Dear Mister Jones » Wordy Wally

The sound of ‘ee’ in ‘people’

mister jones — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 18:23:53 +0000

‘Poeple’ is just a weird word. Not for what it means but for how it’s spelled. It is the only word in the entire English language that makes the ‘ee’ sound using the letters ‘eo’. No wonder people think English is a hard language to learn.

The sound of ‘ee’ in ‘people’

mister jones — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 18:23:53 +0000

Should I use a comma before the ‘and’ in a series of items?

mister jones — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 21:07:29 +0000

Generally speaking, the answer is yes. If you ommit the comma, it can lead to ambiguous meanings. Following is an example.

I would like to thank my parents, Sandy and God.

In this sentence, is the person thankful for his parents, who are Sandy and God??? Or is he thankful for 4 people, his parents, Sandy, and God?

If you insert the comma before the ‘and’ (this comma is called the serial or Oxford comma, by the way), then your meaning will be clearer:

I would like to thank my parents, Sandy, and God.

However, what if you wanted to say the following:

I would like to thank my mother, Sandy, and John.

Now, regardless of whether you use a comma after ‘Sandy’ or not, the meaning could still be ambiguous. Is Sandy the mother or is she a different person? When confronted with this sort of a list of three or more elements, the trick is to order them in a way that removes any ambiguity. Or, you can use different punctuation to make the meaning clearer.

Let’s look at some ways we can reorder this to make our meaning clear:

I would like to thank John, my mother, and Sandy. (3 distinct people, assuming John is not your mother’s name)
I would like to thank my mother (Sandy) and John. (2 distinct people)
I would like to thank my mother and Sandy and John. (3 distinct people)

When it comes to lists of the x, y, and z fashion – I always prefer to include the comma before the ‘and’. However, even that won’t always remove ambiguity – so then you must find ways to change the sentence so that your meaning is clear.

Should I use a comma before the ‘and’ in a series of items?

mister jones — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 21:07:29 +0000

Generally speaking, the answer is yes. If you ommit the comma, it can lead to ambiguous meanings. Following is an example.

I would like to thank my parents, Sandy and God.

In this sentence, is the person thankful for his parents, who are Sandy and God??? Or is he thankful for 4 people, his parents, Sandy, and God?

If you insert the comma before the ‘and’ (this comma is called the serial or Oxford comma, by the way), then your meaning will be clearer:

I would like to thank my parents, Sandy, and God.

However, what if you wanted to say the following:

I would like to thank my mother, Sandy, and John.

Let’s look at some ways we can reorder this to make our meaning clear:

I would like to thank John, my mother, and Sandy. (3 distinct people, assuming John is not your mother’s name)
I would like to thank my mother (Sandy) and John. (2 distinct people)
I would like to thank my mother and Sandy and John. (3 distinct people)

Word o’ the Wise :: Troika

mister jones — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 16:51:23 +0000

A troika is a committee or group consisting of three members. I can’t believe how often I’ve seen or heard this word in the last couple of years. My favorite use of it, however, was when someone referred to the troika of the three monster-themed breakfast cereals: Count Chocula, Boo Berry, and Franken Berry.

Count Chocula was always my favorite, with Boo Berry coming in a close second. I never was much of a fan of Franken Berry, though. I don’t think it really had too much to do with the flavor. I think as a kid I always thought his head was way too big. How could anything taste good when it was represented by somebody with such a huge noggin?

My brother informed me recently that they’ve changed Boo Berry somehow and it no longer tastes the same as it did when we were kids. I don’t know if I believe him – I think I’ll have to go and buy at least 5 boxes just to make sure, and I’ll probably have to test out Count Chocula as well.

Word o’ the Wise :: Troika

mister jones — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 16:51:23 +0000

Word o’ the Wise :: Maven does not equal Maverick

mister jones — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:27:36 +0000

One of the coolest things about a digital dictionary like m-w.com, is that now when you go and look up a word, you can hear it pronounced correctly instead of having to try to understand their pronunciation guide (which makes me have to look up more words I didn’t know like umlaut and diacritic). However, it’s a little disappointing to look up the meaning of a word you’ve actually used in conversation in the past, and find out that you’ve been mispronouncing it the whole time. I kinda knew what a ‘maven‘ was – it was someone who was cool because he/she knew a lot about something. But I think I must have somehow associated it with being a ‘Maverick’ (it’s probably lame that I even still think Top Gun was cool), because I have always pronounced it ‘mavin’ (with the ‘a’ sounding like the a in ‘nag’) instead of ‘mayven‘.

Now that I know how it’s actually pronounced, it’s lost a lot of its coolness factor for me. If I am referred to as a maven now I’ll associate it with being a maynard or something.

Word o’ the Wise :: Maven does not equal Maverick

mister jones — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:27:36 +0000

Now that I know how it’s actually pronounced, it’s lost a lot of its coolness factor for me. If I am referred to as a maven now I’ll associate it with being a maynard or something.