A Memento

Infinitives

     Have you ever been told not to split infinitives? 

     An infinitive is defined by Grammar in English (http://www.grammarinenglish.com/infinitives/) as follows:

When a verb is in its infinitive state, it has no subject or object. It is used to define the action of the verb without tying it to a specific person. It is a verb acting without a subject. The infinitive is the verb in its purest form. An infinitive should be treated as a single word with a single meaning.

     Splitting an infinitive means to put a word between the two words of an infinitive. I have seen situations in which the split infinitive was less awkward than the corrected form. This is rare. In the example above, the split infinitive could easily be corrected by moving "not" before the word "to." 

Arkansas Traveler's Concession Sign

"If they don't" should be if they do. 

Typos in School Letter

Student Makes Correction

The error is in the handwritten portion of this sign. "Rath" should be spelled wrath. Thanks to Talia for this picture. She's the one who used her eyeliner pencil to write in the correction. The sign is laminated, so they could wipe it off, she says. She's making her English teacher proud!

Struggling to Use English

The comma outside of the quotation mark is correct in British English, I believe. The remaining errors are incorrect in American and British English. 

1. It is considered incorrect to end with a preposition in formal writing. Re-word it. 

2. Use a comma after an introductory prepositional phrase of four or more words. 

3. "Are" has as its subject the word "one." It is correct to say one is. 

4. Double quotation marks seem appropriate unless the entire article is a quotation. 

5. "The Times" should be italicized or underlined. 

6. "Their" should be singular since "a school leader" is singular. 

Sell and Sale

He made an attempt to sell the furniture, not "sale" the furniture. 

There are two subject-verb agreement errors in this post. "Majority" is singular and should have tips as its verb. "Habits" is plural and should have as its verb have changed. 

"Injuries" is the object of the preposition "of." "Extent" is the subject of the verb "are," which should be is.

I saved this picture several months ago. I have marked two glaring errors. "There's," which means there is, is incorrect. The subject is "decisions." It is incorrect to say, "No decisions is there." The sentence should read, "There are no decisions...." There will no usually be the subject. (It is in that sentence, though.) There usually works as an adverb. 

"Got" should be have. 

Except and Accept

The county names should be capitalized. Some of the other words should not. "Fictures" is likely supposed to be fixtures. "Excepted" means left out; likely, this writer means accepted. 

Level Up Your Grammar

No apostrophe needed in "level's." This game was in Branson, Missouri. 

Black Smoke Responds

The underlined error is comical. I get this image of black smoke running to the scene or driving the fire truck. I wonder how people reacted when they saw black smoke responding. Okay, okay, I understand the intention of the writer. I'm just having a little fun. I appreciate the great police and fire departments and the difficult work they do.