Criminal Sentence 488: A The An Article Problem

From CNN:

"Stuck on a the tarmac for hours"

I guess the CNN graphics writer couldn't decide which article (a/the/an) to use.

Criminal Sentence 487: Kids Can't Eat Here

Not really a Criminal Sentence, but funny.

From my online banking list of credit card purchases:

"RESTAURANT ASS41222472"

I must have eaten at a restaurant, but it wasn't called that!

Criminal Sentence 486: That's Un-exceptable

From something I edited recently:

"The use of CO2 to clean graphite has been an excepted practice for over twenty years."

I take exception to that!

These two words sound alike but mean different things:

"accepted": related to "accept," meaning to receive with approval--We have accepted you into our club.
"excepted": related to "except," meaning anything but that--We like all of you, present company excepted.

Criminal Sentence 485: Typo or Error?

From an e-mail message:

"You could use more then one."

I used to think this was just a typo, but then someone told me she'd always thought "then" was correct. Nope! It's "than" when you're saying "more than."

Here was the question:

Is a punctuation mark incorrect here? "At Christmas, the Germans baked squares of lebkuchen, or honey cake; loaves of stollen, a sweetbread studded with raisins, and trays of pfeffernusse, peppery spice cookies coated in sugar syrup."

Yes	47 (73%)
No	17 (26%)

Congrats to 73% of you.

As you can tell, this sentence contains an overabundance of commas here. The one semicolon is lonely and needs another friend:

"At Christmas, the Germans baked squares of lebkuchen, or honey cake; loaves of stollen, a sweetbread studded with raisins; and trays of pfeffernusse, peppery spice cookies coated in sugar syrup."

Sounds yummy!

Grammar Girl Episode: Just Deserts or Just Desserts?

New episode written by yours truly!

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/just-desert-or-just-dessert.aspx

Criminal Sentence 484: Digit Down

From the newspaper:

"He gave a thumb's up."

A minor quibble here: It should be "thumbs up."

Criminal Sentence 483: Joint Gymnastics

From a sign:

"Men and Women's Gymnastics"

Gymnastics doesn't work this way. The men are separate from the women. They don't share the equipment, nor do they share an apostrophe. They each need their own:

Men's and Women's Gymnastics

Criminal Sentence 482: Boys Having Babies

From a book I'm reading:

"The next day he became a grandfather when his son (BJ) gave birth to a son."

The book was not science fiction!

As far as I know, only ladies can give birth.

Double Reader Question

Here is the double question:

Only that often times I see "often times" and "life like" written as two words: "often times," "life like." I assume in such a context as "That's a lifelike doll," they're compound words, and I can't think of a way to say them as two words. Tell me if I'm wrong!

The short answer for both is that each is one word: oftentimes and lifelike.

You might consider using just the word often instead of oftentimes: fewer letters.

Poll Results 114

Here was the question:

What's the best way to rewrite this? "As the owner of your business, it is imperative that you learn about the business."

As the owner of your business, it is imperative that you learn about it. 13 (21%)
As the owner of your business, you must learn about the business. 12 (20%)
As the owner of your business, you must learn about it. 27 (45%)
No rewriting necessary. 9 (13%)

Congrats to 45% of you. The initial problem here is that "it" can't follow "As the owner of your business." "You" needs to go there. The second item to be concerned about is the repetition of the word "business." Therefore, the third choice is best.

Criminal Sentence 481: Painter or Police Officer?

From a book I'm reading:

"I'll canvas the area over there."

Oh, and this was spoken by a police officer.

To canvass, with two S's, is to inquire, as in to canvass the neighborhood by knocking door to door and asking residents questions.

Canvas, on the other hand, isn't a verb. It's a noun and it's that thing on which painters create their art. Or maybe someone is going to put canvas on that area over there.

Reader Question: Pickup vs Pick up

Carrie's question:

I have to go research pick up vs. pickup, as in "your pictures will be ready for..."

Pickup with no space is a noun, so you use that with "Your pictures will be ready for pickup." It can also be an adjective: " a pickup game of baseball"
To pick up is a verb, so you would say, "I will pick you up at 10:00."

I have covered this topic before: here, here and here.

Criminal Sentence 480: Fishy Comma

From a book I'm reading (this sentence refers to herring):

"In its fresh form, this small, silvery fish (cousin to the sardine), figured prominently in the local diet."

Hmmm. There's something fishy about that last comma! Delete! Delete!