Last Gaffes From the Communicator-in-Chief
Wednesday January 14, 2009
Over the past eight years, President George W. Bush has generously illustrated many principles of English grammar and usage. To show our appreciation, we offer a few choice examples of the lessons he has shared.
- "You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test."
(February 21, 2001)
Credit to Mr. Bush for attempting to use a singular pronoun to refer to a singular noun ("a child"), but both of the pronouns in this sentence really should be in the subjective case: not "he or her" but "he or she." (See Using the Different Forms of Pronouns.) - "When we get the facts, we'll share it with the American people."
(November 8, 2001)
Ah, but those pronouns can be almost as slippery as the facts. Let's quietly change "it" to "them" to agree with the noun "facts." (Now that he has some spare time, Mr. Bush may want to work on this Practice Exercise on Pronouns.) - "It's a time of sorrow and sadness when we lose a loss of life."
(December 21, 2004)
Indeed. Such needless repetition is called pleonasm. - "The goals of this country is to enhance prosperity and peace."
(speaking at the White House Conference on Global Literacy, September 18, 2006)
Presumably distracted by "this country" (the singular object of the preposition "of"), the president missed the plural subject, "goals." Our advice: use "are," not "is," and visit Correcting Errors in Subject-Verb Agreement. - "We've got pockets of persistent poverty in our society, which I refuse to declare defeat—I mean, I refuse to allow them to continue on. And so one of the things that we're trying to do is to encourage a faith-based initiative to spread its wings all across America, to be able to capture this great compassionate spirit."
(March 18, 2002)
Fortunately, the mixed metaphors here distract from the more serious breakdowns in syntax. - "Suiciders are willing to kill innocent life in order to send the projection that this is an impossible mission."
(April 3, 2007)
"I want to remind you all that in order to fight and win the war, it requires an expenditure of money that is commiserate with keeping a promise to our troops to make sure that they're well-paid, well-trained, well-equipped."
(December 2003)
"And the question is, are we going to be facile enough to change with—will we be nimble enough; will we be able to deal with the circumstances on the ground? And the answer is, yes, we will."
(July 25, 2006)
"Columbia carried in its payroll classroom experiments from some of our students in America."
(February 11, 2003)
"Projection"? "commiserate"? "facile"? "payroll"? Not since Mrs. Malaprop herself have we witnessed such a master of malapropism.
So thank you, President Bush, for expanding the range of the English language and for helping America to become what you once described as "a literate country and a hopefuller country."
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Comments
what the fact that in Greece they speak Grecian!
I have read these, or similar phrases, dozens of times, but why? Is it because Bush is nervous in public? But, he’s been in the public’s eye for a long time. Many of these phrases people don’t even use in their everyday speech, like the problem with pronouns. People in West Texas speak better than this. Is because he refuses to read what his writers wrote? Is it alcoholic dementia?
true about bush, esp. the word nuclear… however, your precious obama has already cluttered the airwaves with they “invited michelle and i to the dinner”… so, he doesn’t know any better, nor does his staff… this is stuff we all learned in the sixth grade, for chrissakes…
I find it disgusting that only Republicans are ever singled out for stuff like this. I heard Joe Biden saying some really funny things, but never saw any of them in articles like this. How about a little fairness?
Back in October, Joe Biden gave us a lesson on the abuse of “literally.” See Words That May Not Mean What You Think They Mean.
I’m Spanish, so my first language is Spanish and not English. I have read some other times about this issue and never really paid too much attention as anyone can make a mistake when talking or writing even if it’s in your own language. What surprises me more is that having read this here, I have realised how many times people have been mocking this man just for something quite trivial considering other issues. And what surprises me more is that the very same people that are doing this are supposedly the ones that take care of people and the ones that worry about the common good of everyone, the ones that called themselves liberals or progressive liberals and so on (I read a “very interesting” article about the differences between a liberal and a progressive liberal in either Salon or Slate, and I thought I was hilarious. It was supposed to be a serious article that’s what made it even funnier). The ones that worry about other ethnic groups, people with disabilities, the ones being discriminated, or bullied and so forth.
And the reason I say that it’s because I do realise that this is a website dedicated to English and grammar, but after reading this article the first thing that crossed my mind is that Bush is quite likely dyslexic and that’s the reason he has those problems when speaking and quite likely when reading and/or writing. But being a dyslexic has no relation with being stupid which is what most people mean when talking about his language problems. And what surprises me more is that the very same people that go around bragging about defending people with disabilities, or being discriminated on those grounds and are so political correct when they are interested in something similar, have absolutely no qualms in being as cruel and discriminatory, almost xenophobic, as the very same people they criticize.
I come from a communist family in my mother’s side in Spain, things like that and behaviour like that changed the vote in my family (not the ideas). All people should be treated with dignity and whether you like it or not and Bush is included in that package. Rules should apply to everyone, not to everyone you like.
I have barely seen anyone thinking that maybe he’s dyslexic and defending him in that issue instead of mocking him because of that.
It certainly says a lot about the so called progressive liberals or liberals (whichever way they want to called themselves).
Again I realise this is a website dedicated to proper grammar and proper use of the language but there are many ways of dealing with something like this.
Just the opinion of someone whose second language is English
I’m Spanish, so my first language is Spanish and not English. I have read some other times about this issue and never really paid too much attention as anyone can make a mistake when talking or writing even if it’s in your own language. What surprises me more is that having read this here, I have realised how many times people have been mocking this man just for something quite trivial considering other issues. And what surprises me more is that the very same people that are doing this are supposedly the ones that take care of people and the ones that worry about the common good of everyone, the ones that called themselves liberals or progressive liberals and so on (I read a “very interesting” article about the differences between a liberal and a progressive liberal in either Salon or Slate, and I thought I was hilarious. It was supposed to be a serious article that’s what made it even funnier). The ones that worry about other ethnic groups, people with disabilities, the ones being discriminated, or bullied and so forth.
And the reason I say that it’s because I do realise that this is a website dedicated to English and grammar, but after reading this article the first thing that crossed my mind is that Bush is quite likely dyslexic and that’s the reason he has those problems when speaking and quite likely when reading and/or writing. But being a dyslexic has no relation with being stupid which is what most people mean when talking about his language problems. And what surprises me more is that the very same people that go around bragging about defending people with disabilities, or being discriminated on those grounds and are so political correct when they are interested in something similar, have absolutely no qualms in being as cruel and discriminatory, almost xenophobic, as the very same people they criticize.
I come from a communist family in my mother’s side in Spain, things like that and behaviour like that changed the vote in my family (not the ideas). All people should be treated with dignity and whether you like it or not and Bush is included in that package. Rules should apply to everyone, not to everyone you like.
I have barely seen anyone thinking that maybe he’s dyslexic and defending him in that issue instead of mocking him because of that.
It certainly says a lot about the so called progressive liberals or liberals (whichever way they want to called themselves).
Again I realise this is a website dedicated to proper grammar and proper use of the language but there are many ways of dealing with something like this.