Common Errors O

O/zero

When reciting a string of numbers such as your credit card number it is
common and perfectly acceptable to pronounce zero as "oh." But when
dealing with a registration code or other such string of characters
which mixes letters and numbers, it is important to distinguish between
the number 0 and the letter O. In most typefaces a capital O is rounder,
fatter, than a zero; but that is not always the case. What looks
unambiguous when you type it may come out very unclear on the other end
on a computer which renders your message in a different typeface.

In technical contexts, the distinction is often made by using zeros with
slashes through them, but this can create as many problems as it solves:
those unfamiliar with the convention will be confused by it, numbers
using such characters may not sort properly, and slashed zeros created
in some fonts change to normal zeros in other fonts.

If you work for a company that requires registration codes you do a
disservice to your customers and yourself by including either zeros or
O's in your codes where there is any possibility of confusion.

OBSOLESCENT/OBSOLETE

Many people assume the word "obsolescent" must be a fancy form of
"obsolete," but something obsolescent is technically something in the
process of becoming obsolete. Therefore it's an error to describe
something as "becoming obsolescent.

OF

"Of" is often shoved in where it doesn't belong in phrases like "not
that big of a deal," and "not that great of a writer." Just leave it
out.

OF ___'S

Phrases combining "of" with a noun followed by "'S" may seem redundant,
since both indicate possession; nevertheless, "a friend of Karen's" is
standard English, just as "a friend of Karen" and "Karen's friend" are.

OFFENSE/OFFENCE

In the US "offense" is standard; in the UK use "offence." The sports
pronunciation accenting the first syllable should not be used when
discussing military, legal, or other sorts of offense.

See also DEFENSE/DEFENCE

OFFLINE

When your computer is connected to the Internet, you are online. When
you disconnect from the Internet, you are offline.

People who don't understand this often say of things they get from the
Internet that they downloaded them "offline," evidently thinking that
the word means "off of the Internet." Nothing can be uploaded or
downloaded to a site when you are offline.

OFTEN

People striving for sophistication often pronounce the "T" in this word,
but true sophisticates know that the masses are correct in saying
"offen."

OGGLE/OGLE

If you're being leered at lustfully you're being ogled (first vowel
sounds like "OH")--not "oggled," even if you're being ogled through
goggles. The word is probably related to the German word "augeln,"
meaning "to eye," from augen ("eye").

OK/OKAY

This may be the most universal word in existence; it seems to have
spread to most of the world's languages. Etymologists now generally
agree that it began as a humorous misspelling of "all correct": "oll
korrect." "OK" without periods is the most common form in written
American English now, though "okay" is not incorrect.

OLD FASHION/OLD-FASHIONED

Although "old fashion" appears in advertising a good deal, the
traditional spelling is "old-fashioned."

OLD-TIMER'S DISEASE/ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE

I've always thought that "old-timer's disease" was a clever if tasteless
pun on "Alzheimer's Disease"; but many people have assured me that this
is a common and quite unintentional error.

Some medical authorities prefer the form "Alzheimer Disease," though
that is seldom used by nonprofessionals.

OLD WISE TALE/OLD WIVES' TALE

An absurd superstition is an "old wives' tale": according to sexist
tradition a story popular among credulous old ladies. It's not an "old
wise tale" or--even worse--an "old wives' tail."

ON ACCIDENT/BY ACCIDENT

Although you can do things on purpose, you do them by accident.

ON THE LAMB/ON THE LAM

When a criminal hides out, he's on the lam. He wouldn't get far on a
lamb.

ON TOMORROW/TOMORROW

You can meet on Monday or on the 21st of March, but it's an error to say
"on tomorrow," "on yesterday" or "on today" Just leave "on" out (except,
of course, in phrases like "let's meet later on today" using the phrase
"later on").

ONCE/ONES

"Once" always has to do with time and answers the questions, "how many
times?" or "when?" For instance: "I only played handball once." "Once I
got my boot off, I saw my sock had a hole in it."

In contrast, "ones" have to do with things. In your tool collection, the
ones you should keep handy are the ones you use most.

ONCE AND A WHILE/ONCE IN A WHILE

The expression is "once in a while."

