Happening

Talking with Katie Couric the other day, Secretary Clinton said "I happen to think it's appropriate that . . . we do this in a careful, thoughtful way."

What does it mean when people interject "happen to" between "I" and "think" or "believe"?

I think it averts the knee-jerk tendency to disagree with any unqualified statement. Instead, it invites listeners to agree. Yes, I believe that too. Who wouldn't?!

To be, gratuitously

Today I heard an interviewer on KQED radio say, "You're someone who has lived in the Bay Area for many years." Why not say, "You've lived in the Bay Area for many years"?

I have heard this construction in various forms quite frequently. Weak communicators seem to like the verb "to be." I don't agree with eliminating "to be" entirely, as some have suggested, but it's a good idea to think twice when you find yourself using it.

Chinas, Indias, Brazils

In describing the G-20, a financial reporter explained that, unlike the G-8, it includes "the Brazils, the Indias, the Chinas." This is synecdoche gone wild. Each of these countries has a distinct economy and is not really representative of a class of similar countries.

I hear this figure of speech in other contexts where it might be more appropriate. For example, referring to the giants of Hollywood, someone might talk about the Clark Gables, the Humphrey Bogarts, the Greta Garbos. I don't care for it in any context, but in some it's more palatable than in others.

More then 35 million

While watching a TV reporter interview a health insurance executive, I saw the following cross the bottom of the screen: "Wellpoint has more then 35 million . . ."

This is such a common error that I wonder whether it's just a typo. I suspect that a significant number of people intentionally use "then" rather than "than" for comparisons.

Percent increase

Today I heard an extremely competent financial anchor say that MGM stock was up 250% from its March low. The stock was trading near 8.20, and the March low was 1.81. In other words, the current price was roughly 4.5 times the low.

The correct way to describe this situation is to say that the stock is up 350%. Many people, however, would say that it's up 450%. They forget that the word up indicates the difference between the prices, not the ratio between them. The anchor's error, however, went in the other direction.

My guess is that the anchor received written copy that correctly said that the stock was up 350%. Familiar with the usual error, the anchor assumed that the copywriter had made it. She compensated by subtracting 100 from the correct percentage, arriving at the erroneous 250%.

Same old stuff

Recently I noticed that I haven't posted to this blog in quite a while. I keep noticing things that grate on my ear, but they're mostly the same things I've already blogged about.

C'mon, folks. Make some new mistakes. :-)

Tack vs tact

Tact: social gracefulness.

Tack: the direction of a ship's movement, or, metaphorically, an approach to a problem.

So when someons says they want to try a different tact, they probably mean tack.

Mischievous

Turning on my local public radio station this morning to listen to Car Talk, I instead heard one of those insidious pledge breaks that I am so tired of. The droning voice, referring to the Car Guys, said he liked the mischievious way they answered questions.

According to the Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary (online version), that spelling and pronunciation, while they are common and go back to the 16th century, are non-standard.

It's mischievous, not mischievious.

Secretary of Education

I heard Charlie Rose interview Secretary of Education Arne Duncan the other day. Duncan has good ideas about education, but he might want to take a refresher course in grammar before he makes too many more public appearances.  

On two different occasions in the interview Duncan used "I" as the first person objective case. I don't remember the exact quotes, but in one case he said that his mother had a big influence on "my brother, sister, and I."  There is another problem with that construction, but I'll leave that as an exercise.

Flesh out vs flush out

Flesh out: put some meat on the bones by providing more details.

Flush out: drive from hiding by forays into possible hiding places.

When applied to plans, legislation, and so forth, these metaphors have different meanings, but I think that some people fail to distinguish between them. 

For example, someone might say, "Secretary Geithner has given an overview of how he wants to deal with the bad paper that banks are holding but I'd like to see that plan flushed out."  The speaker probably means fleshed out, but maybe Secretary Geithner is hiding details that he already knows but doesn't want to say. In that case, the flushing metaphor might be appropriate.

The which switch

Have you noticed how people use "which" to rearrange their thoughts in mid sentence? Today a reporter describing J P Morgan Chase's recent report on its real estate loans said the following:

Then there's jumbo, which we don't know how much of JPM's business is composed of that.

You can convert that into a grammatically correct sentence as follows:

Then there's jumbo; we don't know how much of JPM's business that comprises.

