Queue for taxi
The sign says “QUEUE FOR TAXI”. I wonder whether it means “[This is the] queue for [getting a] taxi” or “[Please ] queue [here] for [a] taxi”. In one case, ‘queue’ is a noun,...
Author: Lucy Day Werts
No MSG?
Let this banner teach you to quit while you’re ahead. “No MSG added” is fine, but “in all our food” doesn’t make sense. In fact it almost makes it sounds like there is MSG…...
Salt Water Giant Arachnoid
The front of the box says: Children may be awesome and scary to this direct but simple eight-feet reptile animal. After the fuel battery is activated by the salted water, the metal magnesium plate...
Mind your b’s and d’s
This sign should say ‘Pork Rib Rice’. The fact that it doesn’t proves that it’s not just children learning to read who confuse the letters ‘b’ and ‘d’.
Pesky conjunctions
The same taxi had two signs prohibiting eating and drinking. One said “no food and drinks” and the other said “no food or drink”. “No food and drinks” is wrong. It assumes that the...
EKIT
Oops. It’s not like English needs the letter X anyway. Anything with an X in it could be spelled with some other letter or letters, usually ‘ks’ or ‘z’. Of course, it’s possible to...
“Have you left your valuables behind?”
This warning from the Singapore Police, spotted in a toilet stall in Cineleisure at Orchard is semantically equivalent to “Have you left all of your valuables behind?” Although it is a somewhat plausible question,...
“Please Watch Out For Your Belongings!”
This warning, spotted in The Clementi Mall, makes it sound like the belongings themselves are dangerous, like a sign that says “Beware of Dog” or “Watch Out for Falling Rocks”, though admittedly neither of...
Pesky ‘with’
When I read this: Dumex, proudly nurturing Singapore babies with global expertise and experience. I thought, Wow, Singapore babies have global expertise and experience? The preposition ‘with’ is ambiguous. It could mean ‘having’ (which...
Did you know?
Five times more people are learning English in China than there are people in England. Wow.