Beware The Homonyms: Sound Isn't Everything

I received a couple of e-mails today from well-known marketers.

The first had this subject line:

Did You Here About This?

While this sounds correct, it is a confusion between 2 words that sound alike - homonyms.

The correct form is:

Did You Hear About This?


The next 2 subject lines both had the same mistake, and it is one of the common ones discussed in another post:

If you missed out...your still in luck!

If you are one fo the last to open this chances are your too late!‏
(Notice the typo "fo" for "of". Careful proofreading of at least the subject line would have helped!)
You're and Your sound alike, but mean 2 different things. You're is a contraction for "you are", and if you substitute "you are" when reading "you're", you can easily see whether "your" or "you're" is the right one.

Your is a possessive, as in your car, your hair, your wealth. If you're is used instead of your, then it would read you are car, you are hair, etc. Simply remembering that "you're" is "you are" and "your" means ownership should help you keep them straight.

English is a tricky language, and is made more difficult with all the words that sound the same.

If you want to see a very comprehensive list of homonyms, go to
http://www.cooper.com/alan/homonym_list.html

Until next time, watch out for those sneaky homonyms and above else, enjoy this wonderful language!

Improve Your Vocabulary: Learn A New Word Every Day

If you are determined to improve your English, learning a new word every day is a great place to start. I love learning new words, and there are countless ways to find your new word of the day.

You can open a dictionary and pick a random word. You can sign up to the Oxford English Dictionary word of the day, or any of the countless other sites that deal with vocabulary.

My new word of the day came straight from the news here in Canada. I had never heard this word before, and I am really enjoying it! (the word, not the action itself)

The word is "prorogue", and the OED definition is:

• verb (prorogues, prorogued, proroguing) discontinue a session of (a legislative assembly) without dissolving it

Sadly, that is exactly what Canada's Governor-General granted to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, thus allowing him to avoid a non-confidence vote in the House of Commons.

Turns out that is the GG's "prorogue-ative"....ouch! Sorry!

What this means for Canada is our Parliament is shut down (suspended) until some time in January. This strikes me as somewhat undemocratic and further increases my suspicions that the current Prime Minister is a sneaky devil, and a bit of a coward.

Enough politics!

Learn a new word today and every day and above all, enjoy this marvelous language!

Make Your Pop-Ups Work For You, Not Against You!

I was going to use the example below as the mistake of the day, but there are several just in this one pop-up I saw while surfing Traffic GoldRush.


Is Traffic Exchanges creating enough traffic for you? Frustrated and NO Results ?

Let me show you a free way to dramatically improve your results from Traffic Exchanges

Just fill in your details and I'll send you a email course
right away with all the information you need to get more
traffic...and the secrets using them 100%

A Sure FIRE WAY To Get The Traffic Your Sites NEEDS !!!!

The mistakes are in red. The first one uses the singular form of
the verb with a plural noun. The correct usage would be "Are Traffic Exchanges..."

The second one should be "An e-mail..." Use "an" before a noun that begins with a vowel.

I'm not absolutely sure what is wrong in the third mistake, though I suspect the writer simply left out a word, like "for" or "to". Perhaps s/he was trying for "...and the secrets for using them 100%" Still not a great sentence, but not quite as nonsensical as the original.

The last mistake is like the first - the noun and the verb don't agree.
Should be " your sites need!"

I suspect this was written by a non-English speaker, but still all the mistakes made me click away from it. Since this was a pop-up designed to grab my attention and get my e-mail address, the advertiser would have done better if s/he had had a native speaker proofread it.

That's it for today...happy selling and watch your language!

4 Common English Mistakes In Advertising

I read a lot of business opportunity ads, and I keep seeing these mistakes over and over. Most often, I won't buy from someone who makes these common mistakes. I can excuse these mistakes somewhat if it is from a non-English speaker, but as far as I am concerned, there is no excuse for native speakers to be making these mistakes.

These are the top 4 mistakes that drive me crazy:

1/ confusing "lose" and "loose"

I am fed up with seeing ads telling me to "loose weight"! Please remember, "lose" rhymes with "ooze" while loose rhymes with goose, and mean two quite different things. Lose is a verb while loose is an adjective, so the phrase "loose weight" makes no sense, unless the load on your truck has broken free!

2/ confusing "to" and "too"

Please don't ask me if I am "surfing to much"! I don't know where "much" is and I'm not sure if I can surf "to" it! "To" means to move toward, while "too" means excess or abundance.

3/ confusing "your" and "you're"

This one really bothers me, though I'm not sure why it troubles me so. Maybe because it is really basic english and mean such different things. "Your" is all about possession, whereas "you're" is a contraction meaning "you are". So saying "Your one step away..." makes no sense unless you possess the one step (?). To see if you're using the right one, read the contraction you're as you are, and see if it works. In the example above, the correct phrase "You're one step away..." is read as "you are one step away..." - obviously correct. The flip side is don't say "You're future awaits" as that translates to "you are future awaits." Makes no sense.

4/ confusing "its" and "it's"

This is like the example above - "its" is the possessive, while "it's" is a contraction meaning "it is".
Again, read out the full contraction. "Its an easy money-maker" makes no sense while "It's an easy money-maker" - (translates to "It is an easy money-maker") is correct.

I could go on and on about more mistakes, and probably will at some point! But these few examples will improve your response rate from people like me.

The other thing I want to emphasize is proof reading your copy. I see big headlines with obvious typos. Seriously, take a couple of minutes to make sure you don't have obvious spelling mistakes, especially in those big, bold headers.
And I think you know that SpellCheck will miss the mistakes outlined above, as it cannot check for grammar and sense.

I'm not suggesting that marketers have to be stiff, formal and oh so proper with their ad copy or e-mails. Write the way you talk is the best advice. As long as you can be understood, then who cares about spelling or grammar?

Well, I do! And I know I'm not alone. Lots of people love this language and cringe when it's misused. Perhaps it is unfair to judge marketers
by their writing, but since that is how they make sales you would think they would take extra care.

I hope these 4 tips will help you with your advertising copy. Relax and enjoy the language and have fun with it, but try to keep the picky buyers happy!