Fare warning

At the National Equality March this weekend in Washington, D.C., WKU student Skylar Baker-Jordan spied this spelling error in The Metro . . .

If the people who run our nation's capital don't know how to spell, does that mean the rest of us are doomed?????

If you didn't already figure it out, this should be two words: "Exit Fare."

GRAMMAR RULE: Do a spellcheck before you hit print!

The cat's out of the bag

I'm not sure what to make of this Hello Kitty birthday card found by WKU student Jessica Vessels. Is it an actual error, or is this just kitty talk? Do kitties just call each other "very special you"? Well, even if they did, they would need an "a" before the word "very," so this is wrong no matter how you interpret it.

Clearly, the problem here is that the words are out of order. If we just picked up "very special" and moved it so that if fell before "birthday," the card would make sense because it would read like this:

Wishing you a very special birthday sprinkled with smiles and fun.

But is that how kitties talk???

GRAMMAR RULE: Read out loud to avoid placement errors.

Tin Roof Busted

WKU student Brad Jones found this spelling area in a local paper.

What gets me is that this error would have come up with a simple spellcheck.

GRAMMAR RULE: Do a spellcheck before you hit print!

To meat or not to meat

Apparently, grammar mistakes are not just a problem in America. Texas native Emily Threlkeld found this typo on a menu in Italy last year. . .

There should not be an apostrophe (or an "s") after "meat" in this description because the meat does not own the sauce. Therefore, the menu should read like this:

"tortellini with meat sauce"

I guess the only person who could rightfully claim ownership of the sauce would be the person who made it, which is why the apostrophe in "Newman's Own Spaghetti Sauce" is correct.

Therefore, the grammar rule is the same as last time . . .

GRAMMAR RULE: Use an apostrophe to denote possession.

Can we blame Nurse Ratched?

A student named Brittany Crowley had to go the hospital last week and, while she was there, found this example of nurses who don't know that they OWN the nurses' station and should, therefore, put an apostrophe after the "s" in "nurses" . . .

The corrected version of this sign would read like this:

"Nurses' Station phone number."

(Note: the apostrophe goes after the "s" in "nurses" because there is more than one nurse to whom the station belongs.)

GRAMMAR RULE: Use an apostrophe to denote possession.