
have laid - past participle
laying - present participle (gerund form)
Stop confusing the present tense of lay with the past tense of lie! You do not tell your dog "Fido, lay down!" They are not interchangable verbs!
Affect vs. Effect
Affect is almost always used as a *verb* meaning "to influence". It can be sometimes used as a noun relating to the display of emotion.
Effect is almost always used as a *noun* meaning "a result". Sometimes though, it can be a verb meaning "to bring about", such as "The government effected many positive changes." To bring about and to influence are not the same and are not interchangable!
If you have any other grammar misusage in the English languauge that makes you go insane, share it here. Lie/lay and affect/effect are the two biggest for me (especially lie/lay), but others aren't too far behind.
After going grocery shopping last night, I actually looked at that sign that you always see in the express checkout. Considering I just use the self-serve checkout (UScan, or whatever it's called), I never really paid attention to it until last night.
After reading the sign that said "10 items or less", I couldn't help but shake my head in disgust. Aside from the obvious sentence fragment which I can give some grace toward:
- You don't start a sentence with a number.
- It's FEWER, not less. Less is used when you are comparing a quantity that cannot be explicity quantified or measured. Fewer is used when comparing objects that can be discretely counted or quantified.
So the sign should have been (while keeping it as a fragment):
"Ten items or fewer"
After this little annoyance, I started to dwell on other common word misusage that I hear almost every single day.
Lie vs. Lay
Oh god. Next to affect and effect, probably THE worst offender out there.
Lie is an intransitive verb, meaning there is no direct object involved. It means "to recline".
lie - present tense
lay - past tense
have lain - past participle
lying - present participle (gerund form)
Lay is a transitive verb, meaning there *is* a direct object. It is defined as "to put or to place".
lay - present tense
laid - past tense
have laid - past participle
laying - present participle (gerund form)
Stop confusing the present tense of lay with the past tense of lie! You do not tell your dog "Fido, lay down!" They are not interchangable verbs!
Affect vs. Effect
Affect is almost always used as a *verb* meaning "to influence". It can be sometimes used as a noun relating to the display of emotion.
Effect is almost always used as a *noun* meaning "a result". Sometimes though, it can be a verb meaning "to bring about", such as "The government effected many positive changes." To bring about and to influence are not the same and are not interchangable!
If you have any other grammar misusage in the English languauge that makes you go insane, share it here. Lie/lay and affect/effect are the two biggest for me (especially lie/lay), but others aren't too far behind.
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