Grammar Talk!
I often see signs like this one, especially in NYC, and these types of signs always lead me down the same path of
thought—this was obviously written by a non-native English speaker, and it went
all the way through the printing system, where it was undoubtedly was seen by
several people who WERE native English speakers, and yet—no one called them to
tell them that their sign had typos and grammar errors. To me, one of the signs of societal doom is
when people are too lazy and complacent to just connect the dots and see
something all the way through to the end, and then you end up with signs like this, which are obviously not doing this business any good at all.
Would it have been so hard for ANYONE who encountered this
sign along its printing journey to just correct it? Were the people at the printer somehow
dyslexic, or was everyone in the chain of command for this print job just so
brain dead that they were simply “doing their job,” to check it off their list,
to the obvious detriment of this business owner?
This is the kind of thing that drives me so nuts, it makes
me want to add it as a service in my “Ask a Native English Speaker”
business. This business would be
comprised of people who are similarly grammar-obsessed, so we could tell you
“No, you don’t want to name your business “House of Balls,” and “It’s
cocktails, not cooktails.”
Please do not kid yourself into thinking that I don’t tell
people about typos and grammar mistakes on their websites all the time, whether
they ask me or not. I don’t care if they
think I’m pushy or obnoxious. Grammar
mistakes/ typos are the # 1 reason why I personally would leave a website (or
business) and not shop there. I feel
like if you can’t even pull it together to use spellcheck, or learn the
difference between their and there, you
are probably not organized enough to get my business.
This goes double for internet marketing types with terrible
grammar. I can’t sign up for someone’s
mailing list if I see a typo/ grammar error on their website, because I am
positive they will do it again, and I will be too distracted to pay attention
to whatever it is they want to teach me.
That’s actually a shame, because
there are some brilliant people out there who simply do not know how to use an
apostrophe correctly, so they are never going to sell (or teach) me anything.
I guess what I’m saying is, it doesn’t take that much longer
to learn and use proper grammar, and it absolutely is a reflection of you as a
person (and as a business). These signs
may seem funny, but I think we actually should be motivated by them to try to
do a better job in our own communications.
One thing I tell authors all the time—don’t rely on autocorrect! The plural apostrophe is not correct, no
matter what your iPhone is telling you!
Am I the only one who is bugged by this kind of thing? I know at least one Funny Strange reader who
is an HR person, and she has told me before that poor grammar is the # 1 reason
she throws away resumes.
I am this way because I had a mother who thought grammar was super important, THEN I had a teacher named Mrs. Litchman in 7th grade who made us diagram sentences until our fingers fell off. On behalf of those two influential women, I will challenge you to improve your grammar, if you know it's not your strong suit. Here's a website.
Oh, and let me know if you want to volunteer for my "Native English Speakers" website.
I see these things, too. As in your first sentence above, where you wrote “…where it was undoubtedly was seen by several people…”
I find these in other people’s blogs all the time, yet I can’t see them in my own! We get comfortable with our own words, and read what we meant to say.
But you are right. Signs like the one in the picture are seen by any number of people who don’t own the words and could have corrected them.
I volunteer! Furthermore, I have a friend who did offer this service for a while on behalf of companies. The organization would submit their materials (I think — this was a while ago) and his company would correct them.
I am completely on board, too, with walking away when something is spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. I know it makes me a snob, and I’m comfortable with that side of myself.