Grammar Giggles – It’s or Its?

This was on my television as I was checking out the available entertainment this weekend. “It’s” is not the possessive form of “it,” it is a contraction for “it is.” It is confusing because to make other words possessive, you add apostrophe “s,” but with the word “it,” the apostrophe “s” is only added to make it a contraction. Otherwise, “its” is the possessive form of “it.”

Grammar Giggle – Eat Outdoors Every Day–Just Not At This Restaurant

I saw this recently at a restaurant. “Outdoor” is defined as “done, situated, or used out of doors.” It should be one word. “Everyday” is an adjective (a word that modifies a noun) defined as “happening or used every day” as in “Her everyday chore is doing the dishes.” “Every day” is an adverb (a word that modifies or qualifies an adjective, verb, or other adverb or a word group, expressing a relation of place, time, circumstance, manner, cause, degree–in this case relation of time to offering outdoor dining and take out). In this instance, “everyday” should be two words. See a tip for figuring out when to use “every day” here.

Grammar Giggle – Voting Wardrobe Matters!

As you prepare for Tuesday’s election, I thought this was appropriate. A friend sent this to me and I’ve seen it around on the internet since, but sometimes it isn’t misspellings that make things confusing, but sometimes it is word order. While I get what they meant to say, if they had changed the order of “clothing” and “materials,” it would have the meaning they intended. Instead, it could be read that clothing is not allowed in the polling place. That makes me kind of glad I mailed in my ballot.

Grammar Giggles – It’s All About The Timing

I saw this in a recent email about a local court training session. There are several reasons I know this is incorrect and not just military time. First, the time of the second session is 12:15. Second, the second time is not in military time. And third, it would be 9:15 p.m., which is long after 1:15 p.m.

Grammar Giggle – Side Load

My daughter sent me another of her local Facebook Marketplace posts. In all fairness, I understand that the front is one of the sides and when you look up “side load washing machine,” a whole page of things named “front load washing machines” shows up, but this type of washer is normally called a “front load.”

Grammar Giggle – Chandler

My daughter sent this to me from her local Facebook Marketplace and it took me a minute to figure it out. I had trouble because we have a city here named “Chandler,” so that word didn’t trigger anything until I looked at what they were selling. It should be “chandelier,” so there are a few letters missing. And then I saw the name of the city. There was no winning with this ad.

Grammar Giggle – Corn Teen

A friend sent this to me and while I assume it was taken from another someplace on the internet, I’m using it anyway. If you read ANYTHING about the pandemic, you should know how to spell “quarantine.” And if you don’t know, you probably have access to a dictionary on your phone, so use that.

Grammar Giggle – More Healthier

A friend was recently shopping online for a bread machine when she came upon this description. There are so many issues with this information.

  • “More healthier” is not correct. It should just be “Healthier.” Healthier already says it is more healthy than not healthy.
  • “More evenly heated” does not need the “More” capitalized. There is a comma–not a period–after the incorrect “healthier,” so the next word (unless it is a proper noun) should not be capitalized.
  • “the bread tastes better and more fragrant” makes me wonder how you can taste “fragrant.” To be completely correct, this line should have said: “the bread tastes better, and is more fragrant.” Note what would be the Oxford comma as well after “better.”

The one thing going for them is that everything is at least spelled correctly.