People send quite a few word confusions which don't seem worth
writing up but which are nevertheless entertaining or interesting. I
simply list a number of these below for your amusement.

What was said What was meant

a stigmatism astigmatism

abolishment abolition

abraded upbraided

acrosst across

ad homonym ad hominem

aerobic numbers Arabic numbers

affidavid affidavit

alphabeticalize alphabetize

altercations alterations

alterior ulterior

ambliance ambulance

anachronism acronym

anchors away anchors aweigh

anticlimatic anticlimactic

aperpos a propos

apples and organs apples and oranges

arm's way harm's way

artical article

as a pose to as opposed to

ashfault asphalt

assessible accessible

assumably presumably

at leased at least

authoritarian source authoritative source

back round background

balling out bawling out

based around based on

batter an eyelid bat an eyelid

beautify a saint beatify a saint

begs belief beggars belief

besiege beseech

beyond approach beyond reproach

bids well bids fair, bodes well

binded bound

bled like a stuffed pig bledlike a stuck pig

blessing in the sky blessing in disguise

blindsighted blindsided

a board of director a member of a board of directors

boom to the economy boon to the economy

bored of bored with

bowl in a china shop bull in a china shop

bran new brand new

built off of built on or upon

BVD player DVD player

by in large or enlarge by and large

Cadillac converter catalytic converter

card shark cardsharp

carport tunnel carpal tunnel

case and point case in point

cease and decease cease and desist

cease the day seize the day

cheap at half the price cheap at twice the price

chalked full chock-full

chester drawers chest of drawers

chicken pops chicken pox

chomp at the bit champ at the bit

chow ciao

circus sized circumcised

clearified clarified

collaborating evidence corroborating evidence

component opponent

conservative effort concerted effort

conversate converse

coronated crowned

coronet cornet

cortage cortege

coruscating excoriating

coup de gras coup de grace

a couple guys a couple of guys

cream de mint creme de menthe

crimp my style cramp my style

crossified crucified

culvert sack cul de sac

cumberbun cummerbund

cursing through his coursing through his
veins veins

cut to the chaff cut to the chase

darkest before the darkest before the dawn storm

day in age day and age

dead wringer dead ringer

debockle debacle

decidated dedicated

deformation of character defamation of character

deja vous deja vu

Samuel R. Delaney Samuel R. Delany

detrius detritus

diabolically opposed diametrically opposed

dialate dilate

differ to defer to

diswraught distraught

doggy dog world dog-eat-dog world

do to due to

documentated documented

dottering doddering

down the pipe down the pike

dresser draw dresser drawer

drownded drowned

drownding drowning

drudged up dredged up

dry reach dry retch

electorial college electoral college

end justifies the end justifies the means
meaning

enervate energize

escape goat scapegoat

esculate escalate

exasperated exacerbated

excape escape

exhilarator accelerator

expecially especially

expeculation speculation

expediate expedite

exuberant price exorbitant price

eyesaw eyesore

fair to midland fair to middling

far and few between few and far between

fast majority vast majority

fate accommpli fait accompli

fathom a guess hazard a guess

Federal Drug Food and Drug Administration
Administration

final throws final throes

first come, first serve first come, first served

flaw in the ointment fly in the ointment

flustrated frustrated

foilage foliage

foul swoop fell swoop

Franklin Delanor Franklin Delano
Roosevelt Roosevelt

frentic fanatic or frenetic

garner wages garnish wages

gave me slack gave me flak

genuses genera

gentile manners genteel manners

gentlelady gentlewoman

glaucomole glaucoma

glaze over gloss over

gleam glean

gone array gone awry

got my dandruff up got my dander up

grant it granted

greatfruit grapefruit

harbringer harbinger

harps back harks back

hare's breath hair's breadth

heared heard

heart-rendering heart-rending

hearst hearse

Heineken remover Heimlich maneuver

here on end here on in

high dungeon high dudgeon

hobbiest hobbyist

hold down the fort hold the fort

howsomever however

hurtles to overcome hurdles to overcome

I seen I saw or I've seen

ice tea iced tea

ideallic ideal or idyllic

if I don't say so if I do say so

imbedded embedded

impaling doom impending doom

imput input

in another words in other words

in lieu of in light of

in loo of in lieu of

in mass en masse

in sink in synch

in tact intact

in the same vane or vain in the same vein

incredulous incredible

indiscrepancy discrepancy

insinnuendo insinuation or innuendo

insuremountable insurmountable

internally grateful eternally grateful

International Workers Industrial Workers of the World
of the World (IWW)

intragul integral

Issac Isaac

it's beggars belief it beggars belief

ivy tower ivory tower

jack of all traits jack of all trades

jaundra genre

jest of the idea gist of the idea

just assume just as soon

kindly kind of

kit gloves kid gloves

Klu Klux Klan Ku Klux Klan

lacksadaisical lackadaisical

lamblasted, landblasted lambasted

land up end up, land

landlover landlubber

lapse into a comma lapse into a coma

larnyx larynx

laxidaisical lackadaisical

livelyhood livelihood

love nuts lug nuts

love one and other love one another

low and behold lo and behold

ludicrust ludicrous

make head or tale make head or tail

malice of forethought malice aforethought

masonary masonry

make ends meat make ends meet

mean time meantime

menestrate menstruate

meter out justice mete out justice

mix words mince words

misconscrew misconstrue

mister meaner misdemeanor

momento memento

muncho man macho man

muriel mural

myocardial infraction myocardial infarction

new leash on life new lease on life

neck in neck neck and neck

nitch niche

no bars held no holds barred

Nobel lariat Nobel laureate

notary republic notary public

odiferous odoriferous

off my own back off my own bat

oject d'art objet d'art

on mass en masse

on the same hand on the other hand, by the same token

once and a while once in a while

overhauls overalls

overjealous overzealous

pacific specific

pain-staking painstaking

pair of parenthesis pair of parentheses

palatable feeling palpable feeling

parody of virtue paragon of virtue

part in parcel part and parcel

pastorial pastoral

patriarticle patriarchal

peacemeal piecemeal

pedastool pedestal

pension penchant

pentacle of his career pinnacle of his career

peon of praise paean of praise

permiscuous promiscuous

periphial peripheral

perk up its ears prick up its ears

perscription prescription

Peruvian interest prurient interest

perverbial proverbial

phantom it fathom it

pick fun poke fun or pick on

pillow to post pillar to post

pin a finger pin the blame on, point a finger at

play it by year play it by ear

plentitude plenitude

poison ivory poison ivy

portentious portentous

poultrygeist poltergeist

pratfall pitfall

predominately predominantly

prevaricate procrastinate

prevert pervert

prolong the inevitable delay the inevitable

protagonist proponent

punkin, pumkin pumpkin

radical chick radical chic

ramsack ransack

ranking file rank and file

readdress the balance redress the balance

radioactive increase retroactive increase

rebel rouser rabble rouser

recreate the wheel reinvent the wheel

repel rappel

repungent repugnant

rockweiler rottweiler

roiling boil rolling boil

rot or rod iron wrought iron

rubble rousing rabble rousing

run rapid run rampant

seizure salad Caesar salad

self of steam self-esteem

self-defacing self-effacing

sense of false security false sense of security

sequences sequins

shock ways shockwaves

short sided shortsighted

should've went should have gone

shutter to think shudder to think

similiar or simular similar


six and a half of one, six of one,
a dozen of the other half a dozen of the other