ONE OF THE (SINGULAR)

In phrases like "pistachio is one of the few flavors that appeals to
me," I think you should use the singular form for the verb "appeals"
because its subject is "one," not "flavors." However, note that usage
experts are all over the place on this subject and you're not likely to
get into much trouble by using the plural, and some authorities
absolutely prefer it.

ONE-DIMENSIONAL/TWO-DIMENSIONAL

Once upon a time most folks knew that "three-dimensional" characters or
ideas were rounded, fleshed out, and complex and "two-dimensional" ones
were flat and uninteresting. It seems that the knowledge of basic
geometry has declined in recent years, because today we hear
uninteresting characters and ideas described as "one-dimensional."
According to Euclid, no physical object can be one-dimensional (of
course, according to modern physics, even two-dimensionality is only an
abstract concept). If you are still bothered by the notion that two
dimensions are one too many, just use "flat."

ONE IN THE SAME/ONE AND THE SAME

The old expression "they are one and the same" is now often mangled into
the roughly phonetic equivalent "one in the same." The use of "one" here
to mean "identical with each other" is familiar from phrases like "Jane
and John act as one." They are one; they are the same.

ONE OF THE ONLY/ONE OF THE FEW

Although it has recently become much more popular, the phrase "one of
the only" bothers some of us in contexts in which "one of the few" would
traditionally be used. Be aware that it strikes some readers as odd.
"One of only three groups that played in tune" is fine, but "one of the
only groups that played in tune" is more likely to cause raised
eyebrows.

ONGOINGLY/CURRENTLY, CONTINUOUSLY

"Ongoingly" is not standard English. When something is occurring in an
ongoing manner, you can speak of it as happening "currently" or
"continuously."

ONLINE/ON LINE

The common adjective used to label Internet activities is usually
written as one word: "online": "The online site selling banana cream
pies was a failure." But it makes more sense when using it as an
adverbial phrase to write two separate words: "When the teacher took her
class to the library, most of them used it to go on line." The
hyphenated form "on-line" is not widely used; but would be proper only
for the adjectival function. However, you are unlikely to get into
trouble for using "online" for all computer-related purposes.

As for real physical lines, the British and New Yorkers wait "on line"
(in queues), but most Americans wait "in line."

ONLY

Writers often inadvertently create confusion by placing "only"
incorrectly in a sentence. It should go immediately before the word or
phrase it modifies. "I lost my only shirt" means that I had but one to
begin with. "I lost only my shirt" means I didn't lose anything else.
"Only I lost my shirt" means that I was the only person in my group to
lose a shirt. Strictly speaking, "I only lost my shirt" should mean I
didn't destroy it or have it stolen--I just lost it; but in common
speech this is usually understood as being identical with "I lost only
my shirt." Scrutinize your uses of "only" to make sure you are not
creating unwanted ambiguities.

ONTO/ON TO

"Onto" and "on to" are often interchangeable, but not always. Consider
the effect created by wrongly using "onto" in the following sentence
when "on to" is meant: "We're having hors d'oeuvres in the garden, and
for dinner moving onto the house." If the "on" is part of an expression
like "moving on" it can't be shoved together with a "to" that just
happens to follow it.

OP-ED

Although it looks like it might mean "opinion of the editor" the "op-ed"
page is actually a page written by columnists or outside contributors to
a newspaper, printed opposite the editorial page.

OPEN/UNLOCKED/UNLATCHED

Many people refer to doors as being "open" when they mean to say they
are merely unlocked. Telling people to leave a house open may mislead
them into making the place more inviting to casual intruders than you
intend if you really only want it to be unlocked. And you may
unnecessarily alarm the driver if you report from the back seat of a car
that one of the doors is open when you mean that it is merely unlatched.

OPPORTUNIST

When applied to people, the label "opportunist" usually has negative
connotations. It implies that the people so labeled take unprincipled,
unfair advantage of opportunities for selfish ends. Opportunistic people
are often also regarded as exploitative. The term is often used to label
unscrupulous politicians who seek to manipulate voters in their favor by
exploiting certain issues or opporunities in an unethical way.

Sports commentators who call the skillful interceptor of a pass in
football an "opportunist" are misusing the word.

If you want to praise people for taking legitimate and skilled advantage
of opportunities that spring up, it is better to call them
"enterprising" or "quick-witted."

The specialized meaning of "opportunistic" in biology does not cause
problems because the people who use the word in this sense know what it
describes: the ability of a species to exploit a previously unexploited
ecological niche.

