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

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

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

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 104

Earlier this year, John Holloway received an apostrophe catastrophe by email:

camera’s for cameras

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

Not Washed or Cooked, # 271

Spotted by John Holloway. Perhaps the writer was thinking about fish…

soley

Double-take, # 179

Another via John Holloway, ‘from the Internet somewhere’. Apart from the random capitalization, the list proceeds well until close to the end, when much becomes mangled:

driver … weighs up to 44 tonnes; random capitalization; punctuation; weights for weighs

You Cannot Be Serious, # 54

Another via John Holloway, from North Walls. The sign might have benefited from more punctuation and less random capitalization, but it’s the bottom line that is particularly mangled:

you for your

Double-take, # 178

John Holloway seems to have been doing an online quiz. It’s hard to tell whether the included mangle is a misspelling or a typographical error:

Link: Quizopolis, ‘The Archers Brian Aldridge Trivia’

Hungry for Hungary

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 88

Via John Holloway, an entry from an online school directory which persistently presents the school’s name incorrectly, although the school’s own included graphic shows the correct form… twice:

Link: UK Schools & Colleges Database, ‘Murrays Road School’

John points out that ‘the name of the road (and therefore of the school) is Murray’s Road, with an apostrophe’. The directory is not the only place where confusion over the apostrophe arises. A report in IOM Today of the school’s proposed amalgamation with the infants’ school that feeds it shows the apostrophe in the text, but not in the photograph’s caption.

Murrays School for Murray’s School (x3)

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 87

Via John Holloway, a missing apostrophe and a missing space:

Stewards Flat; Thankyou

You Cannot Be Serious, # 53

Pairing nicely with yesterday’s bit of grammatical hideousness is this mangled on-set television guide entry contributed by John Holloway:

I’m not sure where the various schedulers obtain the programme information, but presumably the synopsis is supplied by the programme-makers. Coast is a collaboration between the Open University and BBC Productions, Birmingham.

sunk for sank

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 183

John Holloway was taken aback to see this mangled template while opening a bank account online:

isn't not yet open yet

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 81

Spotted by John Holloway, one missing apostrophe (and arguably a missing hyphen), plus another that’s strictly correct though unusual, since business convention usually ignores it:

boatings best kept secrets

Double-take, # 151

This was spotted by John Holloway at Torpoint Yacht Harbour in Cornwall:

Perhaps the writer was a fan of the television series The Dukes of Hazzard.
hazzard for hazard

Mangling Meaning, # 30

One from John Holloway. He didn’t say where he found it, but he did comment: ‘Preposition errors can make SUCH a difference to the meaning!’

coming at my home

Double-take, # 143

John Holloway felt that something in the email from his solicitor was not quite right:

responaw for respondent

Double-take, # 142

This comes via John Holloway, who comments: ‘A submarine blockage or a submarine blockade?’ As often happens, it’s hard to tell whether the mangle is due to a typographical error or a genuine confusion of words:

Link: BBC iPlayer, ‘2–6 March 1915. Home Front — Omnibus’

blockage for blockade

Singular or Plural? # 14

John Holloway has sent in ‘a mangle from Wiltshire police’:

drinking and drug driving costs lives

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 73

John Holloway comments: ‘The beer and wine at the Bolingbroke (Swindon) are so polite!’

The substitute of compliment for complement is not the only confusion. The final remark should either be connected to the previous one (precisely as in the earlier coda, ‘all freshly prepared’) or supplied with an active verb (‘is’?) so it can stand as a complete sentence. Punctuation is a problem: the comma after ‘includes’ is superfluous, and would be better placed after ‘sauce’ since, as it stands, the last offering in the list seems to be an unusual surf-and-turf dish. 

complimented for complemented