Why would anyone, especially one who is an alleged professional writer, think that often times is correct?
The word is oftentimes. But the writer could have used ofttimes or the simpler often.
Maybe I’m expecting too much from this writer, because in the same article on Yahoo! Shine she apparently thinks gentleman is a plural and as modeling by is correct:
Oftentimes, the writers at Yahoo! Shine add a space to the adverb:
As two words, it makes no sense. A better option? Use oftentimes, the shorter often, or the quaint ofttimes.
Oftentimes on the Web a character appears out of nowhere, dividing a perfectly fine word into two meaningless words. And it happens often on Yahoo! Shine:
And then, like magic, hyphens disappear from compound adjectives (like once-cute and 30-second).
Mysteriously in the same article, a capital letter in a title goes missing and worse, the apostrophe in the possessive boyfriend’s goes astray:
It’s all a great mystery. How do alleged professional writers add, subtract, and alter characters with such impunity?
The correct word is oftentimes or even the quaint ofttimes. But as two words, it just doesn’t make sense, as illustrated by this excerpt from Yahoo! Shine:
The shorter, less formal often might have been a better choice. As for “go dutch,” the dictionaries I use prefer “go Dutch” — but maybe that’s too formal for the Internet.
Terribly Write 