Tuesday, August 14, 2012

there're

I was editing for a client yesterday and I nearly missed it, some industrious, non- native English freelance writer provided me with a gem:   

There're  

Confused Jackie Chan - there're



I checked and it doesn't seem to be particularly incorrect.  Just... I don't know- wrong! 

As the off writing and grammatical errors of this piece were making my head spin, I was reminded of another incident where a client of my own had assumed that I was a non-native English writer because I used language that he felt was not natural. 

 I was referring to a sexual encounter and I used the term "Placed his body on top of hers."  The client told me that a native English writer would say something akin to, "He climbed on top." 

Again, both were technically correct. The English language is so finicky that you can easily be correct and still leave your readers shaking their heads at your chosen word usage.