Many in my family roll their eyes when I point out misspellings in restaurant menus, in news channel crawls, signs, or nearly any other place they crop up. Some think I should lighten up and let the errors roll off my back and take a laissez-faire attitude about our language.
The latest irritation was a CNN interview with a retired army officer regarding the Fort H
ood Massacre, when he started with saying that shootings occur on "all army posts's", adding a superfluous "s" to the plural. The plural of post is posts - very simple. Just as some say that they made a round of "conference breakfasts's. " Breakfast is singular and if you must have a plural, it is "breakfasts."
I can't.
When I hear some say "ex cetera" instead of "et cetera", or "excape" instead of "escape" (there is no "x" sound), I get crazy.
The latest irritation was a CNN interview with a retired army officer regarding the Fort H
ood Massacre, when he started with saying that shootings occur on "all army posts's", adding a superfluous "s" to the plural. The plural of post is posts - very simple. Just as some say that they made a round of "conference breakfasts's. " Breakfast is singular and if you must have a plural, it is "breakfasts."The nice gentleman went on in the interview to use the above "ex cetera", and then capped it off with the pronunciation of the word "heinous" (usually followed by "crime") as "heeny-us" instead of the correct "hay-nus." Some will say "hee-nus", still wrong, but better than "heeny-us."
The last e
rror of this veteran soldier was perhaps the most egregious. He was a former officer in the 1st Cavalry unit, yet he still made the error many others do. He said "Calvary" instead of "cavalry." Christ died on Mount Calvary, and horse mounted troops (or tanks, today) are "cavalry." A good way to remember to say the right thing is to use one of their own adages: "If you ain't Cav, you ain't."
rror of this veteran soldier was perhaps the most egregious. He was a former officer in the 1st Cavalry unit, yet he still made the error many others do. He said "Calvary" instead of "cavalry." Christ died on Mount Calvary, and horse mounted troops (or tanks, today) are "cavalry." A good way to remember to say the right thing is to use one of their own adages: "If you ain't Cav, you ain't." Now about that use of "ain't"...
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