DailyWritingTip.com

This week’s Not a Good Sign is again from Ryan and was taken at a bon dance in Wahiawa, Hawaii.

If you’ve got one to share, send it to me at scrivener @ this domain. Thanks, Ryan, and may you all have wonderful Weeke Nds!

This week’s Not a Good Sign comes from the always sharp-eyed Crissy, who was in the habit of snapping these photos long before this little blog was ever conceived. She spotted it at the Market City Pet’s Discount (yes, that punctuation annoys me too, but there’s a chance it’s accurate, so I’m leaving it alone) in Honolulu.

Thanks, Crissy, and keep them coming! And may you all have a HUGE weekend!

This week’s Not a Good Sign contribution is from Ryan and was taken next to the University Subway. That’s a dining establishment, not a transport depot.

Thanks, Ryan! Keep those photos coming, all you sharp-eyed, urban-commando linguists!

You know, this really beats anything I’ve seen at Star Market. I am definitely making it a point to stop in at other supermarkets now that I have stumbled upon this.

Have a great weekend! And if you spot anything like this, please do send it my way!

Hello. I had a little bit of an Internet connectivity problem, but thanks to @sophielynette, things seem to be okay now. I’ll return tomorrow with the Weekend Photo and answer readers’ comments and questions on Sunday, and then it will be back to the linguistic madness again on Monday. Thanks for hanging in with me!

I was about to accuse Star Market of being the worst offender among Hawaii’s supermarkets, but then I remembered that it’s the one I frequent most, um, frequently, so maybe it just seems that way. Note to self: check out the other supermarkets!

*sigh*

I don’t know where this came from or why it seems to be proliferating, but please take a look at this Google News search for “an historic.” As I write this, this search returns 3,144 results for this exact phrase.

Meanwhile, people are also writing an heroic, an hearing, and even an humiliating.

I know this isn’t any of you, but if you know someone who’s doing this, beg him or her to stop!

The rule you learned whenever you learned it still applies. Use an in front of most words beginning with a vowel sound, such as honor, apple, and irritating. Use a in front of everything else. Here in the United States, we pronounce the /h/ sound in front of words like historic, humiliating, and heroic, so those words take a.

Now please do what you can to reverse the tide of this, an ‘orrible practice if e’er I ‘eard one!

Which one of these sentences is incorrect?

1. She likes to ride her stationary bike for exercise every morning.
2. I have a locked drawer in my desk where I like to keep my fancy stationary.

If you are talking about the condition of being immobile, you are talking about being stationary, the adjective. If you are talking about paper, note cards, and writing implements, you are talking about stationery, the noun. This means that sentence #2 is incorrect. Notice the difference in spelling, please. That difference is actually your key to remembering which is which.

A long time ago (and not too long ago if you’ve lived in Hilo, Hawaii), you’d get your letter-writing supplies at a STATIONER. Notice how that doesn’t work if you wanted to spell it STATIONAR. See? You’d get STATIONERY at the STATIONER.

Now that you know this, you will never have a problem keeping them straight!

Before we do anything else, please watch this video from Grammar Rock about prepositions.

I know. It’s definitely not one of Schoolhouse Rock’s stronger moments, this one; it lacks the catchy elegance of “Conjunction Junction” or “Lolly Lolly Lolly get your adverbs here,” but I wanted to give you a quick refresher on what prepositions are, even though this isn’t really about prepositions, what I am about to say.

Now take a quick look at the titles of this, this, and this Wikipedia article.

We’re just looking at the titles here, not the articles themselves. Do you notice something about the prepositions? In standard English style, prepositions (except at the beginning) in titles are usually not capitalized, especially when they are short words. You’ll notice, too, that the, a, and an, except when they appear at the beginning of a title, are also not capitalized.

Wikipedia is not the arbiter of style (I am working on a DailyWritingTip about terminal S and apostrophes, and I am coming after Wikipedia loaded for BEAR!), but in general the community does manage to get most things right. In this way, we have articles about The Cat in the Hat, “Do You Know the Way to San Jose,” and “Over the River and through the Woods.” Many people feel the need to capitalize EVERY word in a title, but that’s not you or me, because we know better, right?

You will please thank me for resisting my usual temptation to get punny by asking if I may preposition you.

Saw this in the door at a hairdresser in Honolulu. Remember, please: ANYTIME is almost always incorrect. You can email me ANY TIME (two words) you get a little confused about this use!