skewer the results skew the results

skiddish skittish

sleep acnea sleep apnea

slither of cake sliver of cake

smack dad smack dab

smashed potatoes mashed potatoes

smoking mirrors smoke and mirrors

smothered onions smothered with onions

soak and wet soaking wet

something or rather something or other

somulent somnolent

sorted past or story sordid past or story

stain glass stained glass

stainless teal stainless steel

stolled stole

strident stringent

strum up support drum up support

subsiding on subsisting on

substantative substantive

sufficive to say it suffices to say

supremist supremacist

tactile squad tactical squad

techknowledgy technology

terminity temerity

thankyou thank you

Theolonius Monk Thelonious Monk

thread a fine line tread a fine line

Tiajuna Tijuana

tie me over tide me over

times the number multiply the number

tittering on the brink teetering on the brink

to each's own to each his own

took it for granite took it for granted

trader to the cause traitor to the cause

two sense worth two cents' worth

turpentime turpentine

tyrannical yolk tyrannical yoke

udderly utterly

unloosen loosen

unchartered territory uncharted territory

up and Adam up and at 'em

upgraded upbraided

Valentimes Valentines

valevictorian valedictorian

vaulted vaunted

verbage verbiage

very close veins varicose veins

viadock viaduct

visa versa vice versa

vocal chords vocal cords

voiceterous boisterous

vunerable vulnerable

wait ago way to go

weary wary

wheedle down whittle down

whelp welt

wideth width

Wimbleton Wimbledon

windshield factor wind chill factor

witch which

without further adieu without further ado

whoa is me woe is me

wolf in cheap clothing wolf in sheep's clothing

world-renown world-renowned

worldwind whirlwind

worse case scenario worst-case scenario

worth its weight in worth its salt, or worth its weight in gold salt

worth wild worthwhile

Here is a list of some of the most commonly misspelled words in English
which I consider not interesting enough to write up as separate entries.
These are the correct spellings. Reading over the list probably won't
improve your spelling much, but choosing a few which you find
troublesome to write out correctly a few times may.

absence, abundance, accessible, accidentally, acclaim, accommodate,
accomplish, accordion, accumulate, achievement, acquaintance, across,
address, advertisement, aggravate, alleged, annual, apparent,
appearance, argument, atheist, athletics, attendance, auxiliary,
balloon, barbecue, barbiturate, bargain, basically, beggar, beginning,
believe, biscuit, bouillon, boundary, Britain, business, calendar,
camouflage, cantaloupe, cemetery, chagrined, challenge, characteristic,
changing, chief, cigarette, climbed, collectible, colonel, colossal,
column, coming, committee, commitment, comparative, competent,
completely, concede, conceive, condemn, condescend, conscientious,
consciousness, consistent, continuous, controlled, convenient, coolly,
corollary, correlate, correspondence, counselor, courteous, courtesy,
criticize, deceive, defendant, deferred, dependent, descend,
description, desirable, despair, desperate, develop, development,
difference, dilemma, dining, disappearance, disappoint, disastrous,
discipline, disease, dispensable, dissatisfied, doesn't, dominant,
drunkenness, easily, ecstasy, efficiency, eighth, either, eligible,
enemy, entirely, equipped, equivalent, especially, exaggerate, exceed,
excellence, excellent, exhaust, existence, expense, experience,
experiment, explanation, extremely, exuberance, fallacious, fallacy,
familiar, fascinate, fictitious, finally, financially, fluorescent,
forcibly, foreign, forfeit, formerly, forty, fourth, fulfill,
fundamentally, gauge, generally, genius, government, governor, grievous,
guarantee, guerrilla, guidance, handkerchief, happily, harass, height,
heinous, hemorrhage, heroes, hesitancy, hindrance, hoarse, hoping,
humorous, hypocrisy, hypocrite, ideally, idiosyncrasy, ignorance,
imaginary, immediately, implement, incidentally, incredible,
independence, independent, indicted, indispensable, inevitable,
influential, information, inoculate, insurance, intelligence, intercede,
interference, interrupt, introduce, irrelevant, irresistible, island,
jealousy, judicial, knowledge, laboratory, legitimate, leisure, length,
lenient, liaison, license, lieutenant, likelihood, likely, longitude,
loneliness, losing, lovely, luxury, magazine, maintain, maintenance,
manageable, maneuver, marriage, mathematics, medicine, millennium,
millionaire, miniature, minuscule, minutes, mischievous, missile,
misspelled, mortgage, mosquito, mosquitoes, murmur, muscle, mysterious,
narrative, naturally, necessary, necessity, neighbor, neutron, ninety,
ninth, noticeable, nowadays, nuisance, obedience, obstacle, occasion,
occasionally, occurred, occurrence, official, omission, omit, omitted,
opinion, opponent, opportunity, oppression, optimism, ordinarily,
origin, original, outrageous, overrun, panicky, parallel, parliament,
particularly, pavilion, peaceable, peculiar, penetrate, perceive,
performance, permanent, permissible, permitted, perseverance,
persistence, physical, physician, picnicking, piece, pilgrimage,
pitiful, planning, pleasant, portray, possess, possessive, potato,
potatoes, practically, prairie, preference, preferred, prejudice,
preparation, prescription, prevalent, primitive, privilege, probably,
procedure, proceed, professor, prominent, pronounce, pronunciation,
propaganda, psychology, publicly, pursue, quandary, quarantine,
questionnaire, quizzes, realistically, realize, really, recede, receipt,
receive, recognize, recommend, reference, referred, relevant, relieving,
religious, remembrance, reminiscence, renege, repetition,
representative, resemblance, reservoir, resistance, restaurant,
rheumatism, rhythm, rhythmical, roommate, sacrilegious, sacrifice,
safety, salary, satellite, scary, scenery, schedule, secede, secretary,
seize, sentence, separate, sergeant, several, shepherd, shining,
similar, simile, simply, sincerely, skiing, soliloquy, sophomore,
souvenir, specifically, specimen, sponsor, spontaneous, statistics,
stopped, strategy, strength, strenuous, stubbornness, subordinate,
subtle, succeed, success, succession, sufficient, supersede, suppress,
surprise, surround, susceptible, suspicious, syllable, symmetrical,
synonymous, tangible, technical, technique, temperature, tendency,
themselves, theories, therefore, thorough, though, through, till,
tomorrow, tournament, tourniquet, transferred, truly, twelfth, tyranny,
unanimous, unnecessary, until, usage, usually, vacuum, valuable,
vengeance, vigilant, village, villain, violence, visible, warrant,
Wednesday, weird, wherever, wholly, yacht, yield, zoology

(Those usages people keep telling you are wrong but which
are actually standard in English.)

