Loan ≠ Lend

“Loan” is a noun, “lend” is a verb. So Dagwood’s buddy has it wrong!

When you give someone a loan, you lend him something, typically money.

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I’m borrowing the cartoonist’s punchline for this post. I see this error occasionally, usually in job postings: “up to 3 or more years of experience.” It always bothers me.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/coupon-38576792
You might not be able to get to this comic; it’s on Patreon.

When you write, don’t set a limit and then violate the limit! (Ahem, don’t be like a marketer.)

I originally intended to post this as something about a curmudgeon grammarian, but when I read the comments, I learned that these are all related to popular songs. I confess I don’t know much about pop culture.

Poetic license is permission to twist language to suit a poem or song. Do you know the songs in the comic? I don’t.

If we were talking about grammar, though, can you tell which one I would disagree with her about?

The last post mentioned a type of word that can be tricky—it changes by changing which syllable gets the accent. Here’s another tricky type of word, homonyms. Different spelling, different meaning, but same pronunciation.

Here’s a good example:

Got any favorite homonyms? Feel free to mention them in the comments.

PS—and for good measure, here’s a test. In the box on the right—is that a homonym?

I think I mentioned this topic before. Here’s another good example of how punctuation can change the meaning of a phrase.

As written in the comic, you have a compound phrase about the two things that the person is doing. The original is “downward-facing dog.” “Downward-facing” is a compound adjective describing “dog.”

So the punctuation makes the joke!