Spot the Error(s) #6
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From Catherine J Gardner of The Poisoned Apple
Brian Regan
A Whole Lot of Lucky
me & jack
The Summer of Moonlight Secrets
Violet
We wondered who was eating all that birdseed.
Hi Bono!
Jensen Kimmitt--2010 Yoyo World Champion
15 comments:
What, I'm first? Yippee!
Open should be opens.
Then should be than.
Author should be fired.
Uhm, what language is this? The words look vaguely English but the grammar is certainly not.
That's just wrong! :)
Ha! Stephen, love your last line!
Charles,
What language indeed!
Jessica,
So wrong is right!
But the purple makes it all okay - right?...
(notice only three ellipsis and no capitals, like Washington, D.C., in the middle of a sentence.)
OUCH!
But... LOL!
Error number one was letting this guy design the sign in the first place! :)
Where to begin... I agree with Carrie, let's start with hiring the writer of the sign...
***shudder***
Are Walgreens open 24 hours?
Halarious!
The writer's mistake is sadly common: 'open' is both a verb and an adjective -- "The store opens at nine" -- "He came through an open window." And I don't think I've ever had a student who didn't struggle with the lack of parallel structure in 'open' and 'closed.' In Japan, most stores kindly provide English translations on their store signs, and they ALWAYS read 'opened' and 'closed.' In fact, I've had students question why native English speakers fail to put an 'ed' on 'open'...
I suspect the author was thinking of an understood is--"Pharmacy [is] open earlier..." But in conjunction with the "and closes later," the sentence is awkward at best. I can't think of an excuse for the then/than error, except that a lot of people seem to think they're homophones. (That's excuse, not justification.)
There was an error--maybe intentional--in your previous post. I know because I made the same error a few years ago when I applied for a copy editor job. "Fiery" is the correct spelling.
P.S. I found your blog through Charles Gramlich. Your book sounds wonderful. Sometimes you can learn more from "children's" books than from those written for adults.
One more thing--nobody's mentioned the "for your convenience" tacked on without any punctuation to separate it from Walgreens.
Aack! Steve! Thank you for fiery!
That's why I shop at Walgreens! :0)
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