By the time you've said "which," however, it's too late.

Vagary

Today I heard someone complain about Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's financial plan. The worst thing, according to this commentator, was the vagary of the plan. Checking Merriam-Webster, I formulated the following distinction:

Vagueness: lack of clarity or definiteness.

Vagary: an erratic, unpredictable, or extravagant manifestation, action, or notion.

The commentator meant vagueness.

Information is available by phoning

When people want to tell you that you can obtain information by calling 555-1212, why don't they just say so?  If you start a sentence with "Information is available," just about the only way to proceed is to say "at . . .."

I'm not sure how to diagram "Information is available by phoning 555-1212." I know what it means, but it's awkward at best and probably defective.

Former Labor Secretary

I heard a talk by Robert Reich the other day. He was introduced as a former Secretary of Labor in the first Clinton Administration. Reich served as Labor Secretary from 1993 to 1997, so he is now a former Secretary of Labor. During the first Clinton administration, however, he was not a former Secretary of Labor.

I hear this shortcut all the time. A better formulation would be to state the office and administration, leaving out the word "former." Say, "Robert Reich was Secretary of Labor in the first Clinton administration." Or say, "Robert Reich is a former Secretary of Labor. He served in the first Clinton Administration."

More Obama

This is getting old, so I'm going to stop harping on Obama after this one. He gave a fine inaugural address, but at an event later in the day -- perhaps he'd had a few celebratory glasses of champagne, and who could blame him -- he said, "Each of you have the power . . .."

Of course that should be "each . . . has . . .."

Obama's English

I want to feel proud of Barack Obama, so I wish he wouldn't jar me with his English. 

As the inauguration approaches, every TV station is playing clips of Obama's current or recent comments. Yesterday at the Lincoln Memorial, he once again talked about "the enormity of the task ahead of us." Today I saw a clip in which he said that we need to help the automakers, but that the help should be contingent "upon them making changes."

If Obama were not a former editor of the Harvard Law Review, I wouldn't bother to mention his English.  He is, after all, an inspiring orator, and he expresses himself much more clearly than his predecessor. But Obama has had plenty of opportunity to learn these niceties, and he is surrounded by people who could clue him in. 

Unfair as this fact may be, people all around the world, some of whom speak English as a second language, will pick up on Obama's gaffes and will -- however briefly -- think a little less of him.

Obama can argue, as the Merriam-Webster 11th Collegiate Dictionary does, that "enormity" expresses "a considerable departure from the expected or normal." If that's what he means -- rather than simply a synonym for immensity -- I'll give him that one. I don't see, however, how he can wriggle out of "them making changes." He clearly means that he doesn't want to give them the money unless they agree to make changes. The way to say that is "contingent on their making changes."

Differently

I can't find the exact quote, but President Bush said yesterday about the "Mission Accomplished" banner on the aircraft carrier that it was a mistake. "We tried to say something differently," he said, "but it had a different effect."  There's nothing grammatically incorrect in that statement, but it got me thinking about what he must have meant.

"Differently" is an adverb, so in this case it modifies the verb "say." Thus he must mean that he meant to say something in a different way. By "something" I don't think he meant the word "something" so there is some unstated message that he wanted to give in a way that differed from . . . what? Did he mean that he had already been expressing this unmentioned thought, and now he chose the banner as a different way of expressing it?

Perhaps he meant "something" in the sense of "I don't really care which thing." Perhaps he felt that he had been in a rut, using a fixed means of expression for all his utterances, and he wanted to say something -- anything -- differently to break the monotony.

We get a hint from the fact that he added that it had a different effect. Different from what? He didn't say, but he added that it gave the wrong message.

I suppose he's just trying to say, "I made a mistake, but there was an innocent reason for it."  So far, he hasn't articulated the innocent reason in a way that I can understand.

Keep me appraised

Charley Rose to Andrea Mitchel at the end of their conversation last night: Keep me appraised.

I know it's nitpicking, but with all it takes to put together a show like that, you'd think someone over the 16 years Charlie has been doing this would have taken him aside and explained the difference between appraise and apprise.

Cachet of weapons

Cache (pronounced cash): hiding place.

Cachet (pronounced cash-ay): prestigious connotation.

I often hear military personnel and reporters talking about finding cachets of weapons. They mean caches, of course.