While I really hate exercise, I hate excersize even more. What is up with that spelling?
Here’s a sentence I read in a document recently: “We will have designated walking/excersize areas for the rescue dogs at both sides of the park.” There it is as plain as day or the nose on your face or as plain can be. You know what really gripes me about misspelling exercise? Spell checker would catch it! Here I am always harping about not trusting spell checker, and this time…
I think the problem stems from the way some people pronounce it: Ex-sir-size. That’s why they think there’s a “c” in it. You got me on the “z.”
Anyway, this person clearly didn’t care enough to take those few minutes to spell check the document. Jeez. Take a little pride in what you write for pete’s sake.
BTW, there were a bunch more typos and misspellings in the document, but my brain froze on this one. I’ll take pity on the writer and not mention the other stuff.
See, I can be generous occasionally (another word that gets slaughtered).
OK. I’ve wondered from time to time, although I haven’t lost any sleep over it, about nouns that appear to be singular but actually represent a plural. “There were a bunch more typos.” Bunch. Group. A lot. OK, I’m drawing a blank, but I’m sure there are a lot (there you go) more. A bunch of us are going… A group of us is/are going (I would say “is”)… A lot of us are going… Willing to blog about it? (Yikes, incomplete sentence)
I’m afraid to open my mouth any more, or my fingers, in this case. And the commas…I still don’t get it.
#1 Comment vom 24. April 2009 um 3:04 pm
It’s called a collective noun. Sometimes it’s plural, and sometimes it ain’t. It depends. It’s plural if the group acts as individuals, and it’s plural if the group acts as one.
#2 Comment vom 24. April 2009 um 4:40 pm