Showing posts with label spelling mistake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spelling mistake. Show all posts

For all your moroting magazine needs...

My colleague Clutchslip took this photo in WH Smith (sorry, I mean WHSmith):

Magazines in WHSmith with misspelt sign

The particular moroting magazines I work for aren't on display here. Wait, there's one of them in the rocner...

Typo: lime of communication

This is from recent raw copy:

They kept an open lime of communication all the way through the process.


What a brilliant fruit-based typo! Obviously, the writer meant "open line of communication".


Photo of a lime, courtesy of Scott Liddell scott.m.liddell@gmail.comLimes: Now we're talkin'

Green shoots of recovery

Here's a rather apposite typo or spelling mistake from recent raw copy:

However, those looking for green shoots of recovery should be weary


Of course, that final word should be 'wary' – probably.

Freelancere!

I spotted this picture caption in thelondonpaper a week or so ago:

Caption reads: There are more than 1.4 million freelanceres in the UK
When I leave my current job, I think I'd like to become a freelancere.

'Boarder crossing'

An amusing typo in recent raw copy:

The stop is packed with the kind of facilities that any sane driver and operator would want near one of the major boarder crossings in Europe


Who uses boarder crossings – children travelling back from boarding school, perhaps? Snowboarders on their way to the slopes?

Photo special: dinning room and loft conversation

If you want a quiet life, I wouldn't recommend buying this house. After all, its features include a dinning room and a loft conversation...


Newspaper advert for a property with a dinning room and loft conversation
(I can't actually remember where this photo came from. I'm assuming I scanned it myself, but if anyone emailed it in – thank you.)

UPDATE 05/02/09: My mum has reminded me that she sent in the photo. Thanks, Mum! And apparently the house is still being advertised for sale...

Photo special: premuim ale

Having said yesterday that I'm not that keen on run-of-the-mill typos, I do find it amusing that one of the employees of my local Sainsbury's supermarket consistently spells 'premium' as 'premuim':

A supermarket price sign for Bombardier Premuim Ale

I did say consistently:

A supermarket price sign for Spitfire Premuim Ale

I have to admit that I always struggle to spell 'privelige' and 'sacrelige' correctly. Or do I mean 'privilege' and 'sacrilege'? I think I'm misled by the 'elig' part of 'religious'.

So now I want to ask: which words do you have consistent difficulty spelling?

Photo special: downstairs dinning area

It can get very loud in Burger King:

A Burger King sign reading Downstairs Dinning Area Now Open

I took this snap in London a while back. Again, I don't get excited over run-of-the-mill typos or spelling mistakes, but unintentionally amusing ones like this are right up my street...

Mince beef (curse if they have it)

When I was at work the other day (before I went off on my hols), my girlfriend sent me an email listing some items she wanted me to pick up from the supermarket. These included:

  • Mince beef (curse if they have it)
  • Spaghetti
  • Milk
  • Juice


The first of these left me rather baffled. "Curse if they have it"? I had visions of going into the supermarket, picking up the mince and shouting, "Hooray! They've got f**ing mince!" Of course, I didn't do anything so vulgar, and I did manage to work out what my girlfriend had meant.

Any guesses?

On a similar note - 'minced beef', 'mince beef' or 'beef mince'? Google prefers the first of these, but how about you? Perhaps you call it something else entirely...

Photo special: Golters Gift Set

So the last snap before I return from my hols:



If the writing in the photo is not very legible, then please take my word for it that this "Golters Gift Set" is half price. Yes, "Golters Gift Set". The lack of apostrophe doesn't surprise me; the spelling mistake, on the other hand, is rather impressive.

No wonder the gift set is on special offer.

I spotted this in a London branch of Wilkinson.

Typo of the week: trading on toes

I'm fairly relaxed about people making spelling mistakes in everyday life – mainly because I do it too – but I have less tolerance for people littering their CV (or résumé, if you prefer) with errors.

After all, you never know whether the person reading it and considering you for a job is a stickler for correct spelling. One prominent typo could cost you that dream position.

And if it is important to ensure an error-free CV, surely that holds especially true for subs (or copy editors, if you prefer).

So imagine my amusement when the production desk here received a CV from a freelance sub that contained the following in its opening sentence:

I don't want to be trading on writers' toes

A brilliant mental image, if nothing else...

Friday roundup: typos, typos, typos

This week's Friday roundup is all about typos.

  • Copy editor Tim Stewart has been commenting on this blog recently, and his own blog, Typos in Print, might be one to watch – although it's too soon to say. Anyway, it's good to see another sub blogging.

  • One of our regulars, Garik, emailed in to point out this post on Language Log. Not quite the Log's usual bag, but there are some interesting comments about if and when it is acceptable to "make fun of people who make spelling mistakes".

  • Oh, and if you want to play 'spot the typo', check out the Priden Engineering website – but you'll have to be quick.

I can't shake off Embarrassing Illnesses

I mentioned on Friday that last week was the most popular in the blog's history for an 'embarrassing' reason. Here's why.

Back in January one of our regular contributors emailed us about an advert she had spotted on her work intranet regarding an upcoming Channel 4 TV show called 'Embarrassing Illnesses'. I then wrote about this on the blog – and as well as mocking the central premise of the show, I also pointed out that the intranet advert at one point spelt the word 'embarrassing' with one 'r'. As I wrote at the time, everyone makes spelling mistakes, but come on – the word 'embarrassing' was in the name of the show...

So far, so ordinary. But on Monday last week, Channel 4 aired the first episode in the series (now going by the title 'Embarrassing Bodies') and the blog started receiving hundreds of hits from people Googling 'embarassing illnesses channel 4'. Note the single 'r'.

How ironic – by blogging about misspellings I attract people to the blog who can't spell.

Typo of the week: sweet

A simple typo (or possibly spelling mistake) made the subs' desk chuckle today. One of our writers submitted a feature containing the rhetorical question:

Would all your customers dessert you?

Maybe this is what it means to put someone on ice...

PS There's no picture to accompany this post because my "organization's Internet use policy restricts access at this time" to my favourite free image library, www.morguefile.com. As we also sometimes use Morguefile to source images for our publications, I can only imagine that this situation will be rectified shortly...


Update: It's rectified. So here is a picture of a dessert: