Friday, April 11, 2008

For My Eyes Only

This is probably only funny to people who have a degree in English.

Chuck sent me a text message a while back that said, "I just passed a sign that says 'We sell batterys here.' I weep for the future of our children." He then sent me another that said, "I just saw another one that says 'Were always open.'"

This afternoon I saw an article on translated signs from other countries and then domestic signs (at the bottom) that are just not grammatically correct or say something completely different from what they should. Seriously, it's probably only funny to people with a degree in English...or just me. Here is the link:

Watch out for the wha...?

9 comments:

  1. You are probably so sick of me hearing this, but this reminds me so much of Eats Shoots and Leaves. Sticklers of the world unite!

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  2. I routinely drive by a florist with a sign saying they sell bokays.

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  3. Don'tchya mean, "This is probably only funny to people who have a degree in English"?

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  4. No, see, as an English teacher, I'm allowed to use the language however I like. :P

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  5. I see. My apologies. There's probably no right or wrong here.

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  6. I am not an English teacher. But my mom was.

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  7. Since I'm on the subject anyway, and you ARE an English teacher (and I apologize for beating this subject into the ground), would it be more correct to say "... to people who have degrees in English," or "...to people who have a degree in English," with the distinction being that "people" is plural and so "degrees" should be plural as well, so that it wouldn't read that all the referenced people have one collective degree? On the other hand, if both people and degrees are plural, would it then read that each person in the group of the referenced people has multiple degrees in English? What do you think?

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  8. Actually, depending on the context, "people" can be singular or plural. Since I'm only referring to one group, it is singular. If I wrote "degrees," it would indicate to me that I am talking about multiple degrees.

    I had no idea a blog should be so grammatically correct, what with the emoticons running rampant.

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  9. Communicating ideas is more important than having perfect grammar; however, being grammatically correct becomes more relevant when the focus of one's message is about being grammatically correct.

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