In their commercials promoting a special type of athletic gear that supposedly improves performance, SKINS uses the phrase “Cheat Legal“. One of the videos can be watched here. The word “legal” in this phrase can either be an adverb characterizing the verb “cheat” (in which case it should be replaced by the grammatically correct form
Whenever I attend a scientific talk, or read scientific publications, there is a significant chance that somebody forgets about the fact that data is the plural of datum. Hence, strictly speaking, it is wrong to say This data shows that… Instead, you should say These data show that… Because the mistake is so common, some
I just overheard an English phone conversation on the bus. A German university student gave instructions how to mop a floor, using the sentence Take few water, and few soap. I was quite surprised that such a rather simple sentence could turn out to be so difficult for a young person who has spent many
Irregular verbs were a big thing back in school, and many people got into trouble for not remembering them. In fact, they are among the first things you learn when getting started with the English language. Remarkably, despite many years of training, many advanced speakers use incorrect forms such as putted (which is only OK
This is one of my favourites. An invited speaker at a conference provided the audience with a go home message rather than a take home message. Be careful what you wish for!
This is a tricky one, and as is often the case with languages, there are people who argue that the two words can indeed be used as synonyms. However, according to the majority of sources I consulted, and in line with my gut feeling of the English language, briefly and shortly are not interchangeable, and
A couple of years ago, I attended a company presentation as part of a job market session at a big physics conference in Germany. Two high-potential employees, with doctoral degrees from famous universities and way too much self-confidence, discussed the different markets their company is engaged in. Of course there was the usual talk about