Split infinitives

For the hyper-critical, "to boldly go where no man has gone before"
should be " to go boldly. . . ." It is good to be aware that inserting
one or more words between "to" and a verb is not strictly speaking an
error, and is often more expressive and graceful than moving the
intervening words elsewhere; but so many people are offended by split
infinitives that it is better to avoid them except when the alternatives
sound strained and awkward.

Ending a sentence with a preposition

A fine example of an artificial "rule" which ignores standard usage. The
famous witticism usually attributed to Winston Churchill makes the point
well: "This is the sort of pedantry up with which I cannot put."

See "The American Heritage Book of English Usage" at
http://www.bartleby.com/64/C001/050.html. Jack Lynch has some sensible
comments on this issue:
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/p.html#prepend.

The saying attributed to Winston Churchill rejecting the rule against
ending a sentence with a preposition must be among the most frequently
mutated witticisms ever. I have received many notes from correspondents
claiming to know what the "original saying" was, but none of them cites
an authoritative source.

The alt.english.usage FAQ states that the story originated with an
anecdote in Sir Ernest Gowers' Plain Words (1948). Supposedly an editor
had clumsily rearranged one of Churchill's sentences to avoid ending it
in a preposition, and the Prime Minister, very proud of his style,
scribbled this note in reply: "This is the sort of English up with which
I will not put." The American Heritage Book of English Usage agrees.

The FAQ goes on to say that the Oxford Companion to the English Language
(no edition cited) states that the original was "This is the sort of
bloody nonsense up with which I will not put." To me this sounds more
likely, and eagerness to avoid the offensive word "bloody" would help to
explain the proliferation of variations.

A quick search of the Internet turned up an astonishing number. In this
era of copy-and-paste it's truly unusual to find such rich variety. The
narrative context varies too: sometimes the person rebuked by Churchill
is a correspondent, a speech editor, a bureaucrat, or an audience member
at a speech and sometimes it is a man, sometimes a woman, and sometimes
even a young student. Sometimes Churchill writes a note, sometimes he
scribbles the note on the corrected manuscript, and often he is said to
have spoken the rebuke aloud. The text concerned was variously a book
manuscript, a speech, an article, or a government document.

Here is just a sample of the variations circulating on the Net:

1. That is a rule up with which I will not put. 2. This is the
kind of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put. 3. This is the
type of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put. 4. Not ending a
sentence with a preposition is a bit of arrant pedantry up with which I
will not put. 5. That is the sort of nonsense up with which I will
not put 6. This is insubordination, up with which I will not put!
7. This is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put.
8. This is the sort of thing up with which I will not put.
9. Madame, that is a rule up with which I shall not put.

One poor soul, unfamiliar with the word "arrant," came up with: "That is
the sort of errant criticism up with which I will not put."

Then there are those who get it so scrambled it comes out backward:

1. Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I
will not put. 2. Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up
with which we will not put. 3. From now on, ending a sentence with a
preposition is something up with which I will not put. 4. Please
understand that ending a sentence with a preposition is something up
with which I shall not put.

I checked the indexes of a dozen Churchill biographies, but none of them
had an entry for "prepositions."

Ben Zimmer has presented evidence on the alt.usage.english list that
this story was not originally attributed to Churchill at all, but to an
anonymous official in an article in "The Strand" magazine. Since
Churchill often contributed to "The Strand," Zimmer argues, it would
certainly have identified him if he had been the official in question.
It is not clear how the anecdote came to be attributed to Churchill by
Gowers, but it seems to have circulated independently earlier.

Beginning a sentence with a conjunction

It offends those who wish to confine English usage in a logical
straitjacket that writers often begin sentences with "and" or "but."
True, one should be aware that many such sentences would be improved by
becoming clauses in compound sentences; but there are many effective and
traditional uses for beginning sentences thus. One example is the reply
to a previous assertion in a dialogue: "But, my dear Watson, the
criminal obviously wore expensive boots or he would not have taken such
pains to scrape them clean." Make it a rule to consider whether your
conjunction would repose more naturally within the previous sentence or
would lose in useful emphasis by being demoted from its position at the
head of a new sentence.

Using "between" for only two, "among" for more

The "-tween" in "between" is clearly linked to the number two; but, as
the Oxford English Dictionary notes, "In all senses, between has, from
its earliest appearance, been extended to more than two." We're talking
about Anglo-Saxon here--early. Pedants have labored to enforce "among"
when there are three or more objects under discussion, but largely in
vain. Even the pickiest speaker does not naturally say, "A treaty has
been negotiated among England, France, and Germany."

Over vs. more than.

Some people insist that "over" cannot be used to signify "more than," as
in "Over a thousand baton-twirlers marched in the parade." "Over," they
insist, always refers to something physically higher: say, the blimp
hovering over the parade route. This absurd distinction ignores the role
metaphor plays in language. If I write 1 on the blackboard and 10 beside
it, 10 is still the "higher" number. "Over" has been used in the sense
of "more than" for over a thousand years.

Feeling bad

"I feel bad" is standard English, as in "This t-shirt smells bad" (not
"badly"). "I feel badly" is an incorrect hyper-correction by people who
think they know better than the masses. People who are happy can
correctly say they feel good, but if they say they feel well, we know
they mean to say they're healthy.

Forward vs. forwards

Although some style books prefer "forward" and "toward" to "forwards"
and "towards," none of these forms is really incorrect, though the forms
without the final "S" are perhaps a smidgen more formal. The spelling
"foreword" applies exclusively to the introductory matter in a book.

Gender/sex

When discussing males and females, feminists wanting to remove
references to sexuality from contexts which don't involve mating or
reproduction revived an older meaning of "gender" which had come to
refer in modern times chiefly to language, as a synonym for "sex" in
phrases such as "Our goal is to achieve gender equality." Americans,
always nervous about sex, eagerly embraced this usage, which is now
standard. In some scholarly fields, "sex" is used to label biologically
determined aspects of maleness and femaleness (reproduction, etc.) while
"gender" refers to their socially determined aspects (behavior,
attitudes, etc.); but in ordinary speech this distinction is not always
maintained. It is disingenuous to pretend that people who use "gender"
in the new senses are making an error, just as it is disingenuous to
maintain that "Ms." means "manuscript" (that's "MS" ). Nevertheless, I
must admit I was startled to discover that the tag on my new trousers
describes not only their size and color, but their "gender."

Using "who" for people, "that" for animals and inanimate objects.

In fact there are many instances in which the most conservative usage is
to refer to a person using "that": "All the politicians that were at the
party later denied even knowing the host" is actually somewhat more
traditional than the more popular "politicians who." An aversion to
"that" referring to human beings as somehow diminishing their humanity
may be praiseworthily sensitive, but it cannot claim the authority of
tradition. In some sentences, "that" is clearly preferable to "who":
"She is the only person I know of that prefers whipped cream on her
granola." In the following example, to exchange "that" for "who" would
be absurd: "Who was it that said, 'A woman without a man is like a fish
without a bicycle'?"*

*Commonly attributed to Gloria Steinem, but she attributes it to Irina
Dunn.

"Since" cannot mean "because."

