Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Username

Dyske

Member Since

November 6, 2002

Total number of comments

118

Total number of votes received

667

Bio

I’m the administrator of this site.

Latest Comments

Dashes when saying year-olds

  • May 2, 2009, 9:43am

Funny; I had the same exact problem just yesterday while writing for another blog.

a bunch of 5-year-olds
or
a bunch of 5-year olds
or
a bunch of 5 year-olds
or
a bunch of 5 year olds

Hi Porsche,

I may have. Could you elaborate on that? Am I correct in saying that there were multiple systems of inflection? If so, are you saying that these multiple systems of inflection were part of the one and the only linguistic system? In other words, they didn't come from different linguistic systems.

But then, I guess this becomes a question of what constitutes a "linguistic system".

Actually, this shouldn't be so hard to do if the president of the US wanted to do this. He could for instance make the regular versions of the irregular verbs officially acceptable among all governmental communication. In other words, both versions would be considered correct in the eyes of the government. There is no need to force anyone to use the regular versions either. We just have to wait a few generations, because the public schools and parents will stop correcting our children. Like my own daughter, all the children will use the regular versions naturally. I would imagine that in a few generations, the regular versions will be more common because they will come naturally.

Acronyms, Abbreviations, and BBC News

  • February 2, 2009, 6:14am

Actually, I've been noticing the same thing. Never mind the errors in capitalization (which cannot be caught by spell checkers, and some may even undo the correct capitalization of acronyms), there are many blatant errors, like erroneously repeating the same words. I think it's a recent phenomenon. I suspect that it's a combination of two factors:

1. Because of the popularity of the Web as the primary mode of news consumption, the news editors are pressured to publish their articles as quickly as possible. Since the Web is so immediate and instantaneous, and because everyone expects it to be so, the quicker you publish the news, the more traffic you get to your site. So, they cut corners when it comes to quality control.

2. Because of the current economic climate, the news media are cutting staff in an effort to survive. I suspect many are doing away with the proof-reading step, and relying on the writers to do their best.

Green eyes

  • January 27, 2009, 12:59pm

I've heard "green with envy", but not "green eyes" for that purpose.

Announcement

  • July 7, 2008, 4:23pm

Oh, right.

It's not easy to write anything for this site; you know it will be scrutinized!

What is this triangular symbol?

  • September 4, 2007, 4:54am

Hi Nadir,

That would be very interesting if that were true, but I'm not sure about that. As you can see below, it's quite off from where the true Pythagorean triangle should be (3-4-5 ratio). If the artist truly believed in mathematical beauty, I think he/she would have been much more precise.

To me it resembles an "acute" symbol, like the one on top of the 'e' on "café". I have a feeling that there was a functional reason.

double negatives

  • July 7, 2007, 3:58am

If what is bothering you is the repetition, not the double negatives, then you could simply change it to:

There was no clause left in the sole agency contract that wasn't a source of conflict.

"There wasn't a single X left in..." is an expression with a specific effect, so if your author wants that, I would understand. Your version is certainly cleaner, but it does lack this effect.

Don’t mind if I do

  • July 6, 2007, 7:08pm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/localhistory/journey/stars/tommy_handley/catchphrases.shtml

This is an interesting page I found. According to it, the phrase "I don't mind if I do" was popularized in the 40s through this radio program. Unfortunately, this does not clear up this issue since the addition of the "I" could have been part of this joke. If "Please don't mind if I do" was how the expression was known before this radio show, adding the "I" would make it funny. It would have turned a polite expression into a rude/selfish one, which this character apparently was.

My theory is that "Please don't mind if I do" was the original expression, and this radio show made adding of the "I" popular. Now, many people do not realize that the addition was actually a joke, and use it even in situations where they should not be joking.

Don’t mind if I do

  • July 6, 2007, 5:58am

It just occurred to me: If “Don’t mind if I do,” is actually a request (as in “Please don’t mind if I take a lot of chocolates.”), then the subject is not being omitted in that sentence. It is a complete sentence. This means that, even if we hear a lot of people say, “I don’t mind if I do,” and never hear anyone say, “You don’t mind if I do,” it does not prove that the “I” is being omitted or implied. It is possible that those who say, “I don’t mind...” are misusing the expression.

If the expression is supposed to be polite, then I could imagine it originating in England where a host offers a cup of tea, and the guest replies, “Please don’t mind if I do indeed want a cup of tea.” In other words, it’s a different way of saying, “If it’s not too much trouble, yes, I would indeed love a cup of tea.”

