up Archives - Machigai Podcast: 英語の間違いを直そう

Everything is looking up

Point Up Day

X Point Up Day

Tim says:

Today is the day when we should point our fingers toward the sky, right? No? But… look at the picture! The thumb on that hand is… pointing up!

Of course, this sign was meant to refer to points (noun) that can be earned by shopping at this mall, not pointing (verb) up. You can get more points than usual if you shop there on Wednesdays. If it were twice as many points as usual, then it would be “Double Points Day”, but I was told that it’s not quite that big of an increase. So I guess the best English would be:

O Extra Points Day

周囲にある英語を見て、果たしてそれが正しい英語なのだろうかと感じる英語はありますか？「あの英語は絶対に間違っている」という英語の表記はありますか？看板の写真を撮って、Machigai.comに送りましょう！とんでもない英語だったら、このコーナーで出します！

This one’s really a downer

Escalator to Down Only

X Escalator to Down Only

Tim says:

When you arrive at Down, what will you do there?

“Down” is not a place, so it’s strange to use it with “to”. Just like you can’t “go to shopping”, you can’t “go to down”. Often, “down” is an adverb, as in “this escalator is going down.” It can also be an adjective, as in “the down escalator.” You could use it either way to correct this sign:

O These escalators only go down O Down escalators only