"Since" need not always refer to time. Since the 14th century, when it
was often spelled "syn," it has also meant "seeing that" or "because."

Hopefully

This word has meant "it is to be hoped" for a very long time, and those
who insist it can only mean "in a hopeful fashion" display more
hopefulness than realism.

Momentarily

"The plane will be landing momentarily" says the flight attendant, and
the grumpy grammarian in seat 36B thinks to himself, "So we're going to
touch down for just a moment?" Everyone else thinks, "Just a moment now
before we land." Back in the 1920s when this use of "momentarily" was
first spreading on both sides of the Atlantic, one might have been
accused of misusing the word; but by now it's listed without comment as
one of the standard definitions in most dictionaries.

Lend vs. loan

"Loan me your hat" was just as correct everywhere as "lend me your ears"
until the British made "lend" the preferred verb, relegating "loan" to
the thing being lent. However, as in so many cases, Americans kept the
older pattern, which in its turn has influenced modern British usage so
that those insisting that "loan" can only be a noun are in the minority.

Scan vs. skim

Those who insist that "scan" can never be a synonym of "skim" have lost
the battle. It is true that the word originally meant "to scrutinize,"
but it has now evolved into one of those unfortunate words with two
opposite meanings: to examine closely (now rare) and to glance at
quickly (much more common). It would be difficult to say which of these
two meanings is more prominent in the computer-related usage, to "scan a
document."

Near miss

It is futile to protest that "near miss" should be "near collision."
This expression is a condensed version of something like "a miss that
came very near to being a collision," and is similar to "narrow escape."
Everyone knows what is meant by it and almost everyone uses it. It
should be noted that the expression can also be used in the sense of
almost succeeding in striking a desired target: "His Cointreau souffle
was a near miss."

"None" singular vs. plural

Some people insist that since "none" is derived from "no one" it should
always be singular: "none of us is having dessert." However, in standard
usage, the word is most often treated as a plural. "None of us are
having dessert" will do just fine.

Off of

For most Americans, the natural thing to say is "Climb down off of
[pronounced " offa" ] that horse, Tex, with your hands in the air;" but
many UK authorities urge that the "of" should be omitted as redundant.
Where British English reigns you may want to omit the "of" as
superfluous, but common usage in the US has rendered "off of" so
standard as to generally pass unnoticed, though some American
authorities also discourage it in formal writing. But if "onto" makes
sense, so does "off of." However, "off of" meaning "from" in phrases
like "borrow five dollars off of Clarice" is
definitely nonstandard.

Til/until

Since it looks like an abbreviation for "until," some people argue that
this word should always be spelled "'til" (though not all insist on the
apostrophe). However, "till" has regularly occurred as a spelling of
this word for over 800 years and it's actually older than "until." It is
perfectly good English.

"Teenage" vs. "teenaged"

Some people object that the word should be "teenaged," but unlike the
still nonstandard "ice tea" and "stain glass," "teenage" is almost
universally accepted now.

Don't use "reference" to mean "cite."

Nouns are often turned into verbs in English, and "reference" in the
sense "to provide references or citations" has become so widespread that
it's generally acceptable, though some teachers and editors still
object.

unquote/endquote

Some people get upset at the common pattern by which speakers frame a
quotation by saying "quote . . . unquote," insisting that the latter
word should logically be "endquote"; but illogical as it may be,
"unquote" has been used in this way for about a century, and "endquote"
is nonstandard.

Persuade vs. convince

Some people like to distinguish between these two words by insisting
that you persuade people until you have convinced them; but "persuade"
as a synonym for "convince" goes back at least to the 16th century. It
can mean both to attempt to convince and to succeed. It is no longer
common to say things like "I am persuaded that you are an illiterate
fool," but even this usage is not in itself wrong.

Normalcy vs. normality

The word "normalcy" had been around for more than half a century when
President Warren G. Harding was assailed in the newspapers for having
used it in a 1921 speech. Some folks are still upset; but in the US
"normalcy" is a perfectly normal--if uncommon--synonym for "normality."

Aggravate vs. irritate Some people claim that "aggravate" can only mean
"make worse" and should not be used to mean "irritate"; but the latter
has been a valid use of the word for four centuries, and "aggravation"
means almost exclusively "irritation."

You shouldn't pronounce the "e" in "not my forte."

Some people insist that it's an error to pronounce the word "forte" in
the expression "not my forte" as if French-derived "forte" were the same
as the Italian musical term for "loud": "for-tay." But the original
French expression is "pas mon fort," which not only has no "e" on the
end to pronounce--it has a silent "t" as well. It's too bad that when we
imported this phrase we mangled it so badly, but it's too late to do
anything about it now. If you go around saying what sounds like "that's
not my fort," people won't understand what you mean.

However, those who use the phrase to mean "not to my taste" ("Wagnerian
opera is not my forte") are definitely mistaken. Your forte is what
you're good at, not just stuff you like.

"Preventive" is the adjective, "preventative" the noun.

I must say I like the sound of this distinction, but in fact the two are
interchangeable as both nouns and adjectives, though many prefer
"preventive" as being shorter and simpler. "Preventative" used as an
adjective dates back to the 17th century, as does "preventive" as a
noun.

People are healthy; vegetables are healthful.

Logic and tradition are on the side of those who make this distinction,
but I'm afraid phrases like "part of a healthy breakfast" have become so
widespread that they are rarely perceived as erroneous except by the
hyper-correct. On a related though slightly different subject, it is
interesting to note that in English adjectives connected to sensations
in the perceiver of an object or event are often transferred to the
object or event itself. In the 19th century it was not uncommon to
refer, for instance, to a "grateful shower of rain," and we still say "a
gloomy landscape," "a cheerful sight" and "a happy coincidence."

Crops are raised; children are reared.

Old-fashioned writers insist that you raise crops and rear children; but
in modern American English children are usually "raised."

Dinner is done; people are finished.

I pronounce this an antiquated distinction rarely observed in modern
speech. Nobody really supposes the speaker is saying he or she has been
roasted to a turn. In older usage people said, "I have done" to indicate
they had completed an action. "I am done" is not really so very
different.

"You've got mail" should be "you have mail."

The "have" contracted in phrases like this is merely an auxiliary verb,
not an expression of possession. It is not a redundancy. Compare:
"You've sent the mail."

it's "cut the muster," not "cut the mustard."

This etymology seems plausible at first. Its proponents often trace it
to the American Civil War. We do have the analogous expression "to pass
muster," which probably first suggested this alternative; but although
the origins of "cut the mustard" are somewhat obscure, the latter is
definitely the form used in all sorts of writing throughout the
twentieth century. Common sense would suggest that a person cutting a
muster is not someone being selected as fit, but someone eliminating the
unfit.

Here is the article on "cut the mustard" from the "faq" (frequently
asked questions list) of the UseNet newsgroup alt.usage.english:

This expression meaning "to achieve the required standard" is first
recorded in an O. Henry story of 1902: "So I looked around and found a
proposition [a woman] that exactly cut the mustard."

