NewsBlues mrsbgrammar Page 96
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Mrs. Bluezette's Grammar Guide
compliment/complement
Have you ever seen an ad like this?
Number one station looking for a morning anchor to
"compliment" our male anchor.
Good luck!
Who's going to want to sit beside a man and tell him how wonderful
he is.
"Compliment" with an "i" means to praise someone.
"Complement" with an "e" means to complete or to enhance
something.
So if you news directors want a male and female anchor team, you
might get more applications with an ad like this:
Number one station looking for a morning anchor to
COMPLEMENT our male anchor.
It's probably something to do with EEOC or being politically correct
to use such doubletalk, but at least use it correctly, youse guys.
Then, again, maybe you really are looking for a female whose
primary function is to suck up to an insecure Ted Baxter beside her.
Tsk, tsk, Mrs. B.
