Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 232

‘CitizenChip’, who might well hide behind a pseudonym, has mistaken the prepositional verb crack down on for the noun crackdown, both of which take the preposition on, and follows this up with some dubious syntax and a typographical error:

Link: GloucestershireLive

crack down for crackdown; of for on; area for area; [syntax]

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 109

A very odd use of a word here, in a sentence whose grammar is also dubious:

Source: Rugby Observer, ‘Violent Attacker to be Deported after Prison’ (19 May, 2016), p. 9; and online

suspect remains outstanding [+hoped that he may still be identified]

Double-take, # 235

A confusion of past forms (with bonus mangled syntax):

Link: The Telegraph, ‘Debtor days are over as BIS calls time on world credit binge’

rang for rung

Double-take, # 224

A hideous mangle, a puzzling preposition, and some repetitive and confusing gerunds, spotted by Dr Faustus:

Link: College of Media and Publishing, Sports Journalism

jurnalism; exciting reading looking; reading [again]; about for by?

Other Englishes, # 5

This from Just Liam, who remarks: ‘I can’t comment on the translation, but come on! Get a native English-speaking person to proofread!’ Some of the errors here, such as the use of the conditional mood where the future tense is needed, are not uncommon among those taught English in Asia; others, such as the misused apostrophe, are not uncommon among those taught English in England… Some of the errors, however, are more puzzling:

The translation on the front label is not entirely satisfactory either:

thefinest; pour into boiling water on the proportion; would for will; it’s for its; poer for pour; ‘soup’!; served repeatedly for 3–5 times; avoid a long time infusion; Chinese Famous Tea

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 205

Mo Juste comments: ‘As a keen supporter of Northampton Town Football Club, I’ve been following recent developments, but it’s hard to know when the administration petition will be heard according to this headline’ — when or even whether!

Link: Northampton Chronicle & Echo, ‘Administration petition for Northampton Town […]’

by on

Double-take, # 194

A fishy mangle, with dreadful pun, via Des Pond of Slough:

Source: The Telegraph, breadcrumb to ‘Twitter had the best response to a lorry shedding a load of fish in Scotland’

Until I investigated this mangle, I had no idea that there was a verb shed that meant — very precisely — ‘Park (a vehicle) in a depot’, the definition given by Oxford Dictionaries. The simple past tense and the past participle of this verb are shedded. The OED* offers two definitions: the obscure (it says) ‘To roof over’, and a broader equivalent of the Oxford Dictionaries’ entry, ‘To place in a shed’.

The other verb shed, which is the one intended by The Telegraph’s breadcrumb, is irregular, and both the simple past and past participle forms are shed.

shedded for shed

* Subscription access only.

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 200

Stilted syntax and a mangle, spotted by Dr Faustus:

Link: BBC News, ‘China shares fall more than 8% on growth concerns’

The mangled verb was subsequently changed — unfortunately to the simple present ‘saw’ rather than the past perfect (or pluperfect) ‘had seen’ that the context‘s temporal logic requires, and which seemed to be what the writer had originally intended.

seen for hd seen [+saw for had seen]

Other Englishes, # 2

Following on from yesterday’s scam email, here is a second, showing another familiar set of errors, such as stilted syntax, the omission of direct and indirect articles, or use of an incorrect article, and the omission of a letter at the end of a word that results in a spell-checker appeasing preposition instead of the intended noun:

missing/incorrect articles (Natwest Online Banking team; introduce new much secured …] process; you are the member of our online banking); simple for filling procedure; you can get advantage

Other Englishes, # 1

The first of two days of lovely scam emails. Such scams are another reason (if one were needed) to teach, learn and use good English, and to read properly instead of skim, so that recipients can determine when they are being scammed; this is especially important when scammers’ offerings are made to look convincing with logos and apparently official email addresses:

As is often the case, the key errors in this email are verb tenses and grammatical number, although there are some odd prepositions here too, and ’prevent’ has been used as if it were a direct synonym of ’protect’.

by for from [x2]; introduce for [has] introduced; prevent for protect; restore for restored; remove for removed; field for fields

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

You Cannot Be Serious, # 52

I have one answer, but it is nothing to do with the subject of the article…

Link: The Telegraph, ‘Camila Batmanghelidjh and the rise of the egotistical altruist’

If Wikipedia is correct in stating that this writer attended schools in Kew and Kensington, and then went to University College London (UCL), the mangle cannot be excused as a dialectal variant or idiosyncracy.

drank for drunk

You Cannot Be Serious, # 50

More from Dr Faustus, who observed a problem with a preposition in this so-called ‘analysis’, by a ‘business correspondent’, of the Bank of England’s accidentally leaked plan to prepare an emergency strategy to leave the European Union. Prepositions, however, appear to be of lesser concern than the overall expression. Much of this ponderously whimsical piece of writing demonstrates problems in selecting logical and harmonious verb forms, while the second paragraph seems confused about whether it is asking or reporting a question:

Link: BBC News, ‘Email mistake reveals Bank of England's EU exit project’

logic & harmony of tenses; First of all we’d ask why do we pay these people to react rather than pre-empt massive outcomes. Secondly it might have already been too late; [&c]

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 87

Dr Faustus has submitted this homophonic mangle, which is a fairly common error and which the blog has featured a few times. There is also a split infinitive, which some find inelegant at best, and the clarity of ‘support shirts’ seems dubious — support stockings I’ve heard of, but not shirts:

Link: The Huffington Post, ‘School Backtracks After Suspending Student […]’

principle for principal; support shirts; to automatically expel

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 179

Another mangle that a spell-checker can’t identify:

Link: The Telegraph, ‘Amazon scraps free delivery under £20 (except for books)’

double for doubled

Right word, wrong form, # 4

This mangle can be found on an Australian video available on Facebook:

Link: Facebook, Sea FM Hobart, ‘Depressed goat […]’

Mangle aside, the film tells a heart-warming story; it’s worth watching if you like goats, donkeys, animals-in-general, stories-with-happy-endings or some combination of the above.

laid for lay

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 55

Surely one of the most mangled sentences in the history of journalism — and that’s before the climactic and archaic gerund:

Link: The Telegraph, ‘Judge condemns Crown Prosecution Service for pursuing sex case’

grinded; ‘spooning’

Right word, wrong form, # 3

Someone at The Huffington Post needs to revise irregular verbs:

Link: The Huffington Post UK, ‘Iain Duncan Smith Knows He Is A “Hate Figure”’

For reference, Reverso is a useful online source for checking the correct conjugation of verbs in several languages, including English.

casted doubt

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 127

The opening sentence of this report showcases a past participle mangle and a duplication:

Link: Rugby Observer, 8 May 2014, p. 13

have been affect

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 119

A disharmony of verb forms:

Link: The Telegraph, ‘When saving for 10 years pays more than saving for 40’

a saver who starts and stop