{"id":412,"date":"2008-11-09T12:00:50","date_gmt":"2008-11-09T18:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/contenting-with-a-clutch-in-stop-and-go-traffic\/"},"modified":"2011-05-31T19:34:04","modified_gmt":"2011-06-01T01:34:04","slug":"contenting-with-a-clutch-in-stop-and-go-traffic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2008\/11\/contenting-with-a-clutch-in-stop-and-go-traffic\/","title":{"rendered":"“Contenting with a clutch in stop-and-go traffic …”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I saw this in a ConsumerReports.org article.<\/p>\n

Problem:<\/strong>
\nThe article writer used the wrong verb.<\/p>\n

Explanation:<\/strong>
\nThe full sentence was “Contenting with a clutch in stop-and-go traffic, for instance, can be tiring.” in a ConsumerReports.org article titled “Should you shift to a manual transmission?”.<\/p>\n

The verb “content” means to make satisfied or content<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Substituting this definition into the sentence yields “Making satisfied with a clutch in stop-and-go traffic, for instance, can be tiring.”, which makes no sense.<\/p>\n

I believe that the writer got confused by the second “t” in the adjective “contentious”, which means quarrelsome<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The solution comes from the fact that the adjective “contentious” relates to the verb “contend”, which ends with a “d” and means to struggle in opposition<\/em>, not to the verb “content”, which ends with a “t”.<\/p>\n

Solution:<\/strong>
\n“Contending with a clutch in stop-and-go traffic …”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I saw this in a ConsumerReports.org article. Problem: The article writer used the wrong verb. Explanation: The full sentence was “Contenting with a clutch in stop-and-go traffic, for instance, can be tiring.” in a ConsumerReports.org article titled “Should you shift to a manual transmission?”. The verb “content” means to make satisfied or content. Substituting this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,22,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adjectives","category-misspellings","category-verbs"],"yoast_head":"\n"Contenting with a clutch in stop-and-go traffic ..." - Kirk Mahoney . com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2008\/11\/contenting-with-a-clutch-in-stop-and-go-traffic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Contenting with a clutch in stop-and-go traffic ..." - Kirk Mahoney . com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I saw this in a ConsumerReports.org article. 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