Author: Kirk

“Electronical Devices”

Adjectives, Adverbs

My wife saw this on a sign in a high-school attendance office.

Problem:
The adjective is a bastardization of two perfectly good ones.

Explanation:
The sign directed visitors in the office to turn off such devices.

While “electronical” does appear in the Unword Dictionary and the Urban Dictionary on the Web, those dictionaries are not representing that this a proper adjective.

Search www.dictionary.com, in contrast, and you won’t find a match for this nonsense word.

I believe that the sign writer wanted sign readers to turn off cell phones, pagers, etc., and that the sign writer believed at least one of the following:

  • that “electronical” sounded more intelligent than “electrical” or “electronic”;
  • that “electronical” must be correct because it’s so close to “electrical” and “electronic”;
  • that “electronical” must be correct because “electronically” is a valid adverb.

What is disheartening is that a Google search for “electronical” (with the quotation marks) returned about 1,090,000 matches. Fortunately, a search for “electronic” (with the quotation marks) returned about 526,000,000 matches, and a search for “electrical” (with the quotation marks) returned 221,000,000 matches.

We get the solution by reviewing the definitions of “electrical” and “electronic”:

  • “electrical” — related to or operated by electricity
  • “electronic” — of or related to electronics, where “electronics” today usually refers to the science dealing with the flow of electrons in semiconductors (e.g., in cell phones)

Solution:
“Electronic Devices”

“Pre-planning”

Common English Blunders, Redundancies

I heard this today on television.

Problem:
This is a nonsense word.

Explanation:
The “pre” in “pre-planning” is redundant, just as the “back” in “reply back” is redundant.

To plan something is to do think about something before it occurs.

The “pre” prefix also means before.

It makes no sense to think about something before before.

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

  • “planning” — 51,700,000 matches
  • “pre-planning” — 890,000 matches

This tells me that Web authors have avoided this “pre-” redundancy by a ratio of 58.1:1, which is okay but not very good, especially in light of nearly one million(!) “pre-planning” matches.

Solution:
“Planning”

“Limited Quanities”

Devolution toward Simpler, Misspellings, Nouns

I saw this in a television advertisement for a business named Surplus Furniture.

Problem:
The noun is misspelled.

Explanation:
The misspelling is obvious: “Quanities” should have been “Quantities” in the big headline in the TV commercial.

What is not as obvious, perhaps, is why the misspelling occurred.

Not enunciating distinctly the first ‘t’ in “quantities” is common among many American speakers, so the misspelling could be due to the headline writer unconsciously spelling “quantities” in the way that he or she heard the noun dictated by the furniture-store owner.

I also believe that the misspelling is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It’s simpler to drop the first ‘t’ than to include it.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following spellings (without the quotation marks) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “quantities” — 50,800,000 matches
  • “quanities” — 165,000 matches

This tells me that Web authors have written the word correctly vs. incorrectly by a ratio of 308:1, which is a very good sign.

Solution:
“Limited Quantities”