Uh oh, she’s secretly correcting your grammar again…
TRAPS: A selection of recent quotes from the file:
1) “Criminals, an efficient group, exploit the broadest gender stereotypes of peoples’ ideal partners.” (HR)
2) There’s a specific pointedness to the fact that Linda, who bares her soul to a colleague played by Conan O’Brien, is charged with managing other peoples’ issues as a mental health professional.”(LAT)
3) (a pull quote) “Clark and Lois’ one-on-one time in Lois’ apartment is the movie’s stealth weapon.”(HR)
4) “This Nobu, which opened in 2008, several years after its more famous Malibu cousin, is somewhat of a hidden gem on a stretch of La Cienega….” (LAT)
5) “Regardless of how much (or how little) you know about the case, the draw with this documentary are its participants.” (LAT)
6) “With both [Nancy] Silverton and [Phil] Rosenthal’s schedules so packed, they’ve yet to choose an opening date for the diner.” (LAT)
7) “As the city weathered these changes, its signature industry shrunk, then bloomed, as movies (priced at about 25 cents) distracted the masses.” (LAT)
And we’ll conclude with a lovely quote from Cher in a feature about Cyndi Lauper:
8) “We weren’t the fortunate ones and we weren’t the most beautiful ones,” Cher says. “Nothing said that either one of us were going to be famous. And yet we were. And we are. We’re still here—still performing, still making records.” (LAT)
A note: I’m not deliberately singling out the Los Angeles Times, but I get the print edition on Sundays and it’s easy to clip the articles where I see errors. I also get the print Hollywood Reporter every couple of weeks. I find that the Times used to have many more errors than I currently see, in spite of the fact that they downsized their proofreading staff. Most of the errors are when quoting directly from a celebrity or producer or director who submitted answers via email and the paper prints them the way they were received, or the way they spoke in a recorded interview. I don’t find many errors in the HR except as above.
TIPS:
1) Should be “people’s”; people is the plural of person. It forms its plural irregularly. To make it plural possessive, add ‘s.
2) Same as above. Plural of person is people; add ‘s to make it plural possessive.
It would be written as peoples’ only if we were talking about, for example, the many peoples of the world, of a particular nation, community or ethnic group.
3) If this were in a book, the standard reference would be the Chicago Manual of Style, which adds ‘s for singular possessive: Lois’s, and both esses are pronounced. The standard for journalism is the Associated Press Stylebook (AP Style), which adds only an apostrophe. I hear people saying Lois’—and sort of hissing the s, but an apostrophe does not have a sound. Check out the package of Thomas’ English Muffins. I bet you say Thomases’ English Muffins; however, the package says Thomas’. A conundrum? I say I’m right and Thomas’ is wrong. You can’t say a letter that doesn’t appear.
4) “somewhat” is an adverb. If it said, “Nobu is a somewhat hidden gem,” that would be correct. If it said, “Nobu is something of a hidden gem,” that would also be correct. In other words, don’t say “somewhat of…”
5) Should be “the draw…is its participants.” The subject (draw) must agree in number – that is, “one” or “more than one” – with the verb (is) – not with the object. “…with this documentary” is a prepositional phrase. Even when a prepositional phrase ends with a plural noun, don’t make it agree with the object. Remember this phrase: subject-verb agreement.
6) Should be “both Nancy’s and Phil’s schedules so packed….” However, if they had the same schedule ― for example, if they were married to each other and kept the same schedule, it would be correct to say “Nancy and Phil’s schedule…,” without “both.”
7) Here’s an easy one: “shrank” is the past tense of the verb “to shrink.” Or you could say “had shrunk,” which would also be correct.
8) In Cher’s comment—“Nothing said that either one of us were going to be famous” – the verb “were” should actually be “was,” since “either one” is singular and needs a singular verb. “Were” is a plural verb (All of us were going to be famous.)
Get set for Punctuation Tips and Traps next time.
Flo Selfman is a copy editor for award-winning books, both fiction and nonfiction, in several genres. She was president of the Independent Writers of Southern California (IWOSC.org) for a dozen years, stepping down in 2016. Winner of the Honorary Achievement Award from The BookFest (Spring 2023). Flo is working on a collection of stories and can often be found exploring SoCalif, camera in hand.
