(faulty) parallelism

by | Jul 16, 2010 | Grammar & Usage

As part of rebuilding this blog (I started this blog way back in 2008, with nothing being posted till now), I was skimming through various WordPress pages. In the About page, I saw this sentence:

It also means you are free to use it [WordPress] for anything from your cat’s home page to a Fortune 500 web site without paying anyone a license fee and a number of other important freedoms.

I first thought WordPress is cutting down many important freedoms, only to realize, after reading the “The Free Software Definition”, that the freedoms are not denied but offered. What went wrong? A preposition to mark the contradiction would suffice. Change the sentence as

It also means…license fee and with a number of other important freedoms.

Perfect now, isn’t it?

0 Comments
Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Similar posts you may like . . .

Mastering article usage in English

Mastering article usage in English

To approach this linguistic challenge with clarity and precision, we break down the learning process into three distinct categories: correctness, conventions, and context. These three dimensions provide unique insights into the rules that govern articles, the idiomatic expressions that shape their usage, and the dynamic contextual cues that guide their application. By understanding the different layers of article usage, one can systematically approach the learning of article usage.

Which indefinite article goes before an abbreviation?

Which indefinite article goes before an abbreviation?

Seemingly simple decisions such as which indefinite article will go before a word can quickly turn into a difficult choice. While editors and most authors have mastered this decision-making, sometimes even experienced editors may stumble into a problem when an abbreviation is encountered.