Sometimes the tiniest errors in grammar, pronunciation and spelling can lead to very BIG – and
very funny – consequences.
So be careful you don’t make these mistakes in your speaking and writing.
1. The correct sentence is, “Let’s go to KFC to get some chicken.” The incorrect
sentence is, “Let’s go to KFC to get some chickens.”
Unless you’re talking about whole chickens, you’d just say “chicken” because meat
is uncountable. This is just confusing for chicken meat because most other meat names
are different from the names of the animal that meat comes from. Beef comes from cows.
Pork comes from pigs. But chicken comes from chickens. If you want to talk about the parts
of a chicken, like the wings or legs, these are pieces of chicken.
2. Next, the correct sentence is, “Thanks always for helping me.” A related sentence
with a very different meaning is, “Thanks anyway for helping me.”
If you want to say thank you to someone for helping you many times, you’d say, “Thanks
always.” It’s like, “Thank you for always helping me.” Or “,Thanks for all of the
help you’ve given me.” But when you use “Thanks anyway,” you’re saying that
the person was NOT able to help you, but you still want to thank them for their time or
attention. For example, if I ask someone for directions and they don’t know where to
go, I can thank them for their time by saying, “Thanks anyway.” This would be correct
and polite. But if the person DID help me, I’d just say “Thanks.” Only when someone
is helping you often would you use, “Thanks always.”
3. Next, the correct sentence is, “Thank you for your cooperation.” The incorrect
sentence is, “Thank you for your copulation.”
These two words do sound very similar. “Cooperation” means working with other people, but “copulation”
is a formal term for having sex. So be VERY careful with these two. Remember “cooperate”
as “co,” meaning “with,” and “operate,” which means to do some kind of action. Usually,
when you want to ask customers or people to do something in a polite way, you’d thank
them for their cooperation. But you probably wouldn’t thank them for copulating.
4. Next, the correct sentence is, “Time to eat, children.” The incorrect sentence
is, “Time to eat children.”
Funny how one little comma makes a VERY big difference in meaning. With the comma, you’re
talking to someone. Here, you’re telling some children that it’s time to eat. But
without the comma, you’re saying it’s time to eat some children. Notice how my pronunciation
is also different. “Time to eat, children.” “Time to eat children.”
5. Finally, the correct phrase is, “Executive Board Room.” The incorrect phrase is, “Executive
Bored Room.”
These two sound the same, but a board room is where people, like the board members of
a company, meet. A bored room, if such a place existed, would be a room for people who feel
uninterested, or have nothing to do. Some board room meetings might be boring, but don’t
get these confused when you write!
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