∞ Dropping 'the' when describing products

Written by

Geoffrey A. Fowler And Yukari Iwatani Kane for WSJ:

Nintendo Co.’s website shows gamers “what Wii is all about.” As far back as 1984, Apple Inc. said in a commercial that it would “introduce Macintosh.” Today, an Apple video enthuses: “There’s never been anything like iPad.”

Mignon Fogarty, who writes under the pen name Grammar Girl, has given up being outraged by marketing grammar, including missing articles.

It’s hard, she says, to make the case that bad grammar is wrong when someone like Mr. Jobs announces that the new iPod is the “funnest” ever, she says. “How can you tell your kids, you won’t get anywhere in life if you use that language?”


  • Kevin

    I’m sure a grammar expert of fifty years ago would have issue with Mignon Fogarty’s grammar too. Language evolves. Deal with it.

    And quite honestly, while “funnest” not a proper word in the first place? If I said, “that’s the whitest cloud I’ve ever seen,” it’s correct, but the “funnest game ever” is not correct? Why?

    English is full of arbitrary exceptions, homonyms, synonyms, and other constructs that do nothing for communication clarity – i.e. it’s a poorly evolved language to begin with. It’s hypocritical to criticize grammar unless it renders the message ambiguous. When you remove “the”, it sounds pompous, and is technically incorrect, but so what? And when you say something is the “funnest” it may technically be incorrect, but the fact that that “funnest” isn’t a word in the first place is a flaw in the language itself.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1270002609 Tery Kay Bailey-Holly

    For instance, pronouncing the T in ofTen.  Grammatically incorrect, yet advertisers still insist on doing it.  News readers do it.  It’s almost as if grammar “doesn’t matter” anymore.  

    • http://newcanuckworkshop.tumblr.com Junesoo Andrew Yang

      Since the article and commentary are pertaining to correctness in language, I will comment that pronunciation is separate and distinct from grammar.

  • http://twitter.com/VGISoftware Daniel Swanson

    I think the dropping of the definite article in the quote’s cited examples IS appropriate for the purpose of evoking the desired concept–that of the general existence of the respective product or the phenomenon of such, and not of the more specific instance of such the use of “the” would connote.

    Though I often rail against such obvious abuses as using “it’s” as a possessive pronoun when it is ALWAYS ONLY a contraction of “it is” or “it has”, there are a lot cases when language can be deliberately “abused” for a given effect, such as using “sloppy” grammar to communicate sarcasm or criticism.

  • http://www.jphotog.com Hrunga Zmuda

    This “the” controversy is a bit much. Seems to me what they’re trying to do is make it sound more personal, like the name of a person. I bet it’s something they teach in branding class at marketing school.

    Shoot, people say kids when they talk about children, not realizing they’re calling them young goats. People can’t even sort out “lose” and “loose” half the time. Let alone not say “An historical” like some pretentious anglophile.
    What does one expect?”I like the exact word, and clarity of statement, and here and there a touch of good grammar for picturesqueness.” – Mark Twain

  • http://twitter.com/Questional Questional

    Does this mean it’d be proper to say, “The http://www.loopinsight.com wrote an article on grammar?” 

    Nothing gets my goat more than when people say, “I got it at The Best Buy.” Or, “Lets go get some pizza. I like The Papa Johns.” 

    Would you have to say, “There is no band better than the The Doors.” ? 

    Or even, “I was listening to the The The last night!”

    If we want to get snarky on saying things like “The iPad” Lets not forget the most awesome, and absolutely perfectly grammatical, sentence ever: 
    Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. 

  • Mcamp52

    The proper British do it all the time. I’ sorry, my brother is not available today, he is in hospital.

  • Anonymous

    I don’t care, I speak American!

    Just a whimsical two cents worth.

  • http://www.acid-product.co.uk Ian Davies

    Aluminium…?

    I’ll just leave that there…

  • http://connerk.tumblr.com Kevin Conner

    Language is not a formal system. Language is emergent from social interactions. It was not invented by a guy with a pen and paper. Who cares how they said it so long as you don’t have trouble understanding them?