Common Errors T

TABLE

In the UK if you table an issue you place it on the table for
discussion; but in the US the phrase means the opposite: you
indefinitely postpone discussing the issue.

TAD BIT/TAD, BIT

A "tad" was originally a small boy, but this word evolved into the
expression "a tad" meaning "very small" or "very slightly": "The movie
was a tad long for my taste."

Some people combine this with the equivalent expression "a bit" and say
"a tad bit." This is redundant. Just say "a bit" or "a tad."

TAKE A DIFFERENT TACT/TAKE A DIFFERENT TACK

This expression has nothing to do with tactfulness and everything to do
with sailing, in which it is a direction taken as one tacks--abruptly
turns--a boat. To "take a different tack" is to try another approach.

TAKEN BACK/TAKEN ABACK

When you're startled by something, you're taken aback by it. When you're
reminded of something from your past, you're taken back to that time.

TWO TO TANGLE/TWO TO TANGO

A 1952 song popularized the phrase "it takes two to tango"; and it was
quickly applied to everything that required two parties, from romance to
fighting. Later, people baffled by hearing the phrase used of conflicts
imagined that the proper word must be "tangle." Perhaps if they had
thought of the fierce choreography of Parisian apache dancing they would
not have been so confused. "It takes two to tangle" will seem the normal
phrase to some people, a clever variation to a few, and an embarrassing
mistake to many people you might want to impress.

TATTLE-TAIL/TATTLE-TALE

Somebody who reveals secrets--tattling, telling tales--is a tattle-tale,
often spelled as one word: "tattletale."

TAUGHT/TAUT

Students are taught, ropes are pulled taut.

TAUNT/TAUT/TOUT

I am told that medical personnel often mistakenly refer to a patient's
abdomen as "taunt" rather than the correct "taut." "Taunt" ("tease" or
"mock") can be a verb or noun, but never an adjective. "Taut" means
"tight, distended," and is always an adjective.

Don't confuse "taunt" with "tout," which means "promote," as in "Senator
Bilgewater has been touted as a Presidential candidate." You tout
somebody you admire and taunt someone that you don't.

TENANT/TENET

These two words come from the same Latin root, "tenere," meaning "to
hold"; but they have very different meanings. "Tenet" is the rarer of
the two, meaning a belief that a person holds: "Avoiding pork is a tenet
of the Muslim faith." In contrast, the person leasing an apartment from
you is your tenant. (She holds the lease.)

TENDER HOOKS/TENTERHOOKS

A "tenter" is a canvas-stretcher, and to be "on tenterhooks" means to be
as tense with anticipation as a canvas stretched on one.

TENTATIVE

Often all-too-tentatively pronounced "tennative." Sound all three "T's."

THAN/THEN

When comparing one thing with another you may find that one is more
appealing "than" another. "Than" is the word you want when doing
comparisons. But if you are talking about time, choose "then": "First
you separate the eggs; then you beat the whites." Alexis is smarter than
I, not "then I."

THANKS GOD

I suppose if you wanted to express your gratitude directly to the deity
you might appropriately say "Thanks, God, for helping our team win the
big game." More appropriate is something more formal, like "Thank you,
God." In any case, the general expression when it's not specifically
meant as a prayer is not "thanks God," but "thank God." Not "Thanks God
Emily hit a homer in this last inning," but "thank God" she did.

THANKYOU/THANK YOU, THANK-YOU

When you are grateful to someone, tell them "thank you." Thanks are
often called "thank-yous," and you can write "thank-you notes." But the
expression should never be written as a single unhyphenated word.

THAT/THAN

People surprisingly often write "that" when they mean "than" in various
standard phrases. Examples: "harder that I thought," "better safe that
sorry," and "closer that they appear." In all these cases, "that" should
be "than."

THAT/WHICH

I must confess that I do not myself observe the distinction between
"that" and "which." Furthermore, there is little evidence that this
distinction is or has ever been regularly made in past centuries by
careful writers of English. However, a small but impassioned group of
authorities has urged the distinction; so here is the information you
will need to pacify them.

If you are defining something by distinguishing it from a larger class
of which it is a member, use "that": "I chose the lettuce that had the
fewest wilted leaves." When the general class is not being limited or
defined in some way, then "which" is appropriate: "He made an iceberg
lettuce Caesar salad, which didn't taste right." Note that "which" is
normally preceded by a comma, but "that" is not.

THAT KIND/THAT KIND OF

Although expressions like "that kind thing" are common in some dialects,
standard English requires "of" in this kind of phrase.

THE BOTH OF THEM/BOTH OF THEM

You can say "the two of them," as in "the two of them make an
interesting couple"; but normally "the" is not used before "both," as in
"both of them have purple hair."

