Today the Grammar Cop presents a brand-new version of last year’s little list o’ gaffes. Read ’em and weep!

1. “…said the Premier. ‘Our economy is now considered to be among the best in the nation,’ after which he inferred that the best is yet to come.”
2. “She’s been the world number one in the women’s tennis rankings since last October, but a Grand Slam title is the one thing that has alluded her in her career so far.”
3. “They set out to collect the same data from 49 other police departments. They knew some departments would be more responsible to their public records requests than others.”

The corrections:

1. This is a common wrong-word infraction; many otherwise-brilliant people make this slip-up. “Inferred” is not used correctly here. It means to “deduce,” to infer from clues who the dastardly murderer was. In other words, “inferring” was something at which Detective Columbo excelled! But here, the desired word is implied. To imply something means to suggest or insinuate it. See the dictionary for a fuller explanation here.
2. Wrong word again. “Alluded” does not mean the same thing as eluded.  The proper usage of these words would be: She was very religious and often alluded to verses in the Bible; it means referred to or quoted from. But when you mean that you haven’t been able to win a prize in spite of all your efforts, you’d say the prize has eluded you.
3. This looks right, doesn’t it? No! The use of “responsible” here is incorrect. The intended word is responsive, which means, here, that they would respond in a more timely (and conscientious) manner to such requests.

It is not wrong to say that today is Friday, and therefore time to imply that a lovely weekend is just ahead. Have a good one!