Thursday 31 December 2015

Multimangle, # 31

With a touch of déjà vu (see yesterday), here is another Shoulder of Mutton menu from The Rugby Register, submitted by Des Pond of Slough. His main concern was the conceit in the titles of the courses, which, as he says, starts so well then goes so wrong; but there are several other mangles on offer too, not all of them in English:

Link: The Rugby Register, North and Villages edition, advertisement for The Shoulder of Mutton, p. 23
first bell, second bell, full peel; goats cheese; gileete potato for gillette; french toast; mush for mash (?); celeriace; passion fruit; frangipan for frangipane; cinemon

Wednesday 30 December 2015

Multimangle, # 30

From Des Pond of Slough comes this extract, featuring an apostrophe catastrophe, a homophone and an unusual, if unmangled, description of a traditional menu item:

Link: The Rugby Register, North and Villages edition, advertisement for The Shoulder of Mutton, p. 37
bite’s for bites; fayre for fare; [soup of the moment]

Tuesday 29 December 2015

Other Englishes, # 3

These rather mangled instructions, submitted by Dr Faustus, come with Apachie brand bluetooth sports headphones:

alternativley; audiable; either devices

Sunday 27 December 2015

Not Washed or Cooked, # 281

Here is a pair of mangles on a seasonal theme. The first can be found on the website of Cotswold & Stuart, specialists in philately:

Link: Cotswold & Stuart, ‘Royal Mail Christmas Panomime Minisheet FDC’

This one (with unavoidably small text — click it to enlarge a little) comes from the press:

Link: Donegal Daily, ‘Dwarfs group’
pantoime; panomime

Friday 25 December 2015

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 210

This meme, complete with homophonous mangle and random capitalization, is presently doing the rounds on Facebook, and seems an appropriate way for Mangling English to celebrate the season:

too for to; random capitalization

Thursday 24 December 2015

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 209

Sharp-eyed Dr Faustus spotted these two mangles in an advertisement for PGS Global Logistics on the side of a bus passing by on Warwick University campus:

enquires for enquiries; it’s for its

Monday 21 December 2015

Saturday 19 December 2015

Friday 18 December 2015

Not Washed or Cooked, # 276

This is taken from The Guardian’s version of an article first published (as a comment at the end advises) in Mosaic — without the mangle. This rather implies that someone at The Guardian has been practising hypercorrection. A note subsequently added to the text refers to a factual correction made on 16 December; this mangle, however, remains:

Link: The Guardian, ‘What science doesn’t know about the menopause: what it’s for and how to treat it’
bespioke

Thursday 17 December 2015

Multimangle, # 29

Today’s main mangle, an adjective that has been mistaken for a similar word, sits in glorious splendour at the head of this screamer. The adjacent caption uses the mangled word correctly, and shows why it was wrong when first used, and also contains a lovely mangle of its own!

Link: Rugby Observer, 12 November, 2015, p. 1
seasonal for seasonable; Cristmas

Tuesday 15 December 2015

Multimangle, # 28

Dr Faustus sent this in for Singular or Plural?, highlighting the second paragraph’s nasty noun-verb disagreement. I’ve also kept the previous paragraph in the screenshot, which supplies a range of mangles, including the failed past participle, the nonsensical order of the first two clauses which, as it stands, expresses a chronological impossibility, and also the use of an indicative (‘is’) where a subjunctive would make more sense. The BBC’s own version of the text has now been considerably altered by further editing, but the text as originally published can be found via a Google search:

Link: BBC News, ‘China’s yuan gains IMF reserve status’
have suggest; concerns […] is; If Beijing’s wish is granted later on Monday, some analysts have suggest that by 2030 […]

Sunday 13 December 2015

Double-take, # 203

At some point in the last year or so, someone at eBay (or possibly ebay: both can be found on the company’s webpages these days) altered this word in the email notification template from the correct spelling to this mangle, ignoring the company’s own advice on checking spelling:

matche

Friday 11 December 2015

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 92

This was submitted by John Holloway, with the caption ‘Horseplay at Skyscanner?’ It is a companion mangle to one featured last year (12 April, 2014). It may be a typographical error; this time there is certainly no possibility of allowing it as an eggcorn:

Link: Skyscanner, ‘Carry on: readers’ opinions on cabin luggage restrictions’
confusion reins

Thursday 10 December 2015

Double-take, # 202

How can any professional writer think that a singular verb might be appropriate here? (The article’s title seems short of a possessive pronoun, too.)

Link: The Sunday Times, ‘Money’ section, ‘At 95, I’m fighting the NHS to fund wife’s care’
millions of pounds has [+ title: At 95, I’m fighting the NHS to fund wife’s care]

Tuesday 8 December 2015

Monday 7 December 2015

Double-take, # 201

Des Pond of Slough is puzzled by a word in a news report, though clearly not as puzzled as the reporter. There is also the matter of the use of both ‘curly’ and ‘straight’ quotation marks. Is this accidental, or are they intended to convey some nuance?

Link: The Telegraph, ‘Secret Russian radioactive doomsday torpedo leaked on television’
asymetically [+ curly & straight quotation marks]

Sunday 6 December 2015

Double-take, # 200

Another mangled on-screen television programme guide entry (see here for an earlier one) for that cult classic series The Avengers. After the — erroneous — substitution of plural for singular in the first sentence, everything becomes very confused indeed:

peoples for people [+ general confusion]

Saturday 5 December 2015

Friday 4 December 2015

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 91

Not actually a homophone, and definitely not the right word, as spotted by John Holloway in a mangle for which he chose the caption: ‘Interesting evening activities in Plymouth?’ The first picture shows the object described and part of the mangled sign; the second displays the mangle in full:


carousal for carousel

Thursday 3 December 2015

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 105

John Holloway spotted a small herd of misplaced apostrophes in Walton in the Naze:

eel’s, cockle’s, prawn’s, mussel’s, whelk’s, winkle’s, crab’s

Wednesday 2 December 2015

Tuesday 1 December 2015

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 206

John Holloway finds a homophonous mangle in a manufacturer’s survey. Some quotation marks seem to have escaped too:

here for hear; quotation marks missing