Not Washed or Cooked, # 312

A glaring mangle in a large font in a display box — you’d have thought someone would have noticed in time:

Source: Towpath Talk, 127 (May 2016), p. 21

reasaonble

Multimangle, # 52

Many a mangle in this advertisement for the Fox Inn, Lutterworth:

Link: Rugby Observer, 19 May, 2016, p. 16

resturaunt, extensiver, your'e [+ random capitalization, punctuation & syntax]

Double-take, # 232

This mangled text was found on Oxford University’s website by Arina, who comments: ‘It’s hilarious that this comes from the description of a module on editing.’

Link: University of Oxford Language Centre, ‘English for Academic Studies’

Repetition of copy: ‘Editing your Thesis with Corpora is a short (12-hour) course designed for doctoral students who are at the transfer stage […] This 12-hour intensive course is designed for doctoral students who have passed the transfer stage […].’

Double-take, # 231

The Mangling English email provider is now sending mangles direct to the inbox!

This mangle is related to one covered in more detail in December 2012. The construction here uses a personal pronoun (you) instead of the reflexive pronoun (yourself) that is needed to express the idea of performing (as the verb’s subject) an action on oneself (as the verb’s object).

An explanation, with examples of correct usage, can be found on the Oxford Dictionaries website.

Protect you and your loved ones

Double-take, # 228

Not a description that guarantees effectiveness:

Link: Playepub, ‘Translator’

tanslate

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 102

This mangle can be found on one of the banners adorning the Museo Nazionale Romano in Rome, promoting the ‘Once Were Romans’ exhibition. New-found Mangler, who spotted it, points out that, in Italian pronunciation, the correct English translation and this erroneous word would be almost homophonous:

leaps for lips

Double-take, # 222

Dr Faustus received an email from Xi’an Jiaotong–Liverpool University, inviting him to study in China. It concludes with a paragraph containing an unwieldy prepositional clause — a frequently ill-used construction — which is further compromised by an adverb that does not very precisely communicate its meaning, although placing it after the verb might have improved matters:

purely taught in English; unwieldy prepositional clause

Multimangle, # 47

Dr Faustus reports a sticky space bar at Shakespeare’s Globe (the first instance now corrected on the webpage, although the space seems to have been lifted from the later section on The White Devil, ‘Webster’stragedy’) in a synopsis that also uses revenge in a less than meaningful manner:

Link: Shakespeare’s Globe, ‘Read Not Dead’

Cervantes’influence, andraucously, anepisode, withthe, revenge for avenge

Not Washed or Cooked, # 299

Today’s mangle was spotted in Elephant & Castle Station by Dr Faustus, in an advertisement for Sir John Cass's Foundation and Red Coat School. This is a puzzling error. Surely, with a repeating pattern like this, the obvious thing to do is check the first set thoroughly and then copy and paste it?

Wednesdy

Problem punctuation, # 14

Dr Faustus can’t remember where he found this gem of misplaced punctuation:

Thank you, Marnel! Lodge

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

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]

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

Not Washed or Cooked, # 278

Des Pond of Slough was surprised this mangle made it to publication, especially given the size of the lettering and the sparseness of the copy:

Link: Rugby Observer, 10 December, 2015, p. 32

hundereds

Not Washed or Cooked, # 277

Now removed, here is an advertisement that was on Gumtree at the beginning of this month:

Original link: Gumtree, ‘Englsih lessions […]’

Englsih

Not Washed or Cooked, # 262

Old Chelsea received this offer by email, and comments: ‘Honestly… Not even hidden in the small print!’ — where the word can be found several times, unmangled:

mangum for magnum

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 101

From Des Pond of Slough, a prime position for an advertisement — and its mangle:

Link: Rugby Observer (22 October, 2015), p. 1

theres

Double-take, # 196

Des Pond of Slough feels there’s some homophonous confusion here and I’m inclined to agree:

Source: ‘Great Rail Journeys — The Magic of Sicily tour’, CSMA Club Life magazine (November/December 2015, p. 89)

sight for site

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 100

This mangle appeared in a marketing email sent to Dr Faustus by the Donmar Theatre. The full poster can presently be found online:

chair’s for chairs

Not Washed or Cooked, # 257

Submitted by Dr Faustus. There is no glory in spelling something correctly only most of the time, especially if you‘re professing expertise in it, and while not all proper nouns are included in spell-checking dictionaries, this one certainly is! There also seems to be indecision or conflict about the inclusion of a preposition in the course title:

Link: King’s College London, ‘MA [in] Shakespeare Studies’

Shakepeare; MA Shakespeare Studies/MA in Shakespeare Studies/