What Not to Do With a Range

Recruiters talk about a minimum of 2 to 5 years experience. So what’s the minimum? 2 years, 5 years, or not? This is incorrect use of a range.

Here’s another example; the kid quotes a badly written advertisement. Is the limit 50% or is the limit more?

So if you’re going to write a range of something , be careful not to contradict it with a mismatching, contradictory limit.

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“Seek out” is a separable verb—no hyphen!

“Half-dollar store” is okay. “Half” is an adjective and “dollar” is a noun.

Here’s the comic:

His use of “appositive” is correct. “Rex” = “dog.” If he had more than one dog, he should get rid of the comma after “dog.”

But an incorrect double negative would normally have “don’t” instead of “doesn’t.” So is the double negative correct or not?

Here’s the sentence. Think about the highlighted verbs before you read what’s below.

Okay, “accompanies” and “means” are singular verbs. What might be their subject or subjects?

“Accompanies” is close to “reports, studies, and press releases,” but that’s a plural! So “blizzard,” a singular, has to be the subject. The blizzard accompanies a COP.

What about “means”? Looks like “blizzard has to be its subject, too. So the blizzard accompanies and means something. Awkward, but technically it could be grammatical.

But what about that nice list? You could say that they accompany a COP, especially since they’re objects of a preposition with a relative clause right after it.

I think if the list did the accompanying and the blizzard should mean something gets buried; after all, it’s a blizzard!

What’s your opinion?

Some words can go either way. “Fish,” for example can mean more than one of the critters; but you can also say “fishes,” particularly if you’re referring to more than one kind.

Here’s another critter that can go either way. The lady behind the counter gets the distinction.

• Use “shrimp” when you refer to the ocean-going crustacean. “I had a dozen shrimp for dinner.”
• Use “shrimps” when you’re referring to more than one small human. “We fourth-graders are shrimps compared to those seniors.”

Do any other double-form plurals come to mind?