Grammar Dominatrix rears her head

[amanuensis1]

Did I just hear the sentence "I was weary of trying it at first" on a national network commercial?

Girl, did you become Southern for one sentence? What are you telling me--that if I drink Silk soymilk I will lose my ability to distinguish between English words?

I expect the wary/leery/weary freak-out from the average ignoramus on the street--not from the professionals who write/film/edit nationally-televised commercials. No one caught that? Christ.

Comments

[lauriegilbert.livejournal.com]

*mails them a dictionary to help them edit next time!*

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

"Hey, what's this archaic thing that came in the mail? I think they used to call it a...a BOOK!"

[accioslash.livejournal.com]

Arghhh! Please tell me you are making this up.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

OUR CHILDREN ARE NOT SAFE. RUN.

[gmth.livejournal.com]

*giggle madly* I love grammar freakouts. :-)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

*drops nook-yoo-ler bomb on them*

[lap-otter.livejournal.com]

I CAUGHT IT. I was completely confused, actually, since I've never heard those two mixed up before. Except earlier that morning, when my boyfriend did it. I don't understand! It's English. How do these people not know English?

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Your icon's a hoot!

I heard it misused like that for the first time years 'n' years ago by a friend; I thought it was an isolated case. It spread like effing cancer, though, didn't it.

[jcrazy.livejournal.com]

lmao!!! i've seen that comercial before and I it didnt sound right, but I wasnt sure why...thankyoo for clearing that up!!!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Too bad you weren't the editor! You'd have caught it before it became a national embarrassment. "Why does something not sound right here? Who wrote this? Whom do I slap?"

[angiepen.livejournal.com]

See, at first glance I was thinking, "Okay, she's been trying something over and over and it hasn't worked and she's tired of it." Then I looked again and went, "Oh, wait...." [eyeroll]

Yeah, someone definitely needs a dictionary.

Angie

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

PERFECT icon. :D

[atdelphi.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank god it's not just me! I'd convinced myself I just had to be hearing it wrong (considering there's a local news commercial where I keep hearing "date rape" for "daybreak").

[pauraque]

Ages ago I was in the car with my mom listening to NPR -- she was listening, I wasn't paying attention. Suddenly she goes, "What was that? It sounded like they just said 'raping, pillaging, and BOWLING'." I had no idea what word could have gone in that context that sounded like bowling, so it became a running gag ever after that pirates and vikings and such would, after the raping and pillaging, hit the lanes. :P

oh boy

[(Anonymous)]

Am I glad it wasn't just me. I heard saw that commercial for the first time this morning and nearly fell off my couch. How sloppy is that? How on earth does it get by quality control?

Re: oh boy

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I like to imagine this conversation:

"What the hell was that? Did she say weary?"
"It was what she said when we asked her to improvise. It was fresh, spontaneous, sounds real."
"It sounds like idiots drink our product."

[clyan-bunnies.livejournal.com]

Good GOD, that's horrendous. I absolutely hate when people confuse "weary" and "wary."

I kind of want to punch something. XD

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I don't want to punch the TV; it's flat-screen and I paid too much for it. :D

[pauraque]

This is not a grammatical problem, but a lexical problem.

Sorry to nitpick. ;)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Is it? Tell me the difference, this is new terminology to me! :D

[sinick.livejournal.com]

"Ohh, I'm so TIRED of trying new things. Ohh, the enNEWi."

...Wait, you say they didn't mean that?

THAT'S JUST CRAZY TALK!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I decree "ennui" must be spelled "enNEWi" for the rest of our lives. :D

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

I really shouldn't be picture someone dressed up as Scarlett O'Hara doing the ad, should I?

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

*has perfect icon*

[glockgal.livejournal.com]

I love grammar freakouts too!!! And I love it when people (writers?) who love grammar point out advert screw-ups because then I get all indignant as well on their behalf.

My sister went into fits of RAGE at a Denny's Restaurant poster that boasted "KID'S EAT FREE!". She's like "NO ONE IN THEIR ENTIRE MARKETING DEPT COULD SPOT THIS?!"


You guys are fantastic. I'll never...*ahem*...wary of it. >:D

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I love your sister every bit as much as I love you, now. &hearts The abundance of errors in hand-printed signs and such are one thing, but stuff that came from the Marketing Dept? (And A Marketing Dept as large as Denny's??)

[sinclair-furie.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, I spent a really long time reading that sentence and trying to figure out how one could be tired of something multiple times "at first"...

And then I read the rest of the post. :) Fail!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

You're exactly right--you want to make sense of it because you can't imagine what they're saying besides "weary."

[incapricious.livejournal.com]

I have been hearing people use "weary" instead of "wary" SO OFTEN lately. Argh. I was beginning to think the whole country had decided to get rid of "wary" at some meeting that only I wasn't invited to, but apparently you weren't invited either.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I hate when I miss the meetings!

[dixiebell12.livejournal.com]

I'm as Southern as you can get and I still spotted that *G*. Now I'm fixing to go get some Ice Tea and watch Gone with the Wind, ya'll have a nice day.

Dixiebell

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

And to be fair, it still wouldn't sound like "weer-ee" in a Southern accent. It'd be a bit "whay-yur-ree" but it still wouldn't be "weer-ee"!

[anathema91.livejournal.com]

Um... maybe her first attempt at trying it was very, very tiring?

...

Nope, not buying that one myself.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Maybe the box of milk was REALLY REALLY HEAVY.

[dmlpacker.livejournal.com]

I know you posted this entry a while ago...BUT I JUST HAD SOMEONE TELL ME TO "be weary of an advisor who doesn't give helpful advice." I started laughing like a loon, and the guy looked at me like I was nuts. The weariness is spreading like a plague O.o

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Tell me you corrected him--gently, I mean, of course.

[nefyr.livejournal.com]

How is it even possible to mix up weary and wary? They don't even sound the same or have remotely similar meanings...

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I suspect it's because wary and leery are synonyms. And then you get a combo of the two.

[fer-de-lance.livejournal.com]

Accidental smash-up of "leery" and "wary"? I

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Yup, exactly. I remember hearing it from a friend a LONG time ago, but not so much since then. Guess it went underground.

[ivythefirst.livejournal.com]

You think THAT'S bad? Today, my physics teachers asked for our "undevoted" attention. AND NO ONE ELSE NOTICED.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Sporfle! Yeah, I can see how they could have messed that up, but, NO ONE NOTICED??

not alone

[(Anonymous)]

no, you are not the only one.

I just heard the commercial for the first time, and googled the offending phrase to see if I was crazy.
I am, or course, completely bonkers, but at least I wasn't the first one to notice the error.

Here's another one: someone recently told me that I should use more 'self-deprevating' humour in my writing.

Re: not alone

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, lordy! *laughs and laughs*