Apartment Manager Needs Usage and Apostrophe Editor

This notice appeared recently on the door of a senior citizen apartment building. Most seniors I know had a good grammar education in school, so I wonder how many of the residents cringed when they read this notice.

First off, the middle section uses the incorrect THEIR where it should be THERE. The phrase should read as follows:

...which means that there will be no elevators!

Second and third, FRIENDS HOUSE is indicating that the house belongs to a friend and FAMILY MEMBERS HOUSE is indicating that the house belongs to a family member, so an apostrophe is needed to show POSSESSION. The first statement in the last paragraph should read as follows:

If you can stay at a friend's house or at a family member's house, that would be even better. (Notice that I also added a comma after the second HOUSE to mark the end of the introductory clause. I might also pose the question: Better than what?)

Word Usage Important If You Want to Convince This Voter

Many people are bouncing e-mails around as part of the political process lately. Some of the background data is interesting and informative, but I am always skeptical of the message when the writer uses poor grammar or usage.

Jerry Teasley of Pine Mountain, Georgia, says he is a former banker and then goes on to blame the current financial crisis on decisions made by Jimmy Carter's and Bill Clinton's administrations. I will leave the decision about his opinions to you (You can read the rest of what he says by Googling his name.), but Mr. Teasley does not seem to understand when to use there and when to use their. He also does not recognize the difference between a compound noun and a verb used with an adverb.

Here is a sentence about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from his comments:

In addition, since 1989 their have been several politicians who have
received campaign donations and kick backs from these two failed
institutions.


First of all, the word their is possessive and is only used to refer to something belonging to "them."


Second, kickback is a compound word referring to money paid to someone in return for a biased decision on a public matter. To kick back
means "to relax."


If Mr. Teasley wants to persuade intelligent people to agree with him about financial matters, he should brush up on his grammar and usage before writing his opinions. His sentence should read as follows:


In addition, since 1989 there have been several politicians who have
received campaign donations and kickbacks from these two failed
institutions.

Usage Blooper: THEIR for THERE

As many of you know, I have been extremely busy this summer teaching business writing workshops around Alabama. I apologize for not keeping this blog as current as I should have, but my workshop participants have shared many great examples of grammar and usage issues, and I will try to share all of those with you in the coming days and weeks.

One usage goof that still pops up pretty consistently is confusion of THEIR and THERE. This example appeared in a book review in a newsletter someone shared with me last week:

This book explains why their were cotton mills in Roswell before the war....

Whoops! THEIR is the possessive form and can only be used when you are referring to something that belongs to a group of people, as in "The people of Roswell were proud of THEIR cotton mill."

The sentence above in red should have used THERE which, in this sense, is just a place holder at the beginning of the sentence:

This book explains why THERE were cotton mills in Roswell before the war....

The other use for THERE is to show location, as in "The mill is over THERE in that valley."

Now that that issue is cleared up, THERE should not be any reason for readers of this blog to confuse THEIR use of these two words!