Thursday, March 24, 2016

Further trouble with farther

FOUND ONLINE: Gase went a step farther. He all but promised that whomever the Dolphins take with the 13 will start for the team this year.

This paragraph has three problems. Gase didn't go a step farther; he went a step further. Farther is about distance. Also, whomever the Dolphins take should be whoever. Finally, it's the 13th draft pick, not the 13.

Gase went a step further. He all but promised that whoever the Dolphins take with the 13th draft pick will start for the team this year.


FURTHER KNOWS BEST: With a chance to go farther than they ever did under predecessor Fred Holberg, they never could recover from a flat start in the arena where "The Mayor" now coaches the Chicago Bulls despite a rather fast tempo that was more to their liking.

Farther is distance, so further works here. Also, the writer is trying to do too much here, and I hate this run-on sentence. I'd find another place to put the thing about the arena.


FROM A SCIENCE STORY: In a presentation to the American Astronautical Society in February, NASA engineer Ronald Litchford laid out a development strategy for propelling spacecraft to the furthest edges of the Solar System — and beyond. 

Because of what I just said — farther is distance — I have to wonder if the writer shouldn't have written farthest, not furthest.

ALSO FOUND ONLINE: Would work great for my wife and I with little changes.

You wouldn't say that it would work great for I; you'd say me.

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