Wednesday, February 1, 2012

It's Grammar Time

You're writing a horse for sale ad.  I understand that spell check is not fail-safe, but it can help.  We're going to have a short (but hopefully helpful) grammar lesson today.

You have a horse for sale.  Or you are selling a horse.  You don't have a horse for sell.  And you're not saleing (yes, I've seen it spelled this way) a horse.  

Your horse has nice conformation; he is well put-together.  You receive a confirmation email from Craigslist to let you know your ad has been posted.

Your horse has been ridden a lot, he is ridden every day.  You rode him yesterday, or it's been a week since you rode.  He hasn't been trail rode; he's been trail ridden.  

Your horse behaves for the farrier.  Not the ferrier or the furrier.  (He may be furrier this time of year, but that's kind of irrelevant).

A hand is 4 inches.  11 hands, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 12 hands.  If your pony is 11.2, you might say he stands 11 and a half hands, or you might just say he's 46 inches.  Your pony isn't 11.5 hands tall.  Nor is your horse 15.6.

My point is not to deride anyone; I'm not poking fun at someone for a single mis-spelling or typo or autocorrect that their eyes may not have caught.  That happens to everyone. 

My point is this - as I've said before - you want to make your horse look the best he can in an advertisement.  That first impression when a buyer is wading through fifty other ads is incredibly important; and if you come across sounding ignorant of the basics -- and ignorant, in general -- why should the buyer have any faith that you know your stuff when it comes to your horse's level of training and his value?

No comments:

Post a Comment