Alton Towers/Merlin Typos & Grammatical Errors

[Thameslink Rail]

From the video @Joeythorpe posted in the Thorpe thread:

Not quite sure what either layer of text says...

 

[AT86]

With additional paid ticket

21st July to 28th August

 

[rob666]

Can't blame either Towers or Merlin for that one.

 

[Jonathan]

You’d think Merlin would get signs right from day 1, but…Oh, who am I kidding? I’m not even surprised at this point.

 

[rob666]

There is nothing wrong with that sign, sorry!
"ary" or "ery"...both absolutely correct.
Looked it up some days ago.
A place that sells confections.
Do keep up.

 

[NuttySquirrel]

There is nothing wrong with that sign, sorry!
"ary" or "ery"...both absolutely correct.
Looked it up some days ago.
A place that sells confections.
Do keep up.

Yeah it's true, confectionary is defined on the Collins dictionary as "a place where confections are kept or made".

Given what we know of Merlin's track record in this area though, it wouldn't be unreasonable to suppose that someone didn't know the difference and just got lucky.

 

[Thameslink Rail]

1. Please check what the ride is actually called
2. Times running out should be time's running out

 

[Matt N]

After my recent weekend at Alton Towers, I have a couple to point out.

The first is this one I found on Oblivion, which divided opinion amongst me and my dad:

I thought this one was incorrect; in my view, I thought it should have said “rocketing at 110kph” rather than “rocketing a 110kph” like it does. However, my dad seemed to think that it was correct; he saw it as saying “rocketing a hundred and ten kilometres per hour”, so he thought it was right.

Am I correct in saying that that sign has a typo in it? Or is my dad correct, and I’m being overly pedantic?

I also noticed a couple of typos in this page of the Alton Manor photo book:

I don’t know if I’m being massively pedantic here, but I personally noticed:

• “Long ago, in the Alton Towers lived the Alton family”, should have an extra comma; I feel like it should be “Long ago, in the Alton Towers, lived the Alton family”.
• “The Alton’s believed children should be seen and not heard” should be “The Altons believed children should be seen and not heard”; I think I’m correct in saying that the apostrophe would only be used if referring to something belonging to someone called Alton.
• Shouldn’t “1911, it was a stormy night” be something along the lines of “In 1911, it was a stormy night” or “It was a stormy night in 1911”? The current form of the sentence sounds a bit weird to me, although that could be me being massively pedantic, as I say.

 

[Zeock]

After my recent weekend at Alton Towers, I have a couple to point out.

The first is this one I found on Oblivion, which divided opinion amongst me and my dad:

I thought this one was incorrect; in my view, I thought it should have said “rocketing at 110kph” rather than “rocketing a 110kph” like it does. However, my dad seemed to think that it was correct; he saw it as saying “rocketing a hundred and ten kilometres per hour”, so he thought it was right.

Am I correct in saying that that sign has a typo in it? Or is my dad correct, and I’m being overly pedantic?

I also noticed a couple of typos in this page of the Alton Manor photo book:

I don’t know if I’m being massively pedantic here, but I personally noticed:

• “Long ago, in the Alton Towers lived the Alton family”, should have an extra comma; I feel like it should be “Long ago, in the Alton Towers, lived the Alton family”.
• “The Alton’s believed children should be seen and not heard” should be “The Altons believed children should be seen and not heard”; I think I’m correct in saying that the apostrophe would only be used if referring to something belonging to someone called Alton.
• Shouldn’t “1911, it was a stormy night” be something along the lines of “In 1911, it was a stormy night” or “It was a stormy night in 1911”? The current form of the sentence sounds a bit weird to me, although that could be me being massively pedantic, as I say.

Also, it's not 1911, but 1891 when the events of Alton Manor occur.

 

[Squiggs]

After my recent weekend at Alton Towers, I have a couple to point out.

The first is this one I found on Oblivion, which divided opinion amongst me and my dad:

I thought this one was incorrect; in my view, I thought it should have said “rocketing at 110kph” rather than “rocketing a 110kph” like it does. However, my dad seemed to think that it was correct; he saw it as saying “rocketing a hundred and ten kilometres per hour”, so he thought it was right.

