[PLEASE NOTE: After Deadline will take a holiday break next week and will return on Tuesday, Jan. 1.]
The pixels were barely dry on our previous roundup of sound-alike mix-ups when the file began to fill up again. Probably a coincidence. Still, let's be more careful with those homophones. The good news is that several of these lapses were fixed in later versions.
Here are the most recent examples - and now I vow to move on to a different complaint for a while.
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But Mr. Maduro, 50, will have difficulties of his own in having to reign in factions within Mr. Chávez's party.
This error often shows up in the mistaken phrase “free reign.†We meant “rein in,†an allusion to controlling a horse, not ruling a kingdom.
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Mr. Benkirane took office showing a flare for the dramatic.
The mirror imag e of a mistake from a few weeks ago. This time we meant “flair,†and fixed it for later editions.
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“He basically said newsprint is passé and poo-pooed acquiring any print publications,†said one employee who was loath to speak publicly about internal discussions for fear of offending the company's top management.
Yes, that's what we said in the early version, and it's not the first time we've made that mistake. Make it “pooh-poohed.†(At least we didn't slip up on “loath,†a frequent source of confusion.)
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For anyone who felt daring eating turkey giblets or neck over Thanksgiving, a guide to an offal restaurant in Tokyo, where pork cervix and vocal chords are the norm.
We meant “cords.â€
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“I had driven since I was 16 so I thought I'm going to get through this like I've done every other,†he said. “It's a much bigger problem then most people th ink.â€
Just a typo, perhaps, but a careless and common one. Make it “than.â€
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Ashwini Chhabra, the taxi commission's deputy commissioner for policy and planning, said in his testimony that the industry had changed since those guidelines were devised. “We now have technology aides that we didn't have back when the exterior fare markings were originally conceived,†he said.
“Aids,†of course.
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Eventually the tides will flush much of the wastewater into the Atlantic Ocean where it will break down. There is concern though, that some contamination could go into the sentiment and be buried, particularly around Bay Park, where the waters are flushed out more slowly.
Not quite a homophone; we meant “sediment,†and fixed it eventually.
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Hocking my clinical wares like a Toyota dealer felt bizarre, so bizarre that while I resolved to start hustling and getti ng my name out there at networking events with other therapists, I certainly wasn't going to create a so-called brand.
Perhaps we were confused over “hock†in the sense of “pawn.†But here we meant “hawking.â€
Â
In a Word
This week's grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.
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But one juror had a prearranged medical appointment at 4 p.m. and Judge Troy K. Webber, of State Supreme Court, decided there would be insufficient time to address the 54 charges against the driver, Ophadell Williams.
The formal title for this type of New York judge is “justice.â€
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The news media saw a glimpse of DeGuglielmo's passion last week.
Make it “glimpsed†or “caught a glimpse.â€
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And with the emergence of Steven A. Cohen, the founder of the hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors, as a subject of int erest, the government has identified a financier whose power and wealth surpasses even that of Mr. Milken in his heyday.
They may go hand in hand, but power and wealth are separate; make it “whose power and wealth surpass.â€
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The minutiae of federal disaster relief is suddenly in the headlines.
Make it “The minutiae … are.â€
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Also, with the purchase of an adult five-day or longer lift ticket, one child (age 7 to 12) will receive a complimentary lift ticket for the same dates and number of days as the adult lift ticket (there are blackout dates).
Avoid the promotional language of sales. Say “free.â€
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The edits of a 911 audio recording - which removed an intervening question from the operator directly asking Mr. Zimmerman what race Mr. Martin was - aired three times on NBC's “Today†show …
This use of “edit s†as a noun is jargon; make it “editing.†(Also, “audio†may be unnecessary here; obviously that's the only kind of recording you would have of a phone call.)
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After 30 years of that, he retired and in 2008, during the Great Recession, he experienced a crisis of conscience and switched sides to work pro bono for people whose homes were being foreclosed on by banks.
We should avoid reflexive use of this term until the historical dust has settled.
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It's a cash cow for video game developers, a freemium business strategy that allows you to download apps for free but which hits you up for cash later in exchange for slogging through hours of gameplay and unlocking content fast.
The “for†is unnecessary.
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By paring and remachining a basic set of broadcast equipment, he reduced it to 368 pounds from 2,000 pounds and distributed the load with precise symmetry throughout the tiny Bell 47G2 chopper leased for the project to prevent listing.
First, our dictionary calls “chopper†informal; the short form of helicopter is “copter.†And second, be careful where you put those phrases; “to prevent listing†does not go with “leased†but with the far-off “distributed.â€
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Growing up as a teenager in Germany, Jonathan Logan's opinion of the Middle East conflict was black and white.
A dangler; it was not his opinion that was “growing up.†In any case, the phrase seems redundant with “as a teenager.â€
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After a 10-year follow-up, the researchers found that aspirin users had a 37 percent reduced risk of liver cancer and a 51 percent reduced risk of death from liver disease, compared to those who did not use aspirin or other NSAIDs.
As The Times's stylebook advises, when the intent is to contrast, say “compared with.â€
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It's about three times larger than any of Pucci's existing stores, and a model for flagships of the future, Mr. Dundas said.
The stylebook warns against this construction, noting that the math actually works out (in this case) to “four times as large.â€
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At stake is the $300 billion that Americans donate to nonprofits every year - and the $50 billion a year that tax deductions for charitable giving costs the government.
This surprisingly complicated sentence has two different agreement problems. The first verb should be “are,†since the subject is the compound “the $300 billion … and the $50 billion.†The second should be “cost,†because the subject of that relative clause is the plural “deductions.â€
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MCC's production of “Reasons to be Pretty†debuted at the Lucille Lortel Theater in 2008 before moving to Broadway the following year.
Do not use “debut†as a verb, per the stylebook; make it “made its debut.†And uppercase forms of “be†(and any verbs) in titles.
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Even the design of iMessage makes people feel like they're in a special clique: an iMessage shows up on an Apple device as a blue bubble …
“As if,†not “likeâ€
