No shame in these mistakes

Let’s call them “no-shamers” -- little language mistakes that are so

common, so easy to make that even adept writers make them. For those

of you reading between the lines here, you can interpret that as

“mistakes June might make and afterward claim that they don’t reflect

badly on her language abilities.”

But just so this isn’t all about me, I’ll use a couple of examples

from notable, well-spoken, but nonetheless unnamed members of Newport

Beach’s city government.

In a recent e-mail, a certain city official used the word “‘til,”

as in, “I didn’t get your message ‘til this morning.”

Contrary to all things good, just and right in the world, “‘til”

is wrong. Though common sense would dictate that that’s how you’d

shorten “until,” it’s simply not true. It should be “till,” the same

word as the one you use for “to till the soil” or “to have your hand

in the till.” According to Webster’s New World College Dictionary,

“til,” minus the apostrophe of course, is a variation on “teel,”

which is “the oil of sesame seed.”

Isn’t that a stinker?

I learned that one the hard way. After years of wrongly looking

down my nose at the people who did it right, I was curtly put in my

place. But I feel no shame, in part because I was in good company:

I’ve seen this mistake on “The Simpsons.” Yeah, yeah, it’s a cartoon.

But it’s really brainy and an excellent source of all things worth

knowing, says me. And if those Harvard-educated hotshot comedy

writers can make that mistake in little signs in the background at

Moe’s Bar, I think we can cut me some slack.

Another flub once made by someone on the Newport Beach payroll

pertained to the word “myriad.” I don’t remember the exact quote, but

it was something like, “We have a myriad of problems to address.”

Though that’s not exactly wrong, it’s not exactly right, either.

Most writing pros agree it’s better to drop the “a” and the “of” as

if they’re already incorporated into the word “myriad.”

The dictionary isn’t very helpful on this one, except to people

who find it interesting that the noun is from the Greek and means

“ten thousand.” A more useful source on this is the “Los Angeles

Times Style and Usage Guide,” which says of “myriad”: “Preferred use

is as an adjective: ‘Myriad stars filled the sky.’ It is gaining

usage as a noun, although it makes careful writers squirm: ‘a myriad

of stars.’”

No shame there.

* Want to suggest a no-shamer or ask about some other language

issue? Send and e-mail to [email protected].