czenglish-bigCzenglish

The backside vs. The back

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WRONG: The backside of the building is ugly.
RIGHT: The back of the building is ugly.

Another week’s Czenglish mistake, another funny moment for the English teacher!

The word backside – especially in Britain – is a synonym for the part of your body that is just below your back. Your bottom, or er, bum. So if you refer to other things as having a backside, it sounds like you are talking about that particular body part!

In the example, ‘The backside of the building is ugly’, it sounds like the building has a bum! So instead, what you should you say is simply – The back of the building is ugly.

The same goes, for example, for the back of the book. We say – the back of the book, not the backside of the book!

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