It may come from a cowboy expression, "the proper mustard", meaning "the
genuine thing", and a resulting use of "mustard" to denote the best of
anything. O. Henry in Cabbages and Kings (1894) called mustard "the main
attraction": "I'm not headlined in the bills, but I'm the mustard in the
salad dressing, just the same." Figurative use of "mustard" as a
positive superlative dates from 1659 in the phrase "keen as mustard",
and use of "cut" to denote rank (as in "a cut above") dates from the
18th century.

Other theories are that it is a corruption of the military phrase "to
pass muster" ("muster", from Latin "monstrare"="to show", means "to
assemble (troops), as for inspection"); that it refers to the practice
of adding vinegar to ground-up mustard seed to "cut" the bitter taste;
that it literally means "cut mustard" as an example of a difficult task,
mustard being a relatively tough crop that grows close to the ground;
and that it literally means "cut mustard" as an example of an easy task
(via the negative expression "can't even cut the mustard"), mustard
being easier to cut at the table than butter.

The more-or-less synonymous expression "cut it" (as in "sorry, doesn't
cut it") seems to be more recent and may derive from "cut the mustard".


it's "carrot on a stick," not "carrot or stick."

Authoritative dictionaries agree, the original expression refers to
offering to reward a stubborn mule or donkey with a carrot or
threatening to beat it with a stick and not to a carrot being dangled
from a stick.

The Usenet Newsgroup alt.usage.english has debated this expression
several times. No one there presented definitive evidence, but
dictionaries agree the proper expression is "the carrot or the stick".

One person on the Web mentions an old "Little Rascals" short in which an
animal was tempted to forward motion by a carrot dangling from a stick.
I think the image is much older than that, going back to old magazine
cartoons (certainly older than the animated cartoons referred to by
correspondents on alt.usage.english); but I'll bet that the cartoon idea
stemmed from loose association with the original phrase "the carrot or
the stick" rather than the other way around. An odd variant is the claim
broadcast on National Public Radio March 21, 1999 that one Zebediah
Smith originated this technique of motivating stubborn animals. This is
almost certainly an urban legend.

Note that the people who argue for "carrot on a stick" never cite any
documentable early use of the supposed "correct" expression. For the
record, here's what the Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary has
to say on the subject: "carrot, sb. Add: 1. a. fig. [With allusion to
the proverbial method of tempting a donkey to move by dangling a carrot
before it.] An enticement, a promised or expected reward; freq.
contrasted with "stick" (=punishment) as the alternative."

[Skipping references to uses as early as 1895 which refer only to the
carrot so don't clear up the issue.]

"1948 Economist 11 Dec. 957/2 The material shrinking of rewards and
lightening of penalties, the whittling away of stick and carrot. [Too
bad the Economist's writer switched the order in the second part of this
example, but the distinction is clear.]

"1954 J. A. C. Brown Social Psychol.of Industry i. 15 The tacit
implication that . . . most men . . . are . . . solely motivated by fear
or greed (a motive now described as " the carrot or the stick")

"1963 Listener 21 Feb. 321/2 Once Gomulka had thrown away the stick of
collectivization, he was compelled to rely on the carrot of a price
system favourable to the peasant."

The debate has been confused from time to time by imagining one stick
from which the carrot is dangled and another kept in reserve as a whip;
but I imagine that the original image in the minds of those who
developed this expression was a donkey or mule laden with cargo rather
than being ridden, with its master alternately holding a carrot in front
of the animal's nose (by hand, not on a stick) and threatening it with a
switch. Two sticks are too many to make for a neat expression.

For me, the clincher is that no one actually cites the form of the
"original expression." In what imaginable context would it possibly be
witty or memorable to say that someone or something had been motivated
by a carrot on a stick? Why not an apple on a stick, or a bag of oats?
Boring, right? Not something likely to pass into popular usage.

This saying belongs to the same general family as "you can draw more
flies with honey than with vinegar." It is never used except when such
contrast is implied.

This and other popular etymologies fit under the heading aptly called by
the English "too clever by half."

People should say a book is titled such-and-such rather than "entitled."

No less a writer than Chaucer is cited by the Oxford English Dictionary
as having used "entitled" in this sense, the very first meaning of the
word listed by the OED. It may be a touch pretentious, but it's not
wrong.

"Spitting image" should be "spit and image."

According to the Oxford English Dictionary the earlier form was "spitten
image," which may indeed have evolved from "spit and image." it's a
crude figure of speech: someone else is enough like you to have been
spat out by you, made of the very stuff of your body. In the early 20th
century the spelling and pronunciation gradually shifted to the less
logical "spitting image," which is now standard. it's too late to go
back. There is no historical basis for the claim sometimes made that the
original expression was "spirit and image."

"Lion's share" means all of something, not the larger part of something.

Even though the original meaning of this phrase reflected the idea that
the lion can take whatever he wants--typically all of the slaughtered
game, leaving nothing for anyone else--in modern usage the meaning has
shifted to "the largest share." This makes great sense if you consider
the way hyenas and vultures swarm over the leftovers from a typical
lion's kill.

"Connoisseur" should be spelled "connaisseur."

When we borrowed this word from the French in the 18th century, it was
spelled "connoisseur." Is it our fault the French later decided to shift
the spelling of many OI words to the more phonetically accurate AI? Of
those Francophone purists who insist we should follow their example I
say, let 'em eat "bifteck."

YA'LL/Y'ALL

"How y'all doin'?" If you are rendering this common Southernism in
print, be careful where you place the apostrophe, which stands for the
second and third letters in "you." Note that "y'all" stands for "you
all" and is properly a plural form, though many southern speakers treat
it as a singular form and resort to "all y'all" for the plural.

YE/THE

Those who study the history of English know that the word often misread
as "ye" in Middle English is good old "the" spelled with an unfamiliar
character called a "thorn" which looks vaguely like a "Y" but which is
pronounced "TH." So all those quaint shop names beginning "Ye Olde" are
based on a confusion: people never said "ye" to mean "the." However, if
you'd rather be cute than historically accurate, go ahead. Very few
people will know any better.

YEA/YEAH/YAY

"Yea" is a very old-fashioned formal way of saying "yes," used mainly in
voting. It's the opposite of--and rhymes with--"nay." When you want to
write the common casual version of "yes," the correct spelling is "yeah"
(sounds like "yeh"). When the third grade teacher announced a class trip
to the zoo, we all yelled "yay!" (the opposite of "boo"!). That was back
when I was only yay big.

YEAR END AND YEAR OUT/YEAR IN AND YEAR OUT

When something goes on continually, it is traditional to say it happens
"year in and year out," meaning "from the beginning of the year to its
end--and so on year after year."

The mistaken form "year end and year out" doesn't make sense because
"year end" and "year out" both refer to the same part of the year, so no
time span is being described.

YING AND YANG/YIN AND YANG

The pair of female and male terms in Chinese thought consists of "yin
and yang," not "ying and yang."

YOKE/YOLK

The yellow center of an egg is its yolk. The link that holds two oxen
together is a yoke; they are yoked.

