I rarely watch commercials–either I’m watching TV from a DVR or I am doing something else while commercials are on, but I caught this local bedding store ad yesterday during the news and had to use it here. I’ve heard of “Clearance Priced” but not “Clearanced Priced.” I’m sure they paid a lot of money for this advertisement to air multiple times, including on the local news program, so these kinds of errors are just plain embarrassing!
There’s a time for placeholders in a draft document–but there’s also a time to remove placeholders and add the final language. This newspaper apparently missed that lesson.
Copyright: alexmillos / 123RF Stock Photo
As we’ve learned before, a verb must always agree in number and person with the subject. See Singular Verb, Plural Subject, Both . . . and, It’s All About the Agreement. But what if the “person” is an entity? Do you then use a singular or plural verb?
Typically, if you are talking about the entity as a unit, you use singular verb:
If the entity is a company, it is usually treated as a unit. Just be sure that you carry the treatment as singular or plural every time you are talking about that entity. For instance:
If you are want to emphasize that the members of the entity are acting independently, then a plural verb is correct:
To help figure it out, replace the entity with “it” and replace members of the entity with “they” to make sure you are using the right verb. Using the examples above, replace the entity with the word in parenthesis to see how it works:
Hopefully that was useful to you. If it was, please share this post so others can be as smart as you are!
It is disappointing enough when students don’t know which version of “there/their/they’re” to use on their Facebook posts, but when school instructors don’t know the difference, it does not bode well for improvement in Facebook statuses in the future.
This one is interesting because at first glance, it’s hard to tell what’s wrong, but when you really look, that’s some pretty fancy wheels for a vehicle that takes a 7″. That Barbie Corvette must be decked out!
When a father and son have the exact same name (first, middle, and last) the son would use Jr. and the father would use Sr. If a son/grandson continues with the same exact name, the grandson would use III and father and grandfather could continue using Jr. and Sr. or could change to II and I, respectively. The Roman numeral designation II can also be used where a child is named after another relative like an uncle or grandfather. Royalty would always use the Roman numeral designations. The issue comes with whether or not to use a comma. According to the Gregg Reference Manual, the trend is not to use a comma to set off those elements, but the person’s preference should always be respected. If you know that the person prefers the comma in their name, follow these rules:
John Jones, Jr.
John Jones, Jr., is my son’s best friend.
John Jones, Sr.’s car is being repossessed.
John Jones, Jr. (he is the president of the business club)
Jones, John K., Jr.
When preparing a letter from someone using the Jr., Sr., I, II, or III designation, you do not need to use the designation in the reference initials unless you need it to distinguish this person from another person in the same organization. For instance, a letter I type for Henry R. Miller, Jr. at Miller and Miller Law, P.C., a firm where his father also works, would show the reference initials hrmjr/kas.
Remember that these rules are in instances where the person prefers a comma before their generational designation. In cases where they do not prefer a comma, all of this information is unnecessary, but hopefully at least interesting.
I was able to catch this sign on my way to work recently. It has since been fixed, but was incorrect for several days. Maybe it is a new version of a Walgreens meme or a new name for meme followers. But I’m thinking it was just an error.
I was doing a little research on Tombstone, Arizona, as a potential day trip when this jumped out at me on the City’s webpage. I’m most afraid that someone thinks this is correct because it looks the way a lot of people say it–but it’s not.
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