THEIRSELVES/THEMSELVES

There is no such word as "theirselves" (and you certainly can't spell it
"theirselfs" or "thierselves"); it's "themselves." And there is no
correct singular form of this non-word; instead of "theirself" use
"himself" or "herself."

THEM/THOSE

One use of "them" for "those" has become a standard catch phrase: "how
do you like them apples?" This is deliberate dialectical humor. But "I
like them little canapes with the shrimp on top" is gauche; say instead
"I like those little canapes."

THEORY

In ordinary speech, a theory is just a speculation. The police inspector
in a Miss Marple mystery always has a theory about who committed the
murder which turns out to be wrong.

But in science the word "theory" plays a very different role. What most
of us call "theories" are termed "hypotheses" until enough evidence has
been accumulated to validate them and allow them to assume the status of
theories: scientifically acceptable explanations of phenomena. Examples:
the theory of gravity, the wave theory of light, chaos theory.

Foes of evolutionary science often insist that the theory of evolution
is invalid because it is "only a theory." This merely demonstrates their
lack of knowledge of scientific usage and hence will not impress any
scientifically literate person.

THEREFOR/THEREFORE

The form without a final "E" is an archaic bit of legal terminology
meaning "for." The word most people want is "therefore."

THERE'S

People often forget that "there's" is a contraction of "there is" and
mistakenly say "there's three burrs caught in your hair" when they mean
"there're" ("there are"). Use "there's" only when referring to one item.
"There's" can also be a contraction of "there has," as in "There's been
some mistake in this bill, clerk!"

Remember if you don't contract "there is" that it also can only be used
with something singular following. It's not "There is many mistakes in
this paper" but "there are many mistakes in this paper."

THESE ARE THEM/THESE ARE THEY

Although only the pickiest listeners will cringe when you say "these are
them," the traditionally correct phrase is "these are they," because
"they" is the predicate nominative of "these." However, if people around
you seem more comfortable with "it's me" than "it's I," you might as
well stick with "these are them."


THESE KIND/THIS KIND

In a sentence like "I love this kind of chocolates," "this" modifies
"kind" (singular) and not "chocolates" (plural), so it would be
incorrect to change it to "I love these kind of chocolates." Only if
"kind" itself is pluralized into "kinds" should "this" shift to "these":
"You keep making these kinds of mistakes!"


THESE ONES/THESE

By itself, there's nothing wrong with the word "ones" as a plural:
"surrounded by her loved ones." However, "this one" should not be
pluralized to "these ones." Just say "these." The same pattern applies
to "those."

THEY/THEIR (SINGULAR)

Using the plural pronoun to refer to a single person of unspecified
gender is an old and honorable pattern in English, not a newfangled bit
of degeneracy or a politically correct plot to avoid sexism (though it
often serves the latter purpose). People who insist that "Everyone has
brought his own lunch" is the only correct form do not reflect the usage
of centuries of fine writers. A good general rule is that only when the
singular noun does not specify an individual can it be replaced
plausibly with a plural pronoun: "Everybody" is a good example. We know
that "everybody" is singular because we say "everybody is here, " not
"everybody are here" yet we tend to think of "everybody" as a group of
individuals, so we usually say "everybody brought their own grievances
to the bargaining table." "Anybody" is treated similarly.

However, in many written sentences the use of singular "their" and
"they" creates an irritating clash even when it passes unnoticed in
speech. It is wise to shun this popular pattern in formal writing. Often
expressions can be pluralized to make the "they" or "their" indisputably
proper: "All of them have brought their own lunches." "People" can often
be substituted for "each." Americans seldom avail themselves of the
otherwise very handy British "one" to avoid specifying gender because it
sounds to our ears rather pretentious: "One's hound should retrieve only
one's own grouse." If you decide to try "one," don't switch to "they" in
mid-sentence: "One has to be careful about how they speak" sounds absurd
because the word "one" so emphatically calls attention to its
singleness. The British also quite sensibly treat collective bodies like
governmental units and corporations as plural ("Parliament have approved
their agenda") whereas Americans insist on treating them as singular.

THEY'RE/THEIR/THERE

Many people are so spooked by apostrophes that a word like "they're"
seems to them as if it might mean almost anything. In fact, it's always
a contraction of "they are." If you've written "they're," ask yourself
whether you can substitute "they are." If not, you've made a mistake.
"Their" is a possessive pronoun like "her" or "our": "They eat their
hotdogs with sauerkraut." Everything else is "there." "There goes the
ball, out of the park! See it? Right there! There aren't very many home
runs like that." "Thier" is a common misspelling, but you can avoid it
by remembering that "they" and "their" begin with the same three
letters. Another hint: "there" has "here" buried inside it to remind you
it refers to place, while "their" has "heir" buried in it to remind you
that it has to do with possession.

