Spot the Mistake

[Fyodor]

7.   You could do this without our help.

12.   On what was once pasture land now stand vast engineering shops.

27.   The value of its contents is well known.

28.   They can reduce and are, at present, reducing the damage caused by machinery.

34.   I know not whom I can trust.

37.   If either of these methods succeeds, many people will be saved.

41.   He explained that I should work with the man in the white shirt.

43.   He decided to practise golf in the back garden.

44.   Which of these four candidates seems the most promising?

46.   His new book is equally interesting.

[Mince]

All correct.

[Mince]

41. He explained that the man in the white shirt was the one with whom I should work.

"I should work with him" gives "whom I should work with".

[Mince]

I would not have put commas in 28.

[Fyodor]

Fair point.

My favourite was, "Running round the corner, the church came into sight."

[Mince]

Yes, the church does not run round corners. It's an unattached participle, the same as 6 and 30 (and 18 and 47).

[Mince]

My favourite is a newspaper headline that read "Prostitutes appeal to Pope".

Here are some from this website.

Some are just slips of the tongue

    * Grandmother of eight makes hole in one
    * Deaf mute gets new hearing in killing
    * Police begin campaign to run down jaywalkers
    * House passes gas tax onto senate
    * Stiff opposition expected to casketless funeral plan
    * Two convicts evade noose, jury hung
    * William Kelly was fed secretary
    * Milk drinkers are turning to powder
    * Safety experts say school bus passengers should be belted
    * Quarter of a million Chinese live on water
    * Farmer bill dies in house
    * Iraqi head seeks arms

Some become unintentionally suggestive

    * Queen Mary having bottom scraped
    * Is there a ring of debris around Uranus?
    * Prostitutes appeal to Pope
    * Panda mating fails - veterinarian takes over
    * NJ judge to rule on nude beach
    * Child's stool great for use in garden
    * Dr. Ruth to talk about sex with newspaper editors
    * Soviet virgin lands short of goal again
    * Organ festival ends in smashing climax

Grammar often botches other headlines

    * Eye drops off shelf
    * Squad helps dog bite victim
    * Dealers will hear car talk at noon
    * Enraged cow injures farmer with ax
    * Lawmen from Mexico barbecue guests
    * Miners refuse to work after death
    * Two Soviet ships collide - one dies
    * Two sisters reunite after eighteen years at checkout counter

Once in a while, a botched headline takes on a meaning opposite from the one intended:

    * Never withhold herpes from loved one
    * Nicaragua sets goal to wipe out literacy
    * Drunk drivers paid $1,000 in 1984
    * Autos killing 110 a day, let's resolve to do better

Sometimes newspaper editors state the obvious

    * If strike isn't settled quickly it may last a while
    * War dims hope for peace
    * Smokers are productive, but death cuts efficiency
    * Cold wave linked to temperatures
    * Blind woman gets new kidney from dad she hasn't seen in years
    * Man is fatally slain
    * Something went wrong in jet crash, experts say
    * Death causes loneliness, feeling of isolation

[The Peepmaster]

Yes, the church does not run round corners..

A church does run round corners. I was looking at one just yesterday, and was studying the outer fabric of its construction. It certainly did run round corners.

[Mince]

Just out of curiosity - has anyone every told you that sometimes you can be utterly annoying?

[The Peepmaster]

It takes practise. 

[Mince]

No, it takes "practice".

That's me being utterly annoying.

[The Peepmaster]

No, it takes "practice".

That's me being utterly annoying.

I knew I'd spelt that wrong.