Well that was fun! The Grammar Cop took last Friday off for a very good reason (you did read my account of May 9-12, didn’t you? 😃). Now it’s time once again to check out some bad blunders!

1. “Social media that was once considered to be the network that would provide us with greater understanding now suddenly appears to be a tool used to spread disinformation and hatred and suspicion. – Barack Obama speech
2. “The answer is that all of these Republicans hale from ‘safe,’ gerrymandered Republican districts where total fealty to Trump is necessary to them keeping their jobs.
3. “Additionnal Information: This medication may interact with other medications or supplements, sometimes significantly. Many interactions, however, may be dealt with by a dosage adjustment or…”

The corrections:

1. Of course you all know from reading past Friday Follies posts that “media” is plural. Yes: even though it has no “s” glommed onto the end of it, it is indeed plural. Why? Because it’s a Latin word, and in Latin the singular of media is medium, while the plural is media. Therefore, since media is plural, all the words pertaining to it (such as the verbs following it) also have to be plural. The sentence may be corrected as follows: Social media that were once considered to be the networks that would provide us with greater understanding now suddenly appear to be tools used to spread disinformation… Two more comments: The Grammar Cop dislikes seeing the word “that” twice in one sentence, so close together. She would change it to: Social media that were once considered to be the networks to provide us with greater understanding… But wait! The G.C. also hates seeing “to” twice, so close together! So she would reword the darn sentence like this: Social media that were once considered to be networks for greater understanding… Okay. She likes it now. By the way, she doesn’t mind the repeated instances of “and,” because the excerpt is from a speech; repetition is a rhetorical device used for emphasis. And besides: Obama. 😉
2. Actually, those Republicans don’t “hale” from anywhere! “Hale” is an adjective meaning “healthy” and “strong.” The word needed here is the verb hail, which in this context means come from. Another grammar glitch in this sentence is: “…is necessary to them keeping their jobs.” Ugh. This should be reworded, e.g.: …is necessary to keep their jobs.
3. Good spellers will pounce on the error here immediately. “Additionnal” should have only one “n”: Additional. Since the Grammar Cop lives in the mainly French province of Quebec, Canada, she is used to seeing such bloopers. The word additional in French is spelled “additionnel” (masculine) or “additionnelle” (feminine). So French speakers often add extra letters in such words when they write them in English. It’s understandable, n’est-ce pas?

By the way, the Grammar Cop is feminine, but she is not a “Coppe.” 😜 See you back here on May 24, FF readers! Have a great week!