Wyn Drabble deals with a reader’s plea about the use of certain words.
Wyn Drabble deals with a reader’s plea about the use of certain words.
People who care about language – call us curmudgeonly old pedants, if you wish – understand the importance of correctness, especially where it aids understanding. Or, at least, avoids ambiguity. But we all seem to have our own different hobbyhorses, our own favourite gripes.
So the latest pedant to writeto me cares about something which he is right about but which is not an issue near the top of my own list of gripes. The reader from Kerikeri asked me to do what I can via my column to appeal to readers to limit the use of the word “multiple”. He cited recent reports of Canterbury’s railside fires which were reported as extending “for multiple kilometres”.
He says – and quite rightly – that it shows a degree of laziness. Same, he says, for “unbelievable”, an unbelievable choice when there are multiple other adjectives in the English language from which to choose. (Sorry, couldn’t resist those!)
Another of his gripes was one I absolutely agree with – the use of “amount” where the correct choice is “number”. Yes, it makes me cringe too. An amount is, for example, a bucketful or a binload yet sports commentators, to target one group of offenders, will refer to the “amount of people” at the game or the “amount of penalties” being awarded. Those are definitely numbers.
Related to this is the use of “less” (amount) and “fewer” (number) which are also often used incorrectly.
Leaving out hyphens is another biggie. Look at this newspaper headline which appeared, as printed here, without the hyphen it needed so meant something completely different: “Students off to help cyclone hit Fiji”.
And look at this advertisement: Hard to find plants at garden centre. Adding hyphens to the first three words changes the message from negative to positive.
Anyway, to keep a heavy topic a little light I’ve decided, for a bit of summer fun, to make up a correctness quiz for those of you who care about language. If you are anti-pedantry you have probably already stopped reading this but, if you have persisted, I recommend pulling out now before you become annoyed.
Read the following sentences and decide whether each is correct or whether it contains an error. The answers will appear before the end of the column. Don’t peek early and, if you’re really serious, you might like to cover all the words after the 10 sentences.
1. My wife and I are delighted to be here with you.
2. There are fewer people here today than there were yesterday.
3. Your hospitality has been heartwarming so it’s thanks from my wife and me.
4. The cat licked its paw.
5. Father Christmas brought a little magic to the occasion.
6. It was too hot for the two of us to remain in the sun.
7. Your submission has not satisfied the requirement of the second criterion.
8. We offer huge bargains every day.
9. We are licensed to sell liquor.
10. This will not affect our decision.
I trust you enjoyed that little exercise and I hope it showed you that pedantry can be loads of fun. If you get any of these wrong, I am willing to offer personalised explanations but it will have to be done on an individual basis by emailing me c/- this newspaper as the explanations will probably not be of much interest to the general readership.
Let’s see now whether you are a successful pedant. The first correct sentence was 1. The second correct sentence was 2. The other correct sentences were 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. That’s right. Let the debate begin (but there shouldn’t be any).
