I always learn something when I read Yahoo! News; mostly I learn what not to do. The site serves as a great reminder of the kind of mistakes I could be making if I’m not careful, like capitalizing a random word:
Or committing a grammatical crime like failing to match a verb to its subject:
Or confusing a murder with a murderer:
Here’s a question for you: Why do the writers and editors at Yahoo! Shine think that workout is a verb?
The verb is work out. The noun is one word: workout. Think of it this way: If workout were a verb its past tense would be workouted.
It’s not the worst typo a writer can make, but it’s an easy one to spot if you’re writing about Ray Halbritter:
Maybe the writer needs some assistance in the proofreading department:
And editor who knows that either is singular and it’s is the contraction for it has would certainly help:
But something is afoot at Yahoo! Sports‘ “Prep Rally”: There’s no proofreader or editor at hand.
If you make mistakes like those made by the author of Yahoo! Sports‘ “Puck Daddy,” you should consider letting someone take the reins and edit your work:
If you don’t know that a monarch reigns and a horse is controlled by reins, you need a little editorial support.
If you’re writing an article about Glen Gulutzan, the editor might let you know if you misspell his name:
And if that editor knows that whom is the objective case of who (and is therefore correct as the object of a preposition), hand over the reins. Just be sure that the editor knows that when a subject is joined by or, the verb (which should be is) agrees with the noun closer to it:
Let’s hope that one of these words on Yahoo! News is a typo, because I’d hate to think a professional scribe thinks both words are correct:
Is there a nonprofit organization that might help the folks working at the keyboards at Yahoo! News? Maybe the Internet giant would accept free proofreading services if a nonprofit suggests it:
I wasn’t going to mention this mistake on the home page Yahoo! Movies — it’s likely just a typo, right?
And then I saw this on Yahoo! Movies and figured maybe the Einsteins who write these captions really are grammatically challenged:
All I needed was one more example of a subject and verb mismatch to convince I was right:
“Men in Black 4″ is the title of a movie. It is singular and takes a singular verb like, oh, say, maybe comes.
Looking for some well-written articles about odd happenings around the world? Yahoo! News‘ “The Sideshow” has the quirky news stories; it’s the “well-written” part that’s missing:
I have no idea if “at least one” official has said something or multiple officials have said something. I also have no idea what they said.
Did you read this on yahoo.com?
Did you notice that the writer tried to tell us that some teen’s moves are like some NBA stars — not like NBA stars’ moves, but like the actual athletes themselves? And did you notice that the writer didn’t know that moves is plural and mimics, the verb, isn’t?
And not in a good way. Trying to make a noun like slay into a verb is just hilarious.
Today’s laugh of the day comes to you courtesy of the Yahoo! front page team.
