Thursday, January 21, 2016

Car Ad Language Nightmares

Baron Bobinott writes...

To be, or not to be.... (what) words, terms, or phrases that bug you in online car ads? Someone will suggest "patina" right away. The one that made me think of this is the recent trend towards using a weird grammar structure: "Brakes need replaced". When I first saw it, I just assumed it was a non-english-first-language person, and it didn't bother me. However, I'm now seeing it so commonly that I worry that it might become an acceptable evolution of the language. Oh, horrors! I just found this YouTube video; it's a frickin' epidemic, I tell ya!


Well, all you language obsessed gear heads, what say you? What gets your goat and what sort of fun examples can you find?

3 comments:

  1. I'm reluctant to criticize because I so frequently make errors. But just on a lark, I went to my local CL and opened the very first ad. Wow, it was bad. The punctuation, psychotic capitalization and other typos were just out of control. Here it is...

    2005 Buick Lacrosse, 6Cly, Automatic, 125,000miles, Clean car, Factory Alloy Rims, Remote Alarm, Power Windows, Power Locks, Power Mirrors, Power Seats, Ac, Cd, Tilt, Cruise Control, Runs Good, Asking $2500,

    What the heck is a "Cly"? I mean, I KNOW what they meant, but seriously? Either they just don't care or then need to get some schoolins!

    Good one, B. Fun topic!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Words that should strike fear into any shopper: "Easy restoration". Sez who?

    I fell for that once, and by the time I got to dig deeply enough, even the areas that were sold as "pluses" were beyond saving.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I found that I heard the omitted "to be" most commonly in the speech patterns of folks residing close to the Mason/Dixie line.

    Such beauties come to mind like,
    "That car needs washed.", "These papers need filed." and
    "Your teeth need brushed".

    Although I'm not so sure that phrase was ever uttered by the type of person I'm implying that would be saying it in the first place.

    I would imagine it would go a little more like "My Mountain Dew needs refilled".

    ReplyDelete

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