YOU CAN'T HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO/YOU CAN'T EAT YOUR CAKE AND HAVE
IT TOO

The most popular form of this saying--"You can't have your cake and eat
it too"-- confuses many people because they mistakenly suppose the word
"have" means "eat," as in "Have a piece of cake for dessert." A more
logical version of this saying is "You can't eat your cake and have it
too," meaning that if you eat your cake you won't have it any more. The
point is that if you eat your cake right now you won't have it to eat
later. "Have" means "possess" in this context, not "eat."

YOUR/YOU

"I appreciate your cleaning the toilet" is more formal than "I
appreciate you cleaning the toilet."

YOUR/YOU'RE

"You're" is always a contraction of "you are." If you've written
"you're," try substituting "you are." If it doesn't work, the word you
want is "your." Your writing will improve if you're careful about this.

If someone thanks you, write back "you're welcome" for "you are
welcome."

YOUR GUYS'S/YOUR

Many languages have separate singular and plural forms for the second
person (ways of saying "you"), but standard English does not. "You" can
be addressed to an individual or a whole room full of people.

In casual speech, Americans have evolved the slangy expression "you
guys" to function as a second-person plural, formerly used of males only
but now extended to both sexes; but this is not appropriate in formal
contexts. Diners in fine restaurants are often irritated by clueless
waiters who ask "Can I get you guys anything?"

The problem is much more serious when extended to the possessive: "You
guys's dessert will be ready in a minute." Some people even create a
double possessive by saying "your guys's dessert. . . ." This is
extremely clumsy. When dealing with people you don't know intimately,
it's best to stick with "you" and "your" no matter how many people
you're addressing.

YOURSELF

In formal English it's safest to use "yourself" only after having
earlier in the same sentence used "you." When the British reply to a
query like "How are you?" with "Fine, and yourself?" they are actually
pointing back to the "you" in the query.

It used to be common to address someone in British English as "Your good
self" and some people have continued this tradition by creating the word
"goodself," common especially in South Asia; but this is nonstandard.

YOUSE/YOU

The plural form of "you" pronounced as "youse" is heard mainly in satire
on the speech of folks from Brooklyn. It's not standard English, since
"you" can be either singular or plural without any change in spelling or
pronunciation.

YOU'VE GOT ANOTHER THING COMING/YOU'VE GOT ANOTHER THINK COMING

Here's a case in which eagerness to avoid error leads to error. The
original expression is the last part of a deliberately ungrammatical
joke: "If that's what you think, you've got another think coming."

ZEROSCAPE/XERISCAPE

If you nuke your front lawn I suppose you might call it a "zeroscape,"
but the term for an arid-climate garden requiring little or no watering
is "xeriscape" (-xeri is a Greek root meaning "dry").

ZERO-SUM GAIN/ZERO-SUM GAME

The concept of a zero-sum game was developed first in game theory: what
one side gains the other loses. When applied to economics it is often
contrasted with a "win-win" situation in which both sides can make gains
without anyone losing. People who are unaware of the phrase's origins
often mistakenly substitute "gain" for "game."

ZOOLOGY

Both O's in "zoo" are needed to create the "oo" sound in this word; but
the same is not true of words like "zoology" and "zoologist." Here each
O has its own sound: "oh" followed by "ah." The first two syllables rhyme
with "boa."

Then there is a whole class of technical words like "zooplankton" where
both O's are pronounced "oh," though the second "oh" is pronounced so
weakly it comes out more like "uh." But if you need to speak such words,
you probably know how to pronounce them already.

WAIL/WHALE

One informal meaning of "whale" is "to beat." Huck Finn says of Pap that
"He used to always whale me when he was sober."

Although the vocalist in a band may wail a song, the drummer whales on
the drums; and lead guitarists when they thrash their instruments wildly
whale on them.

Although this usage dates back to the 18th century and used to be common
in Britain and America, it is now confined mostly to the US, and even
there people often mistakenly use "wail" for this meaning.

WAIT ON/WAIT FOR

In some dialects it's common to say that you're waiting on people or
events when in standard English we would say you're waiting for them.
Waiters wait on people, so it's all right to say "I'm tired of waiting
on you hand and foot"; but you shouldn't say "I'm waiting on you down
here at the police station; bring the bail money so I can come home."

WALK THE TALK/WALK THE WALK

Aristotle's followers are said to have discussed philosophy while
walking about with him--hence their name: "peripatetics." I suppose they
could have been said to "walk the talk."

For the rest of us, the saying is "if you're going to talk the talk,
you've got to walk the walk"--a modern version of old sayings like
"actions speak louder than words" and "practice what you preach."
Another early form of the expression was "walk it like you talk it."

Many people now condense this to "walk the talk," which makes a sort of
sense (act on your speech), but strikes those who are more familiar with
the original form as confused.

WANDER/WONDER

If you idly travel around, you wander. If you realize you're lost, you
wonder where you are.

WARMONGERER/WARMONGER

"Monger" is a very old word for "dealer." An ironmonger sells metal or
hardware, and a fishmonger sells fish. Warmongers do not literally sell
wars, but they advocate and promote them. For some reason lots of people
tack an unneeded extra "-er" onto the end of this word. Why would you
say "mongerer" when you don't say "dealerer"?

WARY/WEARY/LEERY

People sometimes write "weary" (tired) when they mean "wary" (cautious)
which is a close synonym with "leery" which in the psychedelic era was
often misspelled "leary"; but since Timothy Leary faded from public
consciousness, the correct spelling has prevailed.


WARRANTEE/WARRANTY

Confused by the spelling of "guarantee," people often misspell the
related word "warrantee" rather than the correct "warranty." "Warrantee"
is a rare legal term that means "the person to whom a warrant is made."
Although "guarantee" can be a verb ("we guarantee your satisfaction"),
"warranty" is not. The rarely used verb form is "to warrant."

WAS/WERE

In phrases beginning with "there" many people overlook the need to
choose a plural or singular form of the verb "to be" depending on what
follows. "There were several good-looking guys at the party" [plural];
"unfortunately one of them was my husband" [singular].

WASH

In my mother's Oklahoma dialect, "wash" was pronounced "warsh," and I
was embarrassed to discover in school that the inclusion of the
superfluous "R" sound was considered ignorant. This has made me all the
more sensitive now that I live in Washington to the mispronunciation
"Warshington." Some people tell you that after you "warsh" you should
"wrench" ("rinse").

WAX

An unusual use of the word "wax" is "to change manner of speaking," as
in "she waxed eloquent on the charms of New Jersey" or "he waxed poetic
on virtues of tube amplifiers." These expressions mean that she became
eloquent and he became poetic. It is an error to say instead "she waxed
eloquently" or " he waxed poetically."

WAY/FAR, MUCH MORE

Young people frequently use phrases like "way better" to mean "far
better" or "very much better." In formal writing, it would be gauche to
say that Impressionism is "way more popular" than Cubism instead of
"much more popular."

WAYS/WAY

In some dialects it's common to say "you've got a ways to go before
you've saved enough to buy a Miata," but in standard English it's "a way
to go."

