Somehow, the writer for Yahoo Lifestyle managed to see the roofs of the mouths of a “stylish group.” I wonder what a brightly colored palate looks like:
I also wonder why the writer and her editor don’t know that palate refers to the roof of the mouth and palette refers to a selection of colors. (I also wonder why there’s a hyphen following brightly. It’s considered wrong to put a hyphen between an adverb ending in -LY and the word it modifies.)
What is a monochrome color palate? I guess it’s the roof of one’s mouth that is a single color, like green or fuchsia. Maybe the Yahoo! Style writer responsible for this will enlighten me:
A palate is the roof of the mouth or sense of taste. A color palette is a range or set of colors.
From Yahoo! Style:
This is a pallet:
A set or range of colors is a palette.
I just can’t remain neutral about this color palate on Yahoo! Style:
The duchess might have a great palate, but that means that her sense of taste is refined. Her outfit, however tasteful, is in a neutral color palette.
I’m sure you’re like millions of other fans of country music star Carrie Underwood, wondering what the roof of her mouth looks like. Now, an editor at Yahoo! Style reveals the secret: It’s pastel!
Coincidentally, the dress Ms. Underwood wore was also in a pastel color palette.
Let’s take the charitable view of this article by the Yahoo! Style news “editor” and assume that she’s worried about keeping her job and the anxiety is affecting her writing. With recent headlines about Yahoo! selling off parts of the company, she may be concerned about her future. Of course, it’s also possible that she has a tenuous grasp of English and a third-grader’s vocabulary.
The article is filled with typos and misspellings, but they’re not nearly as bad as her misuse of common words, like betrothed. She apparently thinks it means married, and not engaged:
She has trouble with the plural of some words, like aircraft:
The plural of aircraft is aircraft. If she wanted to emphasize the fact that there were multiple planes, she should have used the word planes.
Homophones are another problem for this gal, who can’t seem to remember that palate is the roof of her mouth (or her sense of taste) and palette refers to a color scheme:
Why were the folks at Sofia Vergara’s wedding glowering? We’ll have to ask the “editor” for an explanation:
Proving again that plurals are too difficult for her to master, she comes up with lilys instead of lilies. (Didn’t we all learn “change the Y to I and add ES” when we were 8?) And her limited vocabulary is again on display. I wonder what fauna (deer? gorillas? wildebeests?) was lurking among the flora:
Finally, she’s just a tad confused about matching a verb to a subject:
When the subject is each the verb is singular (was, not were, in this case).
Poor thing. This “editor” is worried about her job. And with good reason.
If you saw this on the home page of Yahoo! Makers, you might think this is the result of a careless brain cramp:
You would be wrong. Looking at the picture, you could tell that the writer really meant pallet, and not palette, which refers to a set of colors or the board painters use for paints.
As to the “brain cramp”? Well, it looks like the writer isn’t even trying to use the correct homophone, because she also calls the pallet a palate, which is the roof of your mouth or your sense of taste:
This gal really doesn’t care about how dumb she looks and how embarrassing her writing is to herself and her employer. She manages to slip in a correct spelling, but not before coming up with another palate:
She’s not even trying to get it right. And her attitude is so wrong.
How did the editor in chief of Yahoo! Makers make it to that somewhat lofty position when she knows so little about language and grammar? On the home page of the site, she writes about this DIY ladder:
This is a palette:
The ladder in question is made of pallets. Is that homophonic mistake just the result of a mental hiccup? Does the editor in chief really not the difference between a palette and a pallet. Uh, yes, she doesn’t know the difference. In the article behind that headline she writes:
Is it any wonder that the writing on Yahoo! Makers isn’t up to the standards of a typical high school newspaper?
Is it just me, or does it seem to you that shipping palettes wouldn’t be too helpful for shipping? That’s what I thought when I read this on Yahoo! Makers:
This is a palette; it doesn’t look very useful for shipping:
This looks like something that might be more practical. It’s a pallet.
Here’s a fun game brought to you by Yahoo! Makers. How many homophonic errors can you find in a single article on the site? It’s really not hard to spot the pales instead of pails:
Searching for homophones, you’ll pass a totally random comma, followed by a totally random capitalized Chief. The split backyard isn’t the worst mistake you’ll come across on the way to the palettes that should be pallets.
You might not notice this (but I did): That paragraph claims the article was written by someone working for Katie Brown. But one look at the article’s byline says otherwise:
Oopsie. Don’t you love it when you catch a writer in a lie?
Back to our homophone hunt: Passing the now one-word backyard, you’re bound to find an error that even your kids can spot:
Overlooking the incorrectly capitalized plywood, you’ll find another palettes:
This is where you’ll find the next homophonic horror, a confusion of where for wear:
Holy moley, there’s another palettes and a comma where a semicolon belongs:
One more palettes? This has got to be the last:
Nope. There’s one more and a little advice, which I take to mean “pallets that are the same height”:
How many did you find? I found these four: Pales/pails. Palettes/pallets. You’re/your. Where/wear. What about you?
Terribly Write 