Am I correct in saying that that sign has a typo in it? Or is my dad correct, and I’m being overly pedantic?

I also noticed a couple of typos in this page of the Alton Manor photo book:

I don’t know if I’m being massively pedantic here, but I personally noticed:

• “Long ago, in the Alton Towers lived the Alton family”, should have an extra comma; I feel like it should be “Long ago, in the Alton Towers, lived the Alton family”.
• “The Alton’s believed children should be seen and not heard” should be “The Altons believed children should be seen and not heard”; I think I’m correct in saying that the apostrophe would only be used if referring to something belonging to someone called Alton.
• Shouldn’t “1911, it was a stormy night” be something along the lines of “In 1911, it was a stormy night” or “It was a stormy night in 1911”? The current form of the sentence sounds a bit weird to me, although that could be me being massively pedantic, as I say.

The Oblivion one is definitely a spelling mistake, the context is wrong for them to use 'a'... though I can see where your dad is coming from. If they were writing a poem, 'a' could be correct, but this is an info sign.

I think the comma situation is a very grey area. Arguably, it's more of a style issue than anything else - I expect people could argue both ways. The thing that sticks out more is "the Alton Towers". The definite article here seems wrong; there is a grammatical construct that could allow that to be right, but it seems unlikely in that situation. Also, unless I'm missing something, surely that should be Alton Manor.

The Alton's is wrong for exactly the reason you said. But the last one could be a dramatic flourish and therefore correct.

 

[NuttySquirrel]

After my recent weekend at Alton Towers, I have a couple to point out.

The first is this one I found on Oblivion, which divided opinion amongst me and my dad:

I thought this one was incorrect; in my view, I thought it should have said “rocketing at 110kph” rather than “rocketing a 110kph” like it does. However, my dad seemed to think that it was correct; he saw it as saying “rocketing a hundred and ten kilometres per hour”, so he thought it was right.

Am I correct in saying that that sign has a typo in it? Or is my dad correct, and I’m being overly pedantic?

I also noticed a couple of typos in this page of the Alton Manor photo book:

I don’t know if I’m being massively pedantic here, but I personally noticed:

• “Long ago, in the Alton Towers lived the Alton family”, should have an extra comma; I feel like it should be “Long ago, in the Alton Towers, lived the Alton family”.
• “The Alton’s believed children should be seen and not heard” should be “The Altons believed children should be seen and not heard”; I think I’m correct in saying that the apostrophe would only be used if referring to something belonging to someone called Alton.
• Shouldn’t “1911, it was a stormy night” be something along the lines of “In 1911, it was a stormy night” or “It was a stormy night in 1911”? The current form of the sentence sounds a bit weird to me, although that could be me being massively pedantic, as I say.

They didn't live in Alton Towers, they lived in Alton Manor. Different dwellings.

And laugher should be laughter.

The getting the date wrong thing is annoying, in some places is 1891, some 1892 and here 1911. Really bungled and not hard to get right.

 

[Zeock]

Isn't 'Plage' meant to be 'Plague'?

 

[rob666]

Maybe the children were killed by a french beach, and it is correct after all.

 

[Skyscraper]

Isn't 'Plage' meant to be 'Plague'?

Old English I think.

 

[rob666]

Not in any of my dictionaries it isn't.
Just Merlin, again.

 

[Earthwürm]

Isn't that one of the original stones? Predates Merlin by a long way if so.

 

[NuttySquirrel]

Old English I think.

I mean sure, spelling wasn't standardised until around the eighteenth century so that's a valid argument, but we're talking about Merlin here...

 

[Skyscraper]

we're talking about Merlin here...

Not quite, I'm pretty sure it's one of the original Tussauds Haunted House stones as @Earthwürm said.

 

[Squiggs]

Wikitionary has it listed a Middle English spelling for Plague, so clearly Tussauds were not the only one using this spelling.

Seems an odd choice to have made though, given that the surname Hague is very much a thing.

 

[Zeock]

The gravestone has the dates '1804-1882'.
Surely the spelling would be standardised as 'Plague' by then?