Tag: Editing

This typo was just a typo, not a result of a different variety of English

I have written before about the distinction between (a) different varieties of a language and (b) performance errors within a single variety. https://languagemiscellany.com/2026/08/a-place-that-you-know-where-it-is/ Sometimes, it can be hard to draw this distinction in practice, but sometimes it is easier. I recently saw an example that clearly results from an editing glitch and is not an…… Continue reading This typo was just a typo, not a result of a different variety of English

Due, owing, owed

A couple of months ago, a radio presenter was talking about the then imminent stock market flotation of Elon Musk’s company Space X. The presenter said that the estimated valuation of SpaceX was [amount X], and that [amount Y] of this amount ‘is owed to’ the valuation of SpaceX’s artificial intelligence (AI) business Grok and…… Continue reading Due, owing, owed

A place that you know where it is

The other day, I heard a man say to his young daughter: ‘Where are you putting that? Put it in a place that you know where it is.’ Although that 2nd sentence is perfectly clear, I would never write it myself. I probably wouldn’t say it either, though I quite often hear similar sentences. Why…… Continue reading A place that you know where it is

A missing negative leads into a trap

A sports writer got into a tangle trying to describe Croatian football star Luka Modrić in a piece published in The Times on 16 June 2026. He described Modrić as the ‘first man in more than a decade—after leading Croatia to the 2018 World Cup Final—to take the Ballon d’Or from either Lionel Messi or…… Continue reading A missing negative leads into a trap

Please leave your room until 11 o’clock

We saw this sign at the front desk in our hotel on a recent trip to Luxembourg. Please leave your room till 11:00 a.m. One thing the sign says is: ‘Please leave your room till 11:00 am.’ That says the opposite of what is intended: intended meaning: please leave your room permanently before 11:00 am.…… Continue reading Please leave your room until 11 o’clock

Use a free relative to avoid clumsy wording

I came across the following ugly sentence in The Times (on 9 June 2026, example 1, emphasis added): (1) The money is about double that which was paid to referees at the 2014 World Cup. The sentence is grammatically fine, but sounds very stilted. Much better is example 2: (2) The money is about double…… Continue reading Use a free relative to avoid clumsy wording

Into the political cesspool while swimming at the Olympics

I’ve said before that I try not to use while with a concessive meaning as a synonym for although. That is because readers may misread the word as referring to time. https://languagemiscellany.com/2022/10/time-to-stop-talking-about-the-time/   In most cases, the risk of misunderstanding or ambiguity is low, but writers often don’t spot ambiguity in their own writing and…… Continue reading Into the political cesspool while swimming at the Olympics

Intrusive ‘of’: is it that big a problem?

In the last few years, I’ve increasingly heard people including the preposition ‘of’ after an adjective in creating phrases such as not that big of a deal and how big of a problem. To my ear, ‘of’ after adjectives in such phrases is unnecessary and sounds completely wrong. I’ve heard this construction mainly from Americans,…… Continue reading Intrusive ‘of’: is it that big a problem?