Author: Kirk

“Powerful plant base cleaner”

Common English Blunders, Hyphens, Verbs

I saw this in a television commercial for Arm & Hammer “Essentials” cleaner.

Problems:
1. One of the words should be in past-participle form.
2. A hyphen is missing.

Explanation:
The advertising copywriter was promoting the environmentally friendly and non-harsh nature of the cleaner.

So the copywriter was trying to say that the cleaner was derived from or based on plants.

This gives us the solution to the first problem: The writer should have used the past participle “based” — spelled B-A-S-E-D — instead of the word “base” — spelled B-A-S-E.

Also, the copywriter was modifying the noun “cleaner” with two words in a compound fashion.

This gives us the solution to the second problem: The writer should have put a hyphen instead of a space after the word “plant”.

Both of these problems — not recognizing the need for a past participle nor the need for a hyphen — are, unfortunately, common English blunders.

Solution:
“Powerful plant-based cleaner”

“I don’t think they’ll be adverse to …”

Adjectives, Common English Blunders

I heard this yesterday in a conference call.

Problem:
The speaker used the wrong adjective.

Explanation:
The speaker was trying to say that he believed that “they” would not be against something.

The primary definition of the adjective “adverse” is antagonistic or unfavorable in effect or purpose, as in “adverse comments”.

It is a common English blunder to confuse the adjective “adverse” with the adjective “averse”, which lacks the letter “d” and means having a strong feeling of antipathy or opposition, as in “averse to kissing in public”.

In other words, “averse” relates to feelings or emotions and is what the speaker should have used.

Solution:
“I don’t think they’ll be averse to …”

“I know the likely hood of …”

Misspellings, Nouns

I saw this two days ago in an online forum.

Problem:
The phrase “likely hood” — with the letter Y and a space in the middle — is a misspelling of a noun.

Explanation:
As with many other words that end with the letter Y, the “y” in a word such as “likely” must be changed to “i” when the suffix H-O-O-D is appended to it.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following (with the quotation marks) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “likelihood” — with the letter I in the middle — 31,400,000 matches
  • “likely hood” — with the letter Y and a space in the middle — 130,000 matches

This tells me that Web authors have written the correct word vs. the incorrect phrase by a ratio of 242-to-1, which is excellent.

Still, the existence of some 130,000 Web pages with the phrase “likely hood” — with the Y and a space in the middle — is a bit depressing.

Solution:
“I know the likelihood of …”