WEAK/WEEK

People often absentmindedly write "last weak" or "next weak." Less often
they write "I feel week." These mistakes will not be caught by a
spelling checker.

"Weak" is the opposite of "strong." A week is made up of seven days.


WEATHER/WETHER/WHETHER

The climate is made up of "weather"; whether it is nice out depends on
whether it is raining or not. A wether is just a castrated sheep.

WEINER/WIENER

The Vienna sausage from the city the Austrians call Wien inspired the
American hot dog, or wiener. Americans aren't used to the European
pronunciation of IE as "ee" and often misspell the word as "weiner."

WENSDAY/WEDNESDAY

Wednesday was named after the Germanic god "Woden" (or "Wotan"). Almost
no one pronounces this word's middle syllable distinctly, but it's
important to remember the correct spelling in writing.

WENT/GONE

The past participle of "go" is "gone" so it's not "I should have went to
the party" but "I should have gone to the party."

WE'RE/WERE

"We're" is a contraction of the phrase "we are": the apostrophe stands
for the omitted letter A. "Were" is simply a plural past-tense form of
the verb "are." To talk about something happening now or in the future,
use "we're"; but to talk about something in the past, use "were." If you
can't substitute "we are" for the word you've written, omit the
apostrophe.

"We were going to go to the party as a prince and princess, but Derek
cut himself shaving, so we're going instead as a female werewolf and her
victim."

WERE/WHERE

Sloppy typists frequently leave the "H" out of "where." Spelling
checkers do not catch this sort of error, of course, so look for it as
you proofread.

WET YOUR APPETITE/WHET YOUR APPETITE

It is natural to think that something mouth-watering "wets your
appetite," but actually the expression is "whet your appetite"--sharpen
your appetite, as a whetstone sharpens a knife.

WHACKY/WACKY

Although the original spelling of this word meaning "crazy" was
"whacky," the current dominant spelling is "wacky." If you use the older
form, some readers will think you've made a spelling error.

WHAT/THAT

In some dialects it is common to substitute "what" for "that," as in
"You should dance with him what brought you." This is not standard
usage.

WHEAT/WHOLE WHEAT

Waiters routinely ask "Wheat or white?" when bread is ordered, but the
white bread is also made of wheat. The correct term is "whole wheat," in
which the whole grain, including the bran and germ, has been used to
make the flour. "Whole wheat" does not necessarily imply that no white
flour has been used in the bread; most whole wheat breads incorporate
some white flour.

WHEELBARREL/WHEELBARROW

One very old meaning of the word "barrow" is an open container for
carrying people or goods. The earliest barrows were carried by two
people holding handles on either end. Add a wheel to one end and you
have a wheelbarrow which can be handled by a single person. The word is
also sometimes applied to two-wheeled versions.

The word has nothing to do with barrels.

WHENEVER/WHEN

"Whenever" has two main functions. It can refer to repeated events:
"Whenever I put the baby down for a nap the phone rings and wakes her
up." Or it can refer to events of whose date or time you are uncertain:
"Whenever it was that I first wore my new cashmere sweater, I remember
the baby spit up on it." In some dialects (notably in Northern Ireland
and Texas) it is common to substitute "whenever" for "when" in
statements about specific events occurring only once and whose date is
known: "Whenever we got married, John was so nervous he dropped the ring
down my decolletage." This is nonstandard. If an event is unique and its
date or time known, use "when."

WHEREABOUTS ARE/WHEREABOUTS IS

Despite the deceptive "S" on the end of the word, "whereabouts" is
normally singular, not plural. "The whereabouts of the stolen diamond is
unknown." Only if you were simultaneously referring to two or more
persons having separate whereabouts would the word be plural, and you
are quite unlikely to want to do so.

WHERE IT'S AT

This slang expression gained widespread currency in the sixties as a hip
way of stating that the speaker understood the essential truth of a
situation: "I know where it's at." Or more commonly: "You don't know
where it's at." It is still heard from time to time with that meaning,
but the user risks being labeled as a quaint old Boomer. However,
standard usage never accepted the literal sense of the phrase. Don't
say, "I put my purse down and now I don't know where it's at" unless you
want to be regarded as uneducated. "Where it is" will do fine; the "at"
is redundant.

WHEREFORE

When Juliet says "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" she means "Why do you have
to be Romeo--why couldn't you have a name belonging to some family my
folks are friendly with?" She is not asking where Romeo is. So if you
misuse the word in sentences like "Wherefore art thou, Stevie Wonder?"
(you wish he'd make another great album like he used to), you make
yourself sound illiterate rather than sophisticated.

WHETHER/WHETHER OR NOT

"Whether" works fine on its own in most contexts: "I wonder whether I
forgot to turn off the stove?" But when you mean "regardless of whether"
it has to be followed by "or not" somewhere in the sentence: "We need to
leave for the airport in five minutes whether you've found your teddy
bear or not."

See also "if/whether."

WHILST/WHILE

Although "whilst" is a perfectly good traditional synonym of "while," in
American usage it is considered pretentious and old-fashioned.

WHIM AND A PRAYER

A 1943 hit song depicted a bomber pilot just barely managing to bring
his shot-up plane back to base, "comin' in on a wing and a prayer"
(lyrics by Harold Adamson, music by Jimmy McHugh). Some people who don't
get the allusion mangle this expression as "a whim and a prayer."
Whimsicality and fervent prayerfulness don't go together.

WHIMP/WIMP

The original and still by far the most common spelling of this common
bit of slang meaning "weakling, coward," is "wimp." If you use the much
less common "whimp" instead people may regard you as a little wimpy.

WHOA IS ME/WOE IS ME

"Whoa" is what you tell a horse to get it to stop, extended in casual
speech to an interjection meant to make someone pause to think in the
middle of a conversation--sometimes misspelled "woah." The standard
woeful lament is "Woe is me."

WHIP CREAM/WHIPPED CREAM

You whip cream until it becomes whipped cream; and that's what you
should write on the menu.

WHISKY/WHISKEY

Scots prefer the spelling "whisky"; Americans follow instead the Irish
spelling, so Kentucky bourbon is "whiskey."


WHO'S/WHOSE

This is one of those cases where it is important to remember that
possessive pronouns never take apostrophes, even though possessive nouns
do (see it's/its). "Who's" always and forever means only "who is," as in
"Who's that guy with the droopy mustache?" or "who has," as in "Who's
been eating my porridge?" "Whose" is the possessive form of "who" and is
used as follows: "Whose dirty socks are these on the breakfast table?"

WHO/WHOM

"Whom" has been dying an agonizing death for decades--you'll notice
there are no Whoms in Dr. Seuss's Whoville. Many people never use the
word in speech at all. However, in formal writing, critical readers
still expect it to be used when appropriate. The distinction between
"who" and "whom" is basically simple: "who" is the subject form of this
pronoun and "whom" is the object form. "Who was wearing that awful dress
at the Academy Awards banquet?" is correct because "who" is the subject
of the sentence. "The MC was so startled by the neckline that he forgot
to whom he was supposed to give the Oscar" is correct because "whom" is
the object of the preposition "to." So far so good.

