Friday Follies #130 – Making Grammar Great Again, One Hyphen at a Time

~ Ellie

Hi Friday Follies fans! Welcome to another installment of the Grammar Cop’s Hall of Shame.

  1. “Wherever you’re loved one decides to go, moving into a retirement home or senior community can be stressful.”
  2. “There are other countries who already have similar emergency alert systems in place…”
  3. “Large selection of top rated foods”;  and “non taxable benefit payable to your beneficiary”

 

The corrections:

  1. Know what else can be stressful? Repeatedly seeing “you’re” when it should be your. Of course, we often see the opposite: “your” when it should be you’re. Such bloopers could be easily avoided if only people could remember one little rule: “you’re” is a contraction for you are.
  2. The “who” bothered the Grammar Cop. “Who” is a pronoun used to refer to people, not things. The word “country” is a thing. It denotes a geographical entity with (usually) agreed-upon borders that set it off from other such entities. Yes, there are people living in the territory, but the territory itself is a thing. Therefore instead of “who” it should say “that already have similar…” Also: hyphen-o-phobia alert! There should be a hyphen between “emergency” and “alert.” It’s a compound adjective modifying the noun, “systems.”  Thus: emergency-alert systems.
  3. More hyphen-o-phobia! It’s running rampant! We need hyphens between “top” and “rated,” as well as between “non” and “taxable.” So they should be: top-rated foods, and non-taxable benefit.

There! I believe these are all top-rated corrections. The Grammar Cop only gives out virtual tickets for infractions, so if you don’t agree, tell it to the virtual judge! 😀

12 thoughts on “Friday Follies #130 – Making Grammar Great Again, One Hyphen at a Time”

  2. 1- What is even more stressful is the rampant misuse of apostrophes!
    2-Unfortunately there are no grammar-alert systems in place.
    3-Both foods and benefits will suffer serious reductions due to lack of hyphens. 😀

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  3. I like my hyphens and remember to use them and the incorrect use of your/you’re and there/their/they’re drives me up the wall. I like what you posted earlier this week on Twitter. I wish I could pass it along when I read the comments people make on social media sometimes.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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