Best examples of tautology

Where is the typo?

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Should be complimentary, not complementary - the latter implies completion, making things whole or complete. The former means free, flattering, favourable and is the word that ought to be used in this case.

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Thanks! I knew complimentary was giving a compliment but I’d always used complementary for free things. Now I know better!

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It was water that told you how great you were. At no cost…

I’m not sure what you would do if someone had a set of spanners but with one size missing, and you gave them the missing size for free. I suppose it would be a complimentary complementary spanner.

Was it in India?

I develop reports in JasperSoft and they have the priceless error message ‘Please excuse the inconvenience’. I wonder if Inconvenience is a person. ‘Please excuse’ sounds tautologous to me.

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Ipswich!

??

Ipswich, is a corruption of its original Anglo Saxon name Gippeswic. that means trading town on the River Gipping. The River Gipping flows into Ipswich and turns into the River Orwell at Stoke Bridge in Ipswich.

Of course it could be complementary if it’s free water to go with the expensive paid for room and the intention is to give you the full luxury experience of not being thirsty in such a setting…

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My mind’s gone blank. I just can’t think of one.

G

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I beg to differ! Caernarfon is at the mouth of the Afon Seiont, but Arfon is the district of which the town is the administrative centre.

PAT test

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The mouth of the Seiont is Aber Seiont, not Arfon.

Arfon is named after the town and is a corruption of Afon (don’t forget that in North Welsh pronunciation, there is very little difference between Afon a Arfon).

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Aber means the mouth or confluence of a river, but that is of no relevance to the term Avon.

I’m sorry, but Arfon is the name of the district forming part of the N. Coast of Gwynedd, the name has been around for a very long time, and is nothing to do with the word Afon. As for pronunciation, the R in Arfon is very clearly enunciated in Welsh speech, and I’d say it’s very unlikely that the two words would be easily confused.

I have lived there!

The La Brea Tar Pits

“La Brea” is Spanish for “The Tar,” hence “The The Tar Tar Pits”

Cannot believe nobody mentioned koala bear yet!

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Hause Gate.

Unfilled vacancy

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I have an account with the ASB Bank. ASB stood for Auckland Savings Bank. I withdraw cash from an ATM machine by entering my PIN number.

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