Catching Ducks

Sometimes I feel like a Grammar Nazi. But there's a reason, really! Good grammar reduces confusion and miscommunication*.

I was looking at Cracked.com's list of "6 Historic Acts of Revenge That Put 'Kill Bill' To Shame", and under a picture on the first page they had this caption:

"OK, see this? This is my ass kicking face."

Which I read as an ass kicking someone's face. It took me a second to realize what they meant was this:

"OK, see this? This is my ass-kicking face."

A minor change in the text, but a big change in meaning.


Related: xkcd's "Hyphen"





*Spellchecks are handy, but can also be pains-in-the-butt. To wit: The blogger spellcheck is convinced that "miscommunication" is not actually a word. (Nor does it like "spellcheck", which is nicely ironic.)

Labels: grammar