Now consider this sort of question: "Who are you staring at?" Although
strictly speaking the pronoun should be "whom," nobody who wants to be
taken seriously would use it in this case, though it is the object of
the preposition "at". (Bothered by ending the sentence with a
preposition? See my "Non-Errors" section.) "Whom" is very rarely used
even by careful speakers as the first word in a question, and many
authorities have now conceded the point.

There is another sort of question in which "whom" appears later in the
sentence: "I wonder whom he bribed to get the contract?" This may seem
at first similar to the previous example, but here "whom" is not the
subject of any verb in the sentence; rather it is part of the noun
clause which itself is the object of the verb "wonder." Here an old
gender-biased but effective test for "whom" can be used. Try rewriting
the sentence using "he" or "him." Clearly "He bribed he" is incorrect;
you would say "he bribed him." Where "him" is the proper word in the
paraphrased sentence, use "whom."

Instances in which the direct object appears at the beginning of a
sentence are tricky because we are used to having subjects in that
position and are strongly tempted to use "who": "Whomever Susan admired
most was likely to get the job." (Test: "She admired him." Right?)

Where things get really messy is in statements in which the object or
subject status of the pronoun is not immediately obvious. Example: "The
police gave tickets to whoever had parked in front of the fire hydrant."
The object of the preposition "to" is the entire noun clause, "whoever
had parked in front of the fire hydrant," but "whoever" is the subject
of that clause, the subject of the verb "had parked." Here's a case
where the temptation to use "whomever" should be resisted.

Confused? Just try the "he or him" test, and if it's still not clear, go
with "who." You'll bother fewer people and have a fair chance of being
right.

WHOLE-HARDILY/WHOLEHEARTEDLY

If you want to convey your hearty congratulations to someone, you do so
not "whole-hardily" but "wholeheartedly"--with your whole heart.

A WHOLE 'NOTHER/A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

It is one thing to use the expression "a whole 'nother" as a consciously
slangy phrase suggesting rustic charm and a completely different matter
to use it mistakenly. The "A" at the beginning of the phrase is the
common article "a" but is here treated as if it were simultaneously the
first letter of "another," interrupted by "whole."

WHO'S EVER/WHOEVER'S

In speech people sometimes try to treat the word "whoever" as two words
when it's used in the possessive form: "Whose-ever delicious plums those
were in the refrigerator, I ate them." Occasionally it's even misspelled
as "whoseever." The standard form is "whoever's," as in "Whoever's plums
those were. . . ."

WILE AWAY/WHILE AWAY

"Waiting for my physical at the doctor's office, I whiled away the time
reading the dessert recipes in an old copy of Gourmet magazine." The
expression "while away the time" is the only surviving context for a
very old use of "while" as a verb meaning "to spend time." Many people
substitute "wile," but to wile people is to lure or trick them into
doing something--quite different from simply idling away the time. Even
though dictionaries accept "wile away" as an alternative, it makes more
sense to stick with the original expression.

-WISE

In political and business jargon it is common to append "-wise" to nouns
to create novel adverbs: "Revenue-wise, last quarter was a disaster."
Critics of language are united in objecting to this pattern, and it is
often used in fiction to satirize less than eloquent speakers.

WITHIN/AMONG

"Within" means literally "inside of," but when you want to compare
similarities or differences between things you may need "among" instead.
It's not "There are some entertaining movies within the current
releases," but "among the current releases." But you can use "within" by
rewriting the sentence to lump the movies together into a single entity:
"There are some entertaining movies within the current batch of
releases." A batch is a single thing, and the individual films that make
it up are within it.

WOMAN/WOMEN

The singular "woman" probably gets mixed up with the plural "women"
because although both are spelled with an O in the first syllable, only
the pronunciation of the O really differentiates them. Just remember
that this word is treated no differently than "man" (one person) and
"men" (more than one person). A woman is a woman--never a women.

WONT/WONÕT

People often leave the apostrophe out of "won't," meaning "will not."
"Wont" is a completely different and rarely used word meaning "habitual
custom." Perhaps people are reluctant to believe this is a contraction
because it doesn't make obvious sense like "cannot" being contracted to
"can't." The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that "won't" is a
contraction of a nonstandard form: "woll not."

Quite a few confused folks substitute "want" for "wont," leading to
mangled expressions such as "such is my want."

WORLD WIDE WEB

"World Wide Web" is a name that needs to be capitalized, like
"Internet." It is made up of Web pages and Web sites (or, less formally,
Websites).

WORSE COMES TO WORSE/WORST COMES TO WORST

The traditional idiom is "if worst comes to worst." The modern variation
"worse comes to worst" is a little more logical. "Worse comes to worse"
is just a mistake.

WORKING PROGRESS/WORK IN PROGRESS

If your project isn't finished yet, it's not a "working progress" but a
"work in progress."

WOULD HAVE/HAD

The standard way to talk about something in the past that's different
from what really happened is to use "had," as in "The robber wished he
had given the bank clerk a fake when she asked for his ID card." People
often say instead "wished he would have," but this pattern is not
acceptable in standard written English.

WOULD HAVE LIKED TO HAVE/WOULD HAVE LIKED

"She would liked to have had another glass of champagne" should be "she
would have liked to have another glass. . . ."

WRANGLE/WANGLE

If you deviously manage to obtain something you wangle it: "I wangled an
invitation to Jessica's party by hinting that I would be inviting her to
our house on the lake this summer." But if you argue with someone, you
wrangle with them: "Once I got to the party, Jessica's attitude
irritated me so much that we wound up wrangling constantly during it."
Of course cowboys wrangle cattle, and specialists wrangle other animal
species in films.

WRAPPED/RAPT

When you get deeply involved in a project, you may say you're wrapped up
in it; but if you are entranced or enraptured by something you are
"rapt," not "wrapped." The word means "carried away" and is used in
expressions like "listening with rapt attention," "rapt expression," and
"rapt in conversation."

WRECKLESS/RECKLESS

This word has nothing to do with creating the potential for a wreck.
Rather it involves not reckoning carefully all the hazards involved in
an action. The correct spelling is therefore "reckless."

WRITE ME

Many UK English speakers and some American authorities object strongly
to the common American expression "write me," insisting that the correct
expression is "write to me." But "write me" is so common in US English
that I think few Americans will judge you harshly for using it. After
all, we say "call me"--why not "write me"? But if you're an American
trying to please foreigners or particularly picky readers, you might
keep the "write me" phobia in mind.

If you disagree, please don't write me.

WRITTING/WRITING

One of the comments English teachers dread to see on their evaluations
is "The professor really helped me improve my writting." When "-ing" is
added to a word which ends in a short vowel followed only by a single
consonant, that consonant is normally doubled, but "write" has a silent
E on the end to ensure the long I sound in the word. Doubling the T in
this case would make the word rhyme with "flitting."

WONDERKIND/WUNDERKIND

We borrowed the term "wunderkind," meaning "child prodigy," from the
Germans. We don't capitalize it the way they do, but we use the same
spelling. When writing in English, don't half-translate it as
"wonderkind."