Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
English can be a tough nut to crack, even for those of us who grew up speaking it. Advertisers certainly aren't making things any easier.
Recently they've been bending the rules of grammar and turning adjectives into nouns.
Some examples you might be familiar with:
What's behind the grammatical phenomenon?
Ben Yagoda teaches English and writing at the University of Delaware and he says that for advertisers, it's all about getting consumers to sit up and pay attention. Using one part of speech as another (the technical term is "anthimeria") is one way to do that.
Ben Yagoda has written about "anthimeria" here, here and here. His latest book is "How to Not Write Bad: The Most Common Writing Problems and the Best Ways to Avoid Them".