OPPRESS/REPRESS

Dictators commonly oppress their citizens and repress dissent, but these
words don't mean exactly the same thing. "Repress" just means "keep
under control." Sometimes repression is a good thing: "During the job
interview, repress the temptation to tell Mr. Brown that he has toilet
paper stuck to his shoe." Oppression is always bad, and implies serious
persecution.

ORAL/VERBAL

Some people insist that "verbal" refers to anything expressed in words,
whether written or spoken, while "oral" refers exclusively to speech;
but in common usage "verbal" has become widely accepted for the latter
meaning. However, in legal contexts, an unwritten agreement is still an
"oral contract," not a "verbal contract."

ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE

Many pretentious writers have begun to use the expression "orders of
magnitude" without understanding what it means. The concept derives from
the scientific notation of very large numbers in which each order of
magnitude is ten times the previous one. When the bacteria in a flask
have multiplied from some hundreds to some thousands, it is very handy
to say that their numbers have increased by an order of magnitude, and
when they have increased to some millions, that their numbers have
increased by four orders of magnitude.

Number language generally confuses people. Many seem to suppose that a
100% increase must be pretty much the same as an increase by an order of
magnitude, but in fact such an increase represents merely a doubling of
quantity. A "hundredfold increase" is even bigger: one hundred times as
much. If you don't have a firm grasp on such concepts, it's best to
avoid the expression altogether. After all, "Our audience is ten times
as big now as when the show opened" makes the same point more clearly
than "Our audience has increased by an order of magnitude."

Compare with "quantum leap."

ORDINANCE/ORDNANCE

A law is an ordinance, but a gun is a piece of ordnance.

OREGON

Oregon natives and other Westerners pronounce the state name's last
syllable to sound like "gun," not "gone."

ORGANIC

The word "organic" is used in all sorts of contexts, often in a highly
metaphorical manner; the subject here is its use in the phrase "organic
foods" in claims of superior healthfulness. Various jurisdictions have
various standards for "organic" food, but generally the label is applied
to foods that have been grown without artificial chemicals or
pesticides. Literally, of course, the term is a redundancy: all food is
composed of organic chemicals (complex chemicals containing carbon).
There is no such thing as an inorganic food (unless you count water as a
food). Natural fertilizers and pesticides may or may not be superior to
artificial ones, but the proper distinction is not between organic and
inorganic.

When it comes to nutrition, people tend to generalize rashly from a
narrow scientific basis. After a few preservatives were revealed to have
harmful effects in some consumers, many products were proudly labeled
"No Preservatives!" I don't want harmful preservatives in my food, but
that label suggests to me a warning: "Deteriorates quickly! May contain
mold and other kinds of rot!" Salt is a preservative.

List of errors


ORIENTAL/ASIAN

"Oriental" is generally considered old-fashioned now, and many find it
offensive. "Asian" is preferred, but not "Asiatic." it's better to write
the nationality involved, for example "Chinese" or "Indian," if you
know it. "Asian" is often taken to mean exclusively "East Asian," which
irritates South Asian and Central Asian people.

ORIENTATE/ORIENT

Although it is standard in British English "orientate" is widely
considered an error in the US, with simple "orient" being preferred.

OSTENSIVELY/OSTENSIBLY

This word, meaning "apparently," is spelled "ostensibly."

OVER-EXAGGERATED/EXAGGERATED

"Over-exaggerated" is a redundancy. If something is exaggerated, it's
already overstressed.

OVERDO/OVERDUE

If you overdo the cocktails after work you may be overdue for your
daughter's soccer game at 6:00.

OVERSEE/OVERLOOK

When you oversee the preparation of dinner, you take control and manage
the operation closely. But if you overlook the preparation of dinner you
forget to prepare the meal entirely--better order pizza.

OVERTAKE/TAKE OVER

When you catch up with the runners ahead of you in a marathon, you
overtake them; but when you seize power, you take over the government.

OWNESS/ONUS

In Latin "onus" means "burden." In English it came to mean
"responsibility": "the onus is on the defense attorney to convince the
jury of the defendant's innocence." It is often used to mean "blame":
"he bears the onus of having lost the key to the vacation house."

People sometimes mishear this word and turn it into "owness." This form
is also used by some to refer to the opposite of otherness, but that
would be "ownness," with two N's.