Don't Listen to SportscastersThey do terrible things to the language!
Although many are very well spoken, too many other sportscasters do terrible things to the language. Here are just a few notable examples. • He played good tonight. Good is an adjective, and must describe a noun or pronoun. Here we need an adverb to describe the verb, indicating how he played. Two correct versions are: He played well tonight or He played a good game tonight. • This is one pitcher he never hits well against. Sentences should not end with prepositions. The correct version is: This is one pitcher against whom he never hits well. (I know some may feel this is too formal for broadcasting, but just don't assume it's right and put it in your business message!) • In a newspaper report the day after a baseball game, the following statement appeared: Anderson’s eighth home run of the season off Clemens tied the game. Because of the absence of commas, the phrase off Clemens must be read and understood as information defining the subject, not extra information about the subject. Thus, the sentence means that all eight of Anderson’s home runs had been hit against Clemens. In fact, this was his eighth home run of the season and it just happened to be (extra information) off Clemens, so this information must be enclosed between two commas. Incidentally, off Clemens is a colloquial phrase used in baseball and acceptable in that setting, even though the ball doesn’t actually hit the pitcher (usually!). The sentence should read: Anderson’s eighth home run of the season, off Clemens, tied the game. For more tips on grammar, read about 101 Grammar Gaffes. Feel free to use this or other articles on this site in your in-house publication or online newsletters, so long as you make no changes, use the entire article, and add the following attribution at the end: Helen Wilkie speaks at conferences and conducts corporate training sessions on all aspects of business communication. She is the author of Message Received and Understood! and The Hidden Profit Center. Contact her by phone at 416-966-5023, by e-mail at hwilkie@mhwcom.com or browse her main website at www.mhwcom.com |
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