Double-take, # 8

Including an apostrophe in the top line of this advertisement for Peter Christian jeans would have helped the grammar and thus the meaning, but it wouldn't have made the phrase less ambiguous: does the 'special' apply to the offer or the reader(s)? The main issue occurs further down, however, where it seems that someone has done a copy-and-paste job on autopilot:

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 10

Today's mangle is another of those pesky homonyms (but note in passing that the title of this series cries out for a comma):

Link: The Guardian/Observer, Your Problems with Anna Tims, 'instal'

The OED lists instal as a variant of install (v. 2), which means to pay by instalments. It also notes that the term is rarely found and is now obsolete, and lists only a single example, from 1679. It isn't the same word, or from the same etymological root, as the verb install (v. 1), which can mean to set in place or to invest with an office.

The related nouns follow the verbal spelling, thus instalment, which is still in use, for payments, and installment for being invested with an office, although being placed in position is denoted by the noun installation (which is also a viable variant for being invested with an office).

Oddly, Merriam-Webster lists instal as 'a chiefly British variant of install' (i.e., the obsolete word from OED v. 2).

Unless you're writing fiction set in the late seventeenth century and need a verb to describe someone making regular payments, it would probably be wise to set your spell-checker to replace instal with install.

Puny Puns and Weedy Witticisms, # 1

The Guardian's Consumer Champions generally stick to plain headlines, but occasionally attempt wit. They like this pun so much they used it twice in the space of three months in 2010. It seems not to have appeared since, so they may have realized that it's fairly meaningless, and thus not amusing, in both contexts:

Link: Guardian, Consumer Champions, 'cheque in'

Link: Guardian, Consumer Champions, 'cheque out'

Not Washed or Cooked, # 29

The main issue here is the hideous typographical error:

Link: The Guardian, Consumer Champions, 'backlooged'

However, I'm not entirely convinced by the phrasing of the statement: 'your mother should have been refunded'…

Mangling Meaning, # 12

Of course, it's not just the Consumer Champions who have occasional problems with expression; their correspondents sometimes come up with some very strange syntactical constructions:

Link: Guardian, Consumer Champions, 'No joke as "Family Guy" hacked my Santander account'

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 9

Given the state of the world's finances currently and in the last few years, this is not beyond the realms of possibility:

Link: The Guardian, Consumer Champions, 'Lloyds TSB wrecked by credit rating'

Or perhaps the writer had a cold…

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 8

I know I promised you more from the Guardian's Consumer Champions, but the Telegraph suddenly entered the fray with a hideous mangle, too good to delay:

Link: The Telegraph, 'Ukip's founder says the party has gone "completely fruitcake"'

Two for the price of one in a single sentence.

This bit's worth reproducing too:

The academic also said that he received letters complaining about the spelling and grammar used in Mr Farage’s election literature.

“There seemed to be a bit of problem distinguishing its from it’s,” Prof Sked recalled, adding that Mr Farage did admit that writing was not his area of expertise.

Not Washed or Cooked, # 28

As you might have realized from a manglepost last week, I've recently discovered the Guardian's Consumer Champions section, which is filling me with horror at the pitfalls of ever doing anything or buying anything or hiring anything or going anywhere at all, never mind ever dealing with any kind of financial institution. This is all in addition to giving me the odd wince, and occasional hysterics, at the spelling, grammatical and typographical errors.

So a short series from Consumer Champions starts today with Best in Class:

Link: The Guardian, Consumer Champions, 'backlooged'

I can't imagine why the offending word has been placed in quotation marks: it's spelt correctly both times it appears in the body of the piece.* The spirit of the Grauniad lives on!

* Perhaps the Consumer Champions use Blogger, whose spell-checker has failed to flag 'backlooger', although it has now identified 'Blogger' as problematic!

Singular or Plural? # 5

Wednesday's Times hedging its grammatical bets:

Mangling Meaning, # 11

Wise words, but a barely intelligible sentence from Mark Beatson, chief economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development: 

Link: The Telegraph, '10 well paid jobs of the future'

The low-level punctuation can't necessarily be blamed on the speaker, though it still should have been corrected for publication; but the main winces are due to Mr Beatson's random shifting perspectives: what use are your good education and learning habits to your child's derailed career?

I also blenched at re-skill, but the OED advises that it's been around since at least 1937 (which doesn't make it any more attractive!), originally without a hyphen. It's not in Merriam-Webster at all, even though OED's earlier examples suggest it was coined in the USA.* 

* From the Chicago Tribune (1937); and in G. M. J. Veldkamp (in Western European Labor and the American Corporation, ed. A. Kamin (1970), vi. 437).

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 11

Possibly on sale at an outlet near you, this rather puzzling and very ungrammatical mug:

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 7

This is horribly familiar from newspapers' notices pages, but it features on gravestones too: