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Post by Deleted on Jul 24, 2009 12:35:02 GMT
I think this is the most commonly seen grammatical mistake polluting the world of urban signs, but I'm sure there must be other similar ones.
(In case you don't know, correct English would be "10 items or fewer.")
I think that a lot of American road signs say "Drive slow," which is pretty bad, too.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 24, 2009 15:16:34 GMT
THANK you for pointing this out. It's very common, not only on signs but in all types of writing.
At least fifteen years ago, highway signs in the United States were changed from "reduce speed ahead" to "reduced speed ahead". Who made this money-wasting pointless decision? "Reduce speed ahead" was a solid command to slow down, whereas "reduced speed ahead" suggests that you are driving into an area where you might encounter other drivers just poking along.
What gripes me about "10 items or less" is that it's everywhere. This will segue into its becoming acceptable in the same way other misuses -- "snuck", "nauseous" for nauseated -- have become. I don't understand the "it's okay if everyone does it" rule in grammar.
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Post by lagatta on Jul 25, 2009 13:11:23 GMT
I refused to adorn my bicycle with the "one less car" sticker another cycling activist gave me for the above reason. Fortunately the French version "une voiture de moins" doesn't display a similar error. Fewer cars. Less pollution.
Isn't "snuck" non-standard or dialectal? Not quite the same thing as a grammatical error.
As for the supermarket items, I also urge strict enforcement of the rule.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 25, 2009 18:35:26 GMT
I don't know LaGatta. "Snuck" as an incorrect past tense of sneak seems to me to fall under the grammatical error category in the same sense as "I hanged around", for instance.
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