Sign of the (Covid19) Times

This sign was encountered at the entrance to a trail in Mission Trails Regional Park last year. While the drawings  illustrate what the directions say on the sign, the language used in the sign is far from simple and easy to understand. In addition, the structure of the first two 'sentences' is not in a parallel form with the remaining four sentences. The first sentence is not a complete sentence. It should read, "Use  passively for walking, jogging, or hiking." And the second points should read, "Do not congregate or participate in sports activities."  

"Passive use only, such as walking, jogging, or hiking."  How are these activities, passive?  

Now, it's 2022 and a new year. I'm not sure what signs are hanging now. Good to have some documentation of these signs as our descendants may have difficulty believing our stories 50 years from now. 

Some Funny Mistakes on Signs in English

This is a link to a blogpost at Miramar College's (San Diego, CA) English Center blog site from a workshop held there last year (Grammar Mistakes from Workshop at Miramar College). It contains some entertaining photos illustrating common mistakes in spelling which reflect poor English grammar.  Because spelling and pronunciation are not closely linked in English, it is easy to make these mistakes. A spellchecker won't necessarily catch these errors because the mistaken words are correctly spelled, but misused in context.

Play, Blow, Break, Split, Run, Fly, Fall, Light

I am a big fan of vocabulary building, so I am always looking for ways to squeeze a little extra vocabulary into any class.  This is a great lesson for any level, primarily to illustrate how single words in English can have several  meanings. This particular activity ties in well to Picturing English as it appeals very much to the visual language learner.  

You could also use this activity in a grammar class.  Students can ask each other questions using the vocabulary. Blow, break, split, run, fly, fall, and light are irregular verb forms. Play is a regular verb that ends with a "y" but it's preceded by a vowel. The spelling of the past tense or past participle, then, is "played", not "plaied." You can use the video as an opportunity to review a small set of irregular verbs plus their past tense and participial forms. In addition, the students get to see how these irregular verbs come up in every day life and why it's a good idea to learn them.