From a book I finished yesterday:
"Hoards of new people were moving in."
A hoard is a stash: a hoard of money, for example.
A horde means a large group: a horde of angry grammarians
These words sound alike but have different meanings. Watch your spelling!
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3 comments:
Great blog! I just heard of this place via Grammar Girl. I love it. Keep up the good work. :-)
I learned about this blog from the Grammar Girl podcast. I enjoy reading the blog as much as I enjoy listening to Grammar Girl.
I do have one question I'm almost afraid to ask. Are these examples you use from actual publications? I am a degreed engineer meaning I completely avoided those pesky writing classes in college. I studied French instead, it was an easy A. I catch all sorts of confusing writing and blatant grammar errors online, in newspapers, and in magazine articles. Has grammar gotten that bad recently? Or has it always been bad? My guess is with the advent of word processors and editing departments being cut to the bone, periodicals just aren't paying attention to this any more. But for me, once I come across a grammatical error I can't keep reading.
Hi, John. When I say, "From an article about such and such" it is a direct quote from a real publication. Sometimes I substitute names or other identifying information. You're right that many errors lurk in publications. Every morning I wonder what my criminal sentence is going to be. Usually I read the paper first, and that almost always provides at least one egregious error. Other times I read online articles. Sometimes I use real sentences from work I edited recently.
I feel the same as you when I read a terrible error. Sometimes I just don't want to continue. But if I always stopped, I would never get to read anything.
I'm glad that Grammar Girl and others, such as myself are inspiring people to care about grammar and writing skills.
Thanks for reading! (Or should I say, merci!)
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