You can't have the same grammar as me.

It is spring sale time, you know, Easter-time sales, and with the arrival those new sales there are new advertisements that did not quite pass the grammar test. The one that caught my ear, yes my ear, is the one that is advertising the Volkswagen Springtober event. A young family is admiring a new VW. The neighbor/friend says "You can’t have the same car as me." This is bad on two accounts. First, he obviously cannot have the same car unless they are car-sharing. Secondly, the sentence should have been: "You can't have the same model of car as  I have. " He also could have said "You can't buy the same model as I just bought." Good Grammar; That would just be weird.

Night(mare) of Grammar at the Museum

I am always amazed at how well lines are delivered by actors and actresses, whether it is for a television show or a movie. I am amazed that there aren't a lot of 'ums and ahs' on these sets. There is only one poor use of grammar in this movie, and that is when Teddy Roosevelt says to Larry the night guard "I'm made of wax, Larry. What are you made of?" It could have been "What of you?' and sounded very historically correct.

You can find better grammar elsewhere on the radio

I was listening to the radio yesterday while running errands. There was an advertisement for Select Stone on 93.5 WRQN. The voice was attempting to be southern with a bit of a twang and the obligatory bad grammar. I lived in North Carolina. There aren't as many people with southern accents as we are led to believe. The obligatory bad grammar: "It don't get no better than that." So by speaking a double-negative you are saying that it does get better. Grammar does get better with practice.

Changing People's Grammar is like Swimming upstream

It is as hard to change bad grammar as it is for a fish who is swimming against the current. The truth of the matter is that phrases similar to "swimming upstream" have become such a part of the lexicon that we do not even realize that we are ending a sentence with a preposition.

I have found plenty of fodder from television commercials to jump-start this blog. I was worried that I would start the week without a column. I was forwarded this following article on which fish to avoid. The title of the article "12 Fish to Stay away from."Wow! Really! Isn't it bad enough that the title of the article ends in one preposition? This one ends with two prepositions. I find it hard to believe that the publication doesn't have spell-check and grammar-check on their computers.

The title of the Article should have been: "Twelve Fish to Avoid" or something more in-depth, such as "Twelve fish to Catch and 12 Fish to Release."

Not My Mama's Grammar

I enjoy watching the Food Network, the Cooking Channel, and Bravo "Top Chef." One of my favorite show is "Not My Mama's Meals."There is a recently aired commercial in which the announcer says "There’s isn’t a challenge he isn’t up for…."

The mere fact that my word check/grammar check pops up two squiggles in one sentence tells me that the script should have be edited. That sentence contains a double-negative and ends with a preposition.

Bobby Dean is up for every food challenge. He is up to the challenge to reduce the fat and calories in his mother's recipes. I am up for the challenge to find more gaffs in the spoken word.

There is a prescription for bad grammar

I found another example of bad grammar in advertising, just when I thought that I was going to run out of fodder for this blog. I was watching television this afternoon and there was an advertisement for a COPD Drug (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.)

The actress who said "If you have COPD like me..." must have been thinking about her Facebook post. The real way to say that would be "If you have COPD as I do..."

If you find more examples of bad grammar in advertising, let me know.

They have better grammar than me

Today's go-go world has spawned the need for food that is easy to consume while running at full-speed. Energy bars and recovery drink are found just about everywhere. How do you make sure that you get enough protein during the day: Drink Ensure.

You have a choice of many flavors, and now you can have Ensure Clear and proclaim as they do during the advertisment: "Hey, Ensure Clear has 3g more protein than me."Whoops... three more grams of protein than I do.

Some sentences take more effort to end properly

"Some of the best places in the world take a little effort to get to." Don Wildman of Mysteries at the Museum  while promoting Land Rover. This is a very easy conversational mistake that people tend to make. Once again, what does it take to get editors to proof check the spoken word?

Is that the grammar we want to work with?

Every now and again I pay attention to a non-food advertisement on television. A new spot I observed on television has a mom working at her office while her daughter is alone at home. The mother is able to observe what is happening within her home through an advanced technology home security system provided by ADT.  A delivery arrives at the front door and the mother asks "Is that the package we've been waiting for?"

Teach your children proper grammar. Is that the package that we were expecting?  Is this the grammar we are expecting from our advertisers?

Wherever your grammar is at

What is it about advertisers? Do they think that we aren't paying attention to what they are saying? I am a foodie, so I pay attention to commercials advertising food products and restaurants. Tostitos has an interesting advertisement where a person's home has transformed into a Mexican Cantina. People are vying for tables. People are requesting more salsa and more Tostitos. The final word was "Restaurant Style Salsa - Wherever Your Party is At." I would say "Restaurant Style Salsa when your favorite restaurant is your kitchen."

Golden Grammar - Money can't buy you good grammar

There are times when some people don't know what word to end a sentence with. I'll give you a hint as to what type of word should not conclude a sentence: a preposition. Watching actors get paid for a commercial, and probably script-writers writing those words.  If you are Rosland Capital investing using William Devane as your spokesperson the words that come out of his mouth should be 'golden.'  We have dumbed-down our language so much that  this misspoken sentence flew under  the radar: "Protect what you worked so hard for." Protect your money and protect your reputation, you have worked too hard for both of them.

I ordered me a grammar book

I think that Terry Bradshaw is fun as a commentator and that he was awesome as a quarterback. The boy needs grammar lessons for his Nutrasystem commercial. This is another commercial that makes me think "What were the advertisers thinking when they created this spot?"

Terry needed to shed some pounds. He ordered the system. All he had to say was "I picked up the phone and ordered Nutrasystem." Unless he was buying a gift for someone else, and what a dangerous gift that could be, he was ordering it for his own personal use. All he had to say was "I ordered Nutrasystem."  He doesn't need to say "myself" or "me." It is similar to saying "In my personal opinion...." If not your opinion than whose?  Is it an impersonal opinion?

This commercial is a Grama's Grammar two-fer. He says that you can look "purdy like me." It would have been better if he were to have said "as handsome as I do." Is he handsome? That is up for the viewers to decide.

If he were to buy a grammar handbook  he could probably speak as  grammatically correct as my mother does.