Questions

What Rhymes? November 2, 2002
Don’t you count money? November 2, 2002
Where are the commas? November 2, 2002
“A” News November 4, 2002
Text, A Text, Texts November 5, 2002
Past / Present November 6, 2002
A Part of ... November 7, 2002
What is / What are November 8, 2002
A lot of water November 10, 2002
Future November 10, 2002
Type November 10, 2002
A position followed by a company name November 10, 2002
Matching Numbers November 11, 2002
Control November 13, 2002
Letter A November 16, 2002
lack of “a” November 16, 2002
Multi-disciplinary November 21, 2002
a shit November 21, 2002
Emotionality November 21, 2002
Two Weeks Notice November 27, 2002
Gone to Seed November 29, 2002
Off His Rocker November 29, 2002
“got the best of him” November 29, 2002
hit a snag November 29, 2002
Potboiler November 29, 2002
Went to extremes November 29, 2002
Five of Ten November 30, 2002
Over-the-counter December 1, 2002
Motives vs. Motivation December 10, 2002
In and of itself December 12, 2002
Down to the Wire December 17, 2002
Neither is or neither are December 20, 2002
Fried Chicken December 23, 2002
Perturb vs. Disturb January 3, 2003
Social vs. Societal January 11, 2003
Sheep, Fish, and Cattle January 17, 2003
Decades January 23, 2003
Taking sides February 5, 2003
Matching the tense February 5, 2003
ON the Lower East Side February 11, 2003
Value February 18, 2003
20 Something March 18, 2003
The Reality March 18, 2003
Commas, Periods, and Quotation Marks March 18, 2003
There were/was an apple and an orange. April 4, 2003
War in/on/with Iraq April 20, 2003
Trouble with Trouble April 25, 2003
Ranks has or have April 29, 2003
Sister Company May 8, 2003
Email May 8, 2003
Couldn’t Care Less May 22, 2003
Dual Purpose or Dual Purposes? May 23, 2003
Commodity June 5, 2003
Shrewd June 5, 2003
Sweet and Savory June 5, 2003
Spaces After Period June 12, 2003
Hyphen, N-dash, M-dash July 22, 2003
Friends July 29, 2003
Chink September 17, 2003
A Jew and Jews September 21, 2003
Either Is or Am October 2, 2003
Shame on You! October 7, 2003
At least, at the least October 23, 2003
The Americans December 5, 2003
The Flu and a Cold January 19, 2004
Identical March 16, 2004
There is no such a thing as... April 2, 2004
Silk and Silkworm April 10, 2004
Wiener Coffee July 18, 2004
Color of People August 6, 2004
Murphy’s Law December 3, 2004
Tsunami January 9, 2005
I’m home February 6, 2005
We, I, or my wife had a baby? March 9, 2005
Life Savers 5 Flavor March 18, 2005
First Generation vs. Second Generation December 18, 2005
Paraphrase May 4, 2006
“The Official Dictionary of Unofficial English” July 16, 2006
Quarters September 13, 2006
Feeling concern September 13, 2006
Materialism January 25, 2007
Ass February 8, 2007
Don’t mind if I do July 6, 2007
What is this triangular symbol? September 1, 2007
Do’s and Don’t's September 30, 2007
First Husband or First Gentleman? October 2, 2007
Announcement June 24, 2008
Why Don’t We Abolish Irregular Verbs and Nouns? April 14, 2009
Effect vs. Affect April 27, 2009
Should the link include the quotes? April 29, 2009
One of the most... May 14, 2009
Peter thins them out May 15, 2009
Someone else’s June 4, 2009
Word for Twitter Whores? June 15, 2009
Word for Stroller Toppling Over June 28, 2009
Word for Showing Off Your MacBook at Cafe — Mac off June 29, 2009
Is Punctuation Part of “Mechanics”? August 20, 2009
Does “Who knows” need a question mark? November 15, 2010
It’s Official: email not e-mail March 18, 2011
Isn’t the word “feminism” itself gender-biased? July 16, 2011
LEGOs — Is the Plural form of LEGO incorrect? August 21, 2011
Collins Dictionaries February 27, 2012
It had impacts on... April 19, 2012
“hack” in “hackathon” April 30, 2012
Not just me who thinks... or Not just me who think... or Not just I who think... or Not just I who thinks... August 31, 2012
What does “Curb your dog” mean? March 9, 2014
Use my brain or brains? June 14, 2014
“go figure” November 29, 2015
Small Talk—Countable or Uncountable? May 27, 2016
What exactly is “width” in geometry? May 8, 2017
“hate with passion” June 21, 2018
Why Asian English Speakers Are Hard to Understand July 11, 2018