Can the major networks no long afford a grammar checker, or is everyone they hire borderline illiterate? It's bad enough when you have people saying "I seen the robber the run around the corner," or when the crawl at the bottom of the screen says "Its' now illegal to smoke" or the "stock marker broke it's self imposed ceiling" (two mistakes there).
Tonight I saw TNT's little annoying screen popper-upper (something I would ban if I were King) saying that TNT had "More Movie Less Commercials." Grrrrrrrr! Of course, this error is repeated endlessly in checkout lines all over the English speaking world. Can you say "Ten Items Or Less?" Yep, you can, if you want to be illiterate. If the quantity can be counted, then use a form of "few." If the quantity cannot be discretely counted, then use a form of "less." If everyone would do that, there would be fewer communication mistakes and less confusion.
p.s. If you want to defend allowing illiterates to determine the fate of the language, go ahead. Don't expect me to endorse the idea.
No comments:
Post a Comment