Monday 23 August 2010

Grammar Patrol...

Amusingly, I seem to have taken on the unofficial role of grammar patrol for the department. I 'grade' all of my boss' essays before she hands them in for her Master's course (I will never to an MBA as long as I live after this...) and I'm always pointing out bad grammar usage by the council. All this as a bloody foreigner in this supposed land of the English language. Innit!:-) One of my continual pet peeves is the inappropriate usage of the apostrophe. I never thought I would say this, but I do actually believe that Americans, as a whole, might well have better grammar than the Brits.

Anyway - the cause of all this - two car ads that have irked me. One, an ad for a Volkswagen, blathers on about how cheap the car is, and then concludes with 'Eyes on the road please'. Hello? How about 'Eyes on the missing comma, please'. But the real winner of the bad grammar award, produced by the 'We Speakum Good English' ad company, is an ad for a new Alfa Romeo. It has a picture of some vaguely tarty woman on it, wearing too much lipstick, and says, 'Giulietta. I am the stuff dreams are made on.' Oy vey, mamma mia! Where the hell did they come up with that slogan, first grade? That ad is on billboards all over London, and I have to say, it really frosts my muffin.

Unless, of course, they are being coy and talking about having sex on the car, which I suppose is possible.

Oh what a crotchety old thing I will become...

I've got one more day before CA trip, and about a million things to do before then. So, off I go to do.

2 comments:

Mike Plumer said...

Future tense in penultimate paragraph could be replaced by present perfect...

dougzilla said...

Hmm - trying to think of a constructive comment that doesn't somehow involve the words 'bite me'. I'll get back to you when I come up with one... ;-)