I live in Oregon now. I have left New York City and its politics behind, and therefore I need to register to vote in the State of Oregon. This got me to thinking that I also need to change my driver’s (drivers?)
license, which brings us to the title of this post. I went to the DMV website, and found two instances of the following grammatical error:
Renewing a Oregon drivers license
Applying for a Oregon drivers license
WTF? I may not know if it should be driver’s, drivers or driver license, but I do know that when I apply for an Oregon license, I will be well aware that my new state of residency begins with a friggin’ vowel.
22 responses so far ↓
1 sunshineboy78 // Nov 8, 2005 at 7:44 am
Are you having vowel trouble? Try muesli
2 geekgoddiss // Nov 8, 2005 at 8:03 am
That cracks me up. Maybe I could move there and do web editing. That’s not quite Seattle, but it’s a hell of a lot closer to Seattle than Nashville :-p
3 Jay_galk25 // Nov 8, 2005 at 10:04 am
It’s funny that we’ve both hit a point where we put up short, punchy little post for some reason these days hehe.
Jay {Hmmmm} “Rawr”
4 PhishChica // Nov 8, 2005 at 10:18 am
Hahaha. I am the worst offender of that rule.
5 VirtuallySane // Nov 8, 2005 at 10:23 am
I find it incredibly reassuring that there are so many other people out there who have grammatical pet peeves. It makes my inner nerd smile.
6 zmftimelord // Nov 8, 2005 at 10:40 am
Grammar, yuck. But damn, Oregon is teh major issues.
7 jaki_o // Nov 8, 2005 at 10:41 am
Funny, I just went to apply for my new Michigan driver’s lisense. Well, I guess I didn’t really apply cause I’ve had one for years, I just needed one with the correct address on it.
8 TimsHead // Nov 8, 2005 at 11:21 am
Naturally, my bleeding eyes became first transfixed with the lack-of-apostrophe issue, which is admittedly a common mistake, but the lack of article-subject agreement is just heinous. I assume a grammar test isn’t required for a licence in Oregon.ryc: Wasn’t dissing Asa, but I assumed it was one of those sites where you had to create an account and log in, for which I have nary the time. Could I get a personal assistant to do that kind of thing for me? Yes, that would be wonderful.
9 xrottingfromwithinx // Nov 8, 2005 at 11:29 am
Perhaps it’s a regional colliquism. In the South (maybe other places too) they use the article “an” before words that begin with the letter “h” that are followed by a vowel sound. Some educated authors would actually write ”an historical document.” I can’t handle it.
10 frank_the_fish // Nov 8, 2005 at 1:02 pm
Enjoy no sales tax.
11 doctorperky // Nov 8, 2005 at 2:42 pm
Geekgoddess, I don’t know you, but the people who most desperately need copyediting will never pay for it. And rotting, nice try being nice on the “regional colloquialism” but I strongly suspect it is merely ignorance. In the South we often say “a apple” (pronounced “uh apple”) and that sort of thing but we don’t write it that way unless we’re stupid.
12 HaveyoumetGreg // Nov 8, 2005 at 3:00 pm
If you want to talk grammer, try Cincinnati. I’ve never heard so many “we was,” “I seen,” and double negatives in my life.
13 thinlizzy17 // Nov 8, 2005 at 3:14 pm
At least it isn’t a drivers’ license. You’d have to share with someone.
14 trcs // Nov 8, 2005 at 3:23 pm
“I will be well aware that my new state of residency begins with a friggin’ vowel.”
oh my, I just laughed out loud. thanks man.
15 BrenDuckie // Nov 8, 2005 at 4:30 pm
Hey welcome to Oregon! You picked a rotten time of year to move west though, it’s all rain rain and more rain but it gets much better in the Spring. On the upside, you won’t have to get out of your car in the rain to pump your gas since it’s illegal to pump your own gas here!
16 rubyblue123 // Nov 9, 2005 at 2:51 am
When will they just implant the chip already!? That way we won’t have to deal with all of this paper nonsense.
17 rubyblue123 // Nov 9, 2005 at 8:05 am
ryc re: my c: Yeah, I was talking about Big Brother. Isn’t that the plan? To just implant a chip containing all of our medical, driving, educational records. Sorry attempt at humor. No, I did not get the troublesome peanut at Tim’s shindig. I remember eating peanuts but don’t remember anything eventful about it. Strange.
18 fern_forest // Nov 9, 2005 at 1:51 pm
love that album. hate gramatically incorrectness by government organizations. in the place where i went to high school, the signs said, “Kentwood City Limits.”
19 Gnarlysurf // Nov 9, 2005 at 2:33 pm
I’d like to buy a vowel please
20 chicagoartgirl23 // Nov 9, 2005 at 4:15 pm
I’d vote apostrophe s, since the driver owns the license, but I’m full of shit half the time, so don’t trust me.Yay for outrage at grammar mistakes. My favorite burrito place has a sign that reads: “Worlds Best Burrito’s.” The world owns no burritos, but the burritos claim something unsaid with that nasty apostrophe dangling teasingly before the “s.” I can see how grammar can be confusing for the Spanish speakers who own the shop (hell, I can barely insert an accent mark in my writing appropriately), but how don’t a native speaker know the difference between an and a? Silliness.
21 chicagoartgirl23 // Nov 9, 2005 at 4:17 pm
HAHAHA! “how don’t.” See, I am full of shit! ::smile::
22 derf6179 // Nov 10, 2005 at 1:36 am
Oregon…hey, you’re right there is a vowel at the beginning. Who knew!