I think a private note is nicer, especially if it's not someone you know. And my usual approach is to copy the paragraph and say something like, "It looked to me like you wanted to say X instead of Y" or "Did you maybe mean X instead of Y?"

If it's an author I know well, and it's one small error in an otherwise correct fic, I might point it out in a comments thread.

Or, privately, with a friend, I can skip that wink and just say Typo Alert!

Typos happen to everyone, but I always operate on the assumption that the author would like to *know* about the problem so he/she can *fix* it. smile

PJ

"You told me you weren't like other men," she said, shaking her head at him when the storm of laughter had passed.
He grinned at her - a goofy, Clark Kent kind of a grin. "I have a gift for understatement."
"You can say that again," she told him.
"I have a...."
"Oh, shut up."

--Stardust, Caroline K