Courtesy of FailBlog: This is America and our only lanaguage [sic] is English; Respect are [sic] country and America’s offical [sic] language courtesy of Chicanísima; and the classic ENGLISH IS OUR LANGUAGE NO EXCETIONS [SIC] via Swam2day. On a side note, I would like to point out that America is a nation with a Latin name, settled at least 10,000 years ago by...

The ever-vigilant FailBlog points us to what they call a “Double Fail.” I’m not sure which two “fails” the author is referring to here, as there are so many. The one that stood out to me was misspelling “throes” as “throws.” The expression is “throes of passion,” a cliché used to refer to vigorous...

Dear Marvin, I could not help but notice your sign in Los Angeles International Airport, offering “complimentary” shoe shining services. Unfortunately, no matter to what degree you make postive comments regarding my shoes or anything else, the shoe shine will not be “complimentary.” “Complimentary” means “expressing a...

And that, Alanis, is irony. Via Cake Wrecks, one of my favorite humor blogs. I understand that many bakery workers are recent immigrants, and their English may not be perfect. (This is not a criticism. The average immigrants command of English is far superior to my command of anything else, much to my personal shame.) But just as medical professionals should know...

Via The Economist Style Guide: Common spelling problems.  Noteworthy from this page: dependant (person), dependent (adj.) dexterous (not “dextrous”) judgment restaurateur sacrilegious specialty (medicine), otherwise speciality wacky (never “whacky”) Although an American, I am not a fan of “American” spellings. If it were up to...