This shop front was spotted by Matt Top Boy FFS whilst prowling the streets of Manchester.

When a lighting shop rebadges itself, I expect better than this. I’ve tried to accept the slight possibility that it’s not a mistake (i.e. the shop is willing to be popularly known by its website address but also wants you to know you must refer to it as ‘Lightbox’ in formal situations), but I’m just not having it. They’ve mixed up their homophones and that’s the end of the matter.

Things are made even worse by the butchering of the English language in the website address. A quick visit to the site provides this fascinating background to the business:

Litecraft was established in 1949 to manufacture and distribute decorative lighting around the UK. That’s over 59 years experience of lighting up your home!

Yes, that’s right; it’s definitely a shop selling lighting. So why change ‘light’ to ‘lite’? Weak, low calorie craft? It makes no sense and is insufferably vile. Get a grip, world.

Look out for it visiting a fun fair near you.

Shut your mouth!

Ben Lawrence took this photograph on a bus in Yorkshire and changed my
whole outlook. Maybe Fox is right about this “socialist” menace.

Is this what Obama wants for America?, originally uploaded by GrammarBlog.

Ben was clearly upset.

“I found this on a public bus!!!!! On a public bus, from the NHS too!”

Settle down, Ben. You’re hysterical. Multiple exclamation points won’t
solve anything.

And that’s the spelling mishaps, not to mention the Needless Capitalisation, for now.

His phonetic instinct was to use “there’s” but he correctly deduced that this was a contraction of “there is” and wouldn’t match the plural object.

The contraction “there’re” does not officially exist but is sometimes used informally. I guess the reason it isn’t used more is it’s a tricky word to say in certain accents, including my own. In my northern-English brogue it’s harder to form the re’re sound than it is to say “there are”. Not much use as a contraction then is it?

Try it out loud; if you can say it, I think it’s OK for you to write it in an informal setting.

This heartwarming tale of youth power from the Manchester Evening News…

Schoolboy spots street sign blunder

A SCHOOLBOY fears spelling is on the road to ruin after a street sign blunder.

Adam Gant, 11, spotted the embarrassing mistake in large letters as he walked to school with his mum Sue and little brother Matthew.

The sign, on Lord Lane, Failsworth, Oldham, was intended to warn motorists of a bus stop. Instead, it read ‘bus stor’.

Adam, of Gail Close, Failsworth, said: “I imagine the person who misspelt ’stop’ would be really embarrassed.

“What did they think they were marking? I’m not sure if it’s a case of people not being able to spell these days or that they just can’t be bothered. Either way, it’s a pretty poor effort at spelling something simple.”

I like this Adam, 11, and the cut of his jib. I think he may even be smug and condescending enough to qualify for Grammarblog posting rights by the time he hits the age of 12.

Read on for the full story. All fans of good spelling and frugal public sector spending - both of which are all the rage at the moment - will be relieved to note that the contractor responsible for this error will be rectifying it at no extra cost to Oldham Council and its public purse.

Admittedly, this removes quite a major option.

I love a good ‘accept’/'except’ catastrophe.  This photo was taken by phoebeofthesea in New Jersey over in that America at a McDonald’s drive-through, or drive-‘thru’ for those fond of unnecessarily bastardised vocabulary.

Incidentally, hats off to whoever did this:

Related post:  All major cards excepted.

This post will be short but sweet.

Thanks to bob the bolder who uploaded this picture.

Misspellings will happen from time to time, but a bit of consistency should be the least one can expect. Why vary the endings of ‘interior’ and ‘exterior’ when they’re the same phonetically? Even the simplest of simpletons should be able to misspell something the same way twice.

This is made even more confusing by the fact it’s difficult not to read it as ‘£4 for inertia’. I need a lie down. Don’t hold me back.