Grammar Giggle – The Correct Name of The City on the Diploma Would Be Nice!

This was on my local news station. Apparently, another Arizona city high school had a slight problem with their diplomas–they all spelled the name of the city wrong. It should be “Tucson” but is spelled “Tuscon.” I apologize for the quality of the picture so you can’t really see it well. The banners on news programs sometimes drive me crazy because they always seem to cover something up.

Diploma

 

Grammar Giggles – Towards Better Grammar (Or Not)

This is a common error that I see (and hear) a lot. Towards is used in British English, while in the U.S., we use toward.  Toward means moving in the direction of or in relation to. So when I received this notification from an American company, it caught my attention. I have previously written a blog post about this topic at https://proofthatblog.com/2016/07/27/the-pesky-s/.

Towards

Grammar Giggle – Spainish 

I have not shared Grammar Giggles from my European vacation because English is not their primary language so I was generous with any small errors I saw. However, on the Big Bus tour, I found this error. Since they are a large company with offices worldwide (including the US), I’m not so ready to cut them as much slack. So when I saw this one, the phone camera came out. 

Grammar Giggle – It Couldn’t Have Been More Clear

This I found on Twitter. The correct phrase should be “couldn’t have gotten.” I think the error happens because when you are actually saying the phrase out loud, it sounds like “couldn’t uv gotten” so people assume it is “of” instead of “have.” That is incorrect.

Grammar “Used To Be” More Important

This is a pretty common error that I saw on a TV ad recently. The phrase “use to be” is incorrect. When you’re talking about something that happened in the past but doesn’t happen anymore, the correct phrase is “used to be.” In this sentence it means that in the past, surgery was the only option, but it is not the only option anymore, so “used to be” would be correct.