Comments on: Complement vs. Compliment

By: dharma

dharma — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:14:29 +0000

how do complement with friends and junior?

By: Suzette

Suzette — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 13:20:18 +0000

It may seem a trivial error, but if mistakes are made regarding little things, can you totally trust them with the important, big things?
I wonder.

By: Peter Baron

Peter Baron — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 21:51:16 +0000

I compiled the style guide for proposal writers in the company for which I work and I listed all the above, plus favourites such as principal/principle, it’s/its, effect/affect, along with explanations and examples. I realised after a while that our sales force is not ready for this level of sophistication, and it would have been better to leave the pages blank, print lots of them, roll them into a tight rod and use them to hit people over the head while shouting “Don’t leave the previous customer’s name in your cut and paste, you moron!” or words to that effect.

By: Bruce Pilgrim

Bruce Pilgrim — Tue, 29 May 2007 13:46:36 +0000

I work with engineers who make even more elementary mistakes, such as not realizing there is a difference between “there” and “their” as well as sometimes amusing remarks such as “That is a mute point.”

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 29 May 2007 08:16:18 +0000

I always used to think that Apple’s “Complimentary Support” meant that they would be REALLY polite to me!

By: Tristram Brelstaff

Tristram Brelstaff — Mon, 28 May 2007 17:02:44 +0000

I always remember that a ‘complEment’ makes something ‘complEte’.

By: David Bradley

David Bradley — Mon, 28 May 2007 15:02:46 +0000

Well spotted…

I too used to be a smug lover of correcting other people’s grammar, but then noticed not only a dwindling circle of friends but an increasing number of email complaints to my website that grew in inverse proportion to the shrinking circle…coincidence? Me, paranoid?

More worryingly though, is that schools don’t seem to correct spelling and grammar like they did in our day. That fact coupled with all the txt msgs kdz snd 2dy means true literacy is on the decline.

Maybe, it’s not paranoia creeping in, it’s just middle age spreading…