Monday, March 22, 2010

Grammatical Nuisance #13,552

Phrases like, "Get at least 7-8 hours of sleep per night." Either it's a minimum of 7, or, if you think people should really have 8, make the minimum 8.

A sports example we often see is, "Chris Paul will be out a minimum of 4-6 weeks." If you're giving a minimum, it would just be 4 weeks. The 6 isn't necessary, unless that's truly the minimum, in which case you'd say he's out a minimum of 6 weeks. Or, if you feel that 4-6 weeks is the window of time he'll miss, you don't need the minimum part at all: "Chris Paul will be out 4-6 weeks."

Let's try to use the language we've all agreed upon.

1 comment:

mkenny59 said...

This is a huge pet peeve of mine. Thanks for bringing it to light.