TGIF, right FF readers? The Grammar Cop is very glad to see the end of a week that spawned these writing glitches!

SOME ARTICLE SOMEWHERE, ON BOOKS. Put it this way, the first sentence of the article was, “One of the great benefits of extended travel is the time it affords for reading.” So I thought, “Oh goody, this writer has read a lot, and must be literate. That introduction was well written!” Well, guess what? Further down I arrived at two mistakes in one sentence:

1. and 1.5: “What is 1984 and Animal Farm to a Burmese if not reflections in print of Ne Win, the socialist strongman who held the country in an Orwellian vice for 26 years?”
2. THE SUBURBAN: “the cops … seized the Alexandre Restaurant sidewalk terrasse not  because it was operating, but because everyday the staff put out tables and chairs, sometimes…”

Now for the corrections. Did you spot them?

1. and 1.5: The first error is the verb “is” – it’s the second word in the sentence! It should be the plural form, are, because the true sentence subject consists of two book titles, 1984 and Animal Farm, so they need the plural verb. (To make this clearer, if we were to rewrite the sentence, we would say: 1984 and Animal Farm are… reflections in print of…)
   The second mistake is the misspelling of the word vise. The writer said “vice” which means smoking, drinking, and – I’ll let you fill in the rest! The word that’s needed here is vise, which most of us know is a tool that holds something tightly in its grasp. Here it’s used as a metaphor. A good one, actually.
2. Okay, if you said “terrasse” is spelled wrong, it actually is not, because in Quebec we use the French word for terrace. So, no. The gaffe is “everyday”… it should be two words: every day. The words are glommed together only when used as an adjective, such as an everyday occurrence; an everyday activity. No, you may not argue with me. 😉 This mistake is seen almost as frequently as that other one-word horror, “alot,” misused for the correct a lot!

Well, bonne fin de semaine, or as we say in Quebec, bon weekend! 😀 In Canada it’s a long weekend, as Monday, May 22 is Victoria Day. In the very French province of Quebec, the name was changed to La fête de Dollard (Journée nationale des Patriotes). Perish the thought a queen is honoured. But we anglos who live here persist in referring to it as Victoria Day, since it was still called that in our youth. (Old habits die hard.) So take that, Patriotes!