THINK ON/THINK ABOUT

An archaic form that persists in some dialects is seen in statements
like "I'll think on it" when most people would say "I'll think about
it."

THOUGH/THOUGHT/THROUGH

Although most of us know the differences between these words people
often type one of them when they mean another. Spelling checkers won't
catch this sort of slip, so look out for it.

THREW/THROUGH

"Threw" is the past tense of the verb "throw": "The pitcher threw a
curve ball." "Through" is never a verb: "The ball came through my living
room window." Unless your sentence involves someone throwing
something--even figuratively, as in "she threw out the idea casually"--
the word you want is "through."

THRONE/THROWN

A throne is that chair a king sits on, at least until he gets thrown out
of office.

THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY/IN A MIRROR, DARKLY

Here's an error with a very distinguished heritage.

When in 1 Corinthians 13:12 Paul tries to express the imperfection of
mortal understanding, he compares our earthly vision to the dim and
wavery view reflected by a typical Roman-era polished bronze mirror.
Unfortunately, the classic King James translation rendered his metaphor
rather confusingly as "For now we see through a glass, darkly." By the
time of the Renaissance, mirrors were made of glass and so it was
natural for the translators to call the mirror a "glass," though by so
doing they obscured Paul's point. Why they should have used "through"
rather than the more logical "in" is unclear; but it has made many
people think that the image is of looking through some kind of magical
glass mirror like that in Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass."

Although most other translations use more accurate phrasing ("as in a
mirror," "a blurred image in a mirror," etc.), the King James is so
influential that its misleading rendering of the verse is overwhelmingly
more popular than the more accurate ones. It's not really an error to
quote the KJV, but if you use the image, don't make the mistake of
suggesting it has to do with a dirty window rather than a dim mirror.

THROWS OF PASSION/THROES OF PASSION

A dying person's final agony can be called "death throes." The only
other common use for this word is "throes of passion." Throws are
wrestling moves or those little blankets you drape on the furniture.

THUSFAR/THUS FAR

Some common phrases get fused in people's minds into single words. The
phrase "thus far" is frequently misspelled "thusfar." Hardly anybody
writes "sofar" instead of "so far"--just treat "thus far" in the same
way.

THUSLY/THUS

"Thusly" has been around for a long time, but it is widely viewed as
nonstandard. It's safer to go with plain old "thus."

TIC/TICK

The word for a spasmodic twitch or habitual quirk of speech or behavior
is spelled the French way: "tic." You may have to worry about Lyme
disease if you get a bite from a tick on your face, but that spasm in
your left cheek whenever the teacher calls on you is a facial tic.

TIMBER/TIMBRE

You can build a house out of timber, but that quality which
distinguishes the sound produced by one instrument or voice from others
is timbre, usually pronounced "TAM-bruh," so the common expression is
"vocal timbre."

TIME PERIOD

The only kinds of periods meant by people who use this phrase are
periods of time, so it's a redundancy. Simply say "time" or "period."

TIMES SMALLER

Mathematically literate folks object to expressions like Òmy paycheck is
three times smaller than it used to beÓ because when used with whole
numbers ÒtimesÓ indicates multiplication and should logically apply only
to increases in size. Say "one third as largeÓ instead.

TIRIMISU/TIRAMISU

Tiramisu is Italian for "pick me up", and is the name of a popular
modern Italian dessert, commonly misspelled as tirimisu, which gives it a
slightly Japanese air. The Japanese love tiramisu; but although they
sometimes make it with green tea rather than coffee this misspelling
isn't their fault.

TO/TOO/TWO

People seldom mix "two" up with the other two; it obviously belongs with
words that also begin with TW, like "twice" and "twenty" that involve
the number 2. But the other two are confused all the time. Just remember
that the only meanings of "too" are "also" ("I want some ice cream too")
and "in excess" ("Your walkman is playing too loudly.") Note that extra
O. It should remind you that this word has to do with adding more on to
something. "To" is the proper spelling for all the other uses.

TO HOME/AT HOME

In some dialects people say "I stayed to home to wait for the mail," but
in standard English the expression is "stayed at home."

TO THE MANOR BORN/TO THE MANNER BORN

Hamlet complains of the drunken carousing at Elsinore to his friend
Horatio, who asks "Is it a custom?" Hamlet replies that it is and adds,
"but to my mind,--though I am native here and to the manner born,--it is
a custom more honour'd in the breach than the observance."

"As if to the manner born" is used to praise someone's skill: "Reginald
drives the Maserati as if to the manner born" (as if he were born with
that skill).

