tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155368255329142560.post6214269443245030919..comments2023-06-20T11:27:30.023-04:00Comments on Joe Ganci Finally Gets A Blog: Bad English...Really Bad! Take the Challenge!Joe Gancihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06665649430678259147noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155368255329142560.post-43523784006438765822008-08-26T11:29:00.000-04:002008-08-26T11:29:00.000-04:00Nice try, Italian sis, but that's not exactly righ...Nice try, Italian sis, but that's not exactly right. Just like in Italian, the subjunctive in English is used only when the situation is improbable or impossible, so you would not use WERE (the subjunctive) in this case because it's very possible that one of the individuals is home.<BR/><BR/>OK, so the full text of the message is:<BR/><BR/><B>If either of these individuals are available but need a moment to come to the phone, press 3.<BR/>If either of these individuals are not available, press 4. To repeat this menu, press the star key.</B><BR/><BR/>So let's start with the first sentence. You're right that <I>either</I> means <I>one or the other</I>, which makes it singular, so the sentence should be:<BR/><BR/><B>If either of these individuals <I>IS</I> available but need<I>S</I> a moment to come to the phone, press 3.</B><BR/><BR/>So there are two mistakes in the above sentence.<BR/><BR/>The second sentence is more interesting, because if you change the <I>ARE</I> to <I>IS</I>, which would be more correct:<BR/><BR/><B>If either of these individuals IS not available, press 4.</B><BR/><BR/>it would literally mean <I>if only one of them is home and not the other, press 4.</I><BR/><BR/>So you're right that the word <I>either</I> should be <I>neither</I> and that the word <I>not</I> should be eliminated. The word <I>neither</I>, however, is still singular:<BR/><BR/><B>If NEITHER of these individuals IS available, press 4.</B><BR/><BR/>Guess what? The last sentence is fine!Joe Gancihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06665649430678259147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155368255329142560.post-63374151848219330552008-08-26T04:46:00.000-04:002008-08-26T04:46:00.000-04:00In the first part of the message, since it starts ...In the first part of the message, since it starts with IF, WERE should be used instead of ARE - So it could be: IF EITHER ONE OF THESE INDIVIDUALS WERE AVAILABLE BUT......<BR/>or.....WHETHER ONE OF THESE INDIVIDUALS ARE AVAILABLE BUT....<BR/>EITHER = one or the other<BR/>In the second part of the message they should have used NEITHER<BR/>IF NEITHER OF THESE INDIVIDUALS ARE AVAILABLE........<BR/>Well, should be something like that, but I know I'm probably wrong, but wanted to try anyway!<BR/>your Italian sisSally Gancihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12188573133806237377noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155368255329142560.post-59161937321419269382008-08-25T14:03:00.000-04:002008-08-25T14:03:00.000-04:00I hate those silly automatic answer machine things...I hate those silly automatic answer machine things. I hate them more when I have to try to speak to them. Apparently they don't understand my accent ... grrrrSteve Howardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08038999405216189880noreply@blogger.com