Saturday, February 18, 2012

It's usually -eur, except for when it's -uer

In this article, ("New Westminster man saves woman from house fire" on CBC News online on February 12, 2012), David's last name is written six times. It starts as Francoeur in the subheadline and

is also Francoeur in the article's second sentence. But, in the fourth sentence,

the U and E get swapped and his last name becomes Francouer. Then,

in the article's eighth sentence, it's back to the original spelling. However,

it's back to the altered spelling in the very next sentence. And finally,

in the 11th sentence, the final spelling is the original spelling. For the record, the spelling of his last name in the article's photo caption - which would be the seventh time written - is Francoeur. After doing some quick math here (2+2=5, carry the 1, multiply by pi), the last name is written five times as Francoeur and twice as Francouer. Also, it makes me think back to when Sports Illustrated made this same error almost four years ago, during this blog's pre-images era.

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