Egg on your face? A very graphic idiom meaning that you’ve done something stupid. If you have the remnants of breakfast on your chin, everyone will see it but it’s unlikely in an English speaking culture that anyone will mention it. So you continue, blissfully unaware that anything is amiss. Let’s extend this metaphor to Hebrew Speakers of English (HSE). Often we have the impression that our English is better than it is because it’s unlikely that our mistakes will be pointed out by those we are communicating with. How many HSE, on apologising for ‘poor English’, have been told; “Oh but your English is excellent”. A small example of how cross-cultural differences can create misunderstanding. 

 Because the focus of my blog is about this sort of miscommunication, I don’t usually relate to grammar mistakes. And anyway, I have always claimed that grammar isn’t an important factor when we consider what makes communication successful. “Me Tarzan. You Jane” is perfectly comprehensible and carries no potential for giving offence.But nonetheless, some mistakes can be embarrassing as I pointed out in my last post http://cafe.themarker.com/view.php?t=486173 

So I decided to post some tips on how to limit the amount of egg on your face, grammatically speaking. 

1. Don’t assume that there are ‘roots’ in similar words. Although pairs of words like destiny & destination; moment & momentous; sever & severe, hospitality & hospitalise appear to be similar, their meanings are quite different. 
2. Do make a list of the most common homophones, pairs of words, which sound exactly the same but which have different spellings and meanings. Although it won’t lead to misunderstandings if you misspell words and write:’ I hope to sea you next weak instead of ‘I hope to see you next week’, it doesn’t look very professional. Of course, advertising copy that intentionally transposes words is eye-catching and therefore effective. e.g.: ‘Visit the Meating Place for the best steak in town’. However, this must be intentional otherwise, the egg may be harder to wipe off. Lists of the most common homophones can be accessed on Google. 
3. Do make sure that the word you choose from a spell-check option or an electronic translator has the meaning you think it has. I recently read a draft proposal that referred to clitoral damage when in fact collateral damage was the issue.
4. 
   Don’t assume that what you write is OK if your spell-checker doesn’t signal any errors. The number of mistakes we find in the English menus in our restaurants is testimony to this misconception. You really don’t want to write to a potential investor that you are willing to comet your chin stores, when someone competent in English could tell you that what you should be writing is that you are willing to commit your chain stores. There are many examples of words that sound alike but are very different. Check sound alike words on Google, for lists of the most common ones.

Lola