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Grammar Giggle – Winery Tours

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This past weekend I spent some time on winery tours. I found several Grammar Giggles to share with you.

Resturant – should be restaurant.

Resturant

Picknicking – should be picnicking. Someone got carried away with the “k’s”

picknicking

We had a special pairing where I found a couple of mistakes in the menu. The first made me wonder if Herman Munster was involved because it should be Muenster.

Munster

But my favorite was an absolutely amazing bite of dessert that was a cross between a brownie and fudge. As much as I thought I had “died” and gone to heaven, it really was more decadent than decedent.

decedent

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Replay Thursday

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Thursday-ReplayIt’s time for a review of recent blog posts just in case you’ve missed them. We call this Replay Thursday. Here are posts from Proof That proofreading blog and 60 Is The New 60 blog during the past week.

Grammar Giggle – Biscuitier

Grammar Giggle – Kowalla

2019 Word Of The Year

Confusing Words Of The Week

Dang You, Autocorrect!

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Dang You, Autocorrect!

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CannabisAlthough this story from The Beaverton was a little over a year ago, it really shows the dangers of relying on autocorrect:

OTTAWA – Canada is one step closer to the accidental legalization of cannibalism after the House of Commons passed a typo-ridden Bill C-45, formerly known as The Cannabis Act.

“I think no one wanted to be the one to point out the error,” MP Sara Anderson said. “We all thought someone else would do it, and then they called the vote, and here we are, all voting to legalize cannibalism.”

“It’s just one of those things.”

But Anderson also says the error might, conceivably, have something to do with a lot of MPs jumping the gun on legal cannabis.

“You know how it is,” said Anderson with a shrug. “You have the munchies, suddenly everything is about food… who can say why anything happens, really?”

The typo, which somehow crept into the House bill between the second and third reading, is expected to cost the Canadian economy up to 22 billion dollars a year in lost cannabis-related revenue but create a boom in cannibalism-related tourism.

“I guess now we’re all hoping the Senate will fix this,” Anderson said. “But I wouldn’t count on it. Some of them seem far more enthusiastic about the bill now than they were when it was about pot.”

At press time, the Green Party was calculating the carbon costs of a pound of long pig.

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Confusing Words Of The Week

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Words of the WeekIt’s time for “Confusing Words of the Week” where I take a set of two or three words that get confused and give you definitions and try to give you a memory trick to help you remember when to use which word. If you have words that confuse you, use the Ask PTB tab on the website or send an email to [email protected] and they may appear here soon!

This week’s words are:

  • ordinance – a local law
    • There was a city ordinance against parking on the street at night.
  • ordnance – arms; munitions
    • The military has a large supply of ordnance.

Memory tips:

  • The only difference is the “I,” so think of your local municipality saying “I am watching you and waiting for you to break the ordinance.”
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Grammar Giggle – Biscuitier

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I’m all for a play on words in retail advertising. I smile or laugh when I “get it.” But I saw this one recently in my travels and had an issue with it. Why is there a comma after “biscuitier”? You can say “bigger and biscuitier” but would you really say “bigger and biscuitier and biscuit”? I think the comma between “bigger” and “biscuitier” is enough.

biscuitier

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Replay Thursday

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Thursday-ReplayIt’s time for a review of recent blog posts just in case you’ve missed them. We call this Replay Thursday. Here are posts from Proof That proofreading blog and 60 Is The New 60 blog during the past week.

https://proofthatblog.com/2019/01/04/grammar-giggle-restrooms/

https://proofthatblog.com/2019/01/07/grammar-giggle-less-than-correct/

https://proofthatblog.com/2019/01/08/confusing-words-of-the-week-45/

http://60isthenew60blog.com/2019/01/09/show-a-little-gratitude/

 

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Confusing Words Of The Week

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Words of the WeekIt’s time for “Confusing Words of the Week” where I take a set of two or three words that get confused and give you definitions and try to give you a memory trick to help you remember when to use which word. If you have words that confuse you, use the Ask PTB tab on the website or send an email to [email protected] and they may appear here soon!

This week’s words are:

  • hoard – (n.) a hidden supply; (v.) to hide a supply
    • She had a hoard of toothpaste in her cupboard.
  • horde – a crowd or throng
    • It was hard to find him in the horde of people at the concert.

Memory tips:

  • hoard – you can keep your hoard of supplies neatly in the cupboard.
  • horde – there is no order in a horde.
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Grammar Giggle – Less Than Correct

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I saw this billboard on a local freeway and it begs the constant argument about when to use less and when to use fewer. Fewer should be used when you are talking about things that can be counted. Grammar Girl calls them “count nouns.” Less is used when you are talking about things that cannot necessarily be individually counted. Grammar Girl calls those “mass nouns.” So when you’re talking about four years, and you can count the years, it makes fewer the correct choice. See the whole blog post about when to use less and fewer here.

Less than

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