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Random Acts of Error

When words aren’t enough

In times of this isolation, it’s nice to not have to think about reading so much content and just sit back and enjoy the view. And this view is more Random Acts of Error oriented! Here are some more illustrations of what not to do in your day-to-day writing.

Remember our first image when we were testing our understanding? Well, this Facebook post does the same thing! This random apostrophe is added after the boy’s name. It’s not a possessive or even a plural. We’re just saying ‘Tobias has’. Exactly the same as ‘John has’ or ‘Matthew has’. Why the apostrophe? Who knows?

affected

The wrong word here is effected. Remember that when being used as a verb, the word is affected with an A. The business will be affected by the virus. The virus had an effect on small business. I also think it’s meant to say businesses as opposed to only one business.
Recap: Affect and Effect

who vs that

Another song for me to ruin… You’re the One that I Want? No… It’s You’re the One who I Want! Why? Because we’re referring to people and not objects.
Recap: That vs Who

To be honest, you could even completely drop the ‘that’ or ‘who’ anyway and the sentence would retain its meaning. You’re the one I want. Makes sense to me!

everyday vs every day

So when I was writing my post containing Everyday vs Every day, I turned to google for some resources. I stumbled across a website which kind of explained the difference, but then used this image as a reference, which gets it wrong anyway! Waa waa. I even used this example for both scenarios. Have a read of it if you need a recap.

We think you meant Instruction

Yes, very punny. You’ve used the term besties and made it into besteas by using a tea bag and a tea cup. But why bestea’s? What was the purpose of the random apostrophe?
Recap: Apostrophes are almost never used in plurals

It’s possible you meant Feature, and it’s also possible you meant Timber. I would have written Feature Wall – Timber, or Timber Feature Wall. If anyone is looking for this on Facebook Marketplace, good luck cause that’s going to be tricky to find!

Oh dear… Someone has confused Who’s and Whose. Don’t forget: Who’s means ‘who is’ or ‘who has’. In this case it would read Who is/has name comes up, which doesn’t make sense, therefore Whose is correct here.

One things for sure? That’s not right is it? They mean One thing is for sure, therefore One thing’s for sure.
Recap: Apostrophes are used when we want to omit the word ‘is’ or ‘has’.

Nirvana typo

Researching/proofreading/general knowledge fail right here. Come on, guys… Nivarna?? Kurt Cobain wouldn’t be happy with this one I don’t think… Nirvana are a pretty well known band. They even have a Wikipedia page about them and everything.

McDonald's typo

On the subject of typos, a friend snapped this at their local Macca’s. Convince? Pretty sure you mean Convenience.

In my apostrophes post, I even gave this example! More than one UFO = UFOs. You would only put UFO’s if you were talking about something belonging to the UFO, e.g. The UFO’s flashing lights.

Fantastic marketing fail right here. So this product is free from gluten free, free from dairy free, and also free from wheat free. It clearly should be either:

Free From:
✔ gluten, ✔ dairy, ✔ wheat

or get rid of the Free From and keep
✔ gluten free, ✔ dairy free, ✔ wheat free.

Proofreading sure is a charm!

This Facebook post brought to you by eBay who are selling Friends phone cases with the famous slogan ‘ll be there for you. Wow. All these years I’ve been singing I’ll be there for you. How wrong I was.

Email scams are usually full of poor grammar and punctuation. It’s one of the warning signs isn’t it? And had I clicked on this button, it may well have taught me all about such things. But unfortunately, they themselves spelt Let’s wrong!
Recap: Lets and Let’s

news.com.au typo

There own version? As in the version which is over there? Whoever wrote this headline needs to read my post on Their, They’re, and There!

I won’t freak out over what you’re warning me about, but I will freak out about you confusing to with too.
Recap: To and Too

Let’s end on this one. In Test your understanding, I said I would later discuss something called subject-verb disagreement. Well, I wasn’t lying. You’ll see this sign going towards Cranbourne. It should say ‘Smoke alarms save lives’. There are multiple alarms, therefore they save. I save, you save, he/she saves, we save, you save, they save. Funnily enough, I did post about this on social media at one point and it was like my prayers got answered: the sign got changed to save lives! But it didn’t last long. Maybe someone crashed into the sign or something and a new one got put up cause it’s wrong again and says saves. 🙁