"To the Manor Born" was the punning title of a popular BBC comedy, which
greatly increased the number of people who mistakenly supposed the
original expression had something to do with being born on a manor.
Perhaps because of the poetically inverted word order in "manner born"
the expression tends to occur in rather snooty contexts. Nevertheless,
the correct expression is "to the manner born."

TO WHERE/SO MUCH THAT, TO THE POINT THAT

Complains Fred, "Mac kept borrowing my tools to where I couldn't finish
fixing the front porch." This sort of use of "to where" to mean "so much
that" or "to the point that" is not standard English. The meaning is
more about when than where.

TODAY'S DAY AND AGE/THIS DAY AND AGE

The traditional expression is "in this day and age," meaning "right at
this moment and during a considerable stretch of time around this
moment." "Today's day" is redundant: "today" already has "day" in it.

TODAY'S MODERN SOCIETY/TODAY

People seeking to be up-to-the-minute often indulge in such redundancies
as "in today's modern society" or "in the modern society of today." This
is empty arm-waving which says nothing more than "now" or "today." A
reasonable substitute is "contemporary society." Such phrases are
usually indulged in by people with a weak grasp of history to substitute
for such more precise expressions as "for the past five years" or "this
month." See "since the beginning of time."

TOLLED/TOLD

Some people imagine that the expression should be "all tolled" as if
items were being ticked off to the tolling of a bell, or involved the
paying of a toll; but in fact this goes back to an old meaning of
"tell": "to count." You could "tell over" your beads if you were
counting them in a rosary. "All told" means "all counted."

This older meaning of "tell" is the reason that people who count money
out behind bank windows are called "tellers."

TOOKEN/TOOK/TAKEN

"Hey, Tricia! Ted couldn't find his parrot so he's tooken your toucan to
show and tell!" "Tooken" is a non-standard form of "taken."

In fact, there are two past-tense forms of "take" which shouldn't be
mixed up with each other. For the simple past you need "took": "Beau
took a course in acoustics." But if a helping verb precedes it, the word
you need is "taken": "he has taken some other courses too."

TORE/TORN

Is the road in front of your house "all tore up"? In some dialects
that's what people say. But for standard English speakers what happens
to stuff is that it gets torn up. That guy who tore up your love letter
left you feeling torn up.

TOUNGE/TONGUE

"Tounge" is a common misspelling of "tongue."

TONGUE AND CHEEK/TONGUE IN CHEEK

When people want to show they are kidding or have just knowingly uttered
a falsehood, they stick their tongues in their cheeks, so it's "tongue
in cheek," not "tongue and cheek."

TOE-HEADED/TOW-HEADED

Light-colored rope is called "tow" and someone with very blond hair is
called a "tow-head." Tow-headed children are cute, but a toe-headed one
would be seriously deformed.

TORTUROUS/TORTUOUS

A path with a confusing proliferation of turns is tortuous (from a
French root meaning "twisted"). But "torturous" (meaning painful or
unpleasant, like torture) is very frequently confused with it. So often
has "tortuous logic" (tangled, twisted logic) been misspelled as
"torturous logic" that it has given rise to a now independent form with
its own meaning, "tortured logic." Few people object to the latter; but
if you want to describe your slow progress along a twisting path, the
word you want is "tortuous."

TOW THE LINE/TOE THE LINE

"Toe the line" has to do with lining your toes up on a precise mark, not
with pulling on a rope.

However if you have to take your kids along when you visit friends, you
have them not "in toe," but "in tow."

TOWARD/TOWARDS

These two words are interchangeable, but "toward" is more common in the
US and "towards" in the UK

TRACK HOME/TRACT HOME

Commuters from a tract home may well feel that they are engaged in a rat
race, but that does not justify them in describing their housing
development as a "track." "Tract" here means an area of land on which
cheap and uniform houses have been built. Incidentally, note that the
phrase is "digestive tract," not "digestive track."

TRADEGY/TRAGEDY

Not only do people often misspell "tragedy" as "tradegy," they
mispronounce it that way too. Just remember that the adjective is
"tragic" to recall that it's the G that comes after the A.

TRAGEDY/TRAVESTY

"Travesty" has farcical connotations; it's actually related to
"transvestite." A disaster that could be described as a farce or a
degraded imitation may be called a travesty: "The trial--since the
defense lawyer slept through most of it--was a travesty of justice." A
tragedy is an altogether more serious matter.

TRITE AND TRUE/TRIED AND TRUE

Ideas that are trite may well be true; but the expression is "tried and
true": ideas that have been tried and turned out to be valid.

TROOP/TROUPE

A group of performers is a troupe. Any other group of people, military
or otherwise, is a troop. A police officer, member of a mounted military
group or similar person is a trooper, but a gung-ho worker is a real
trouper.

Troops are always groups, despite the current vogue among journalists of
saying things like "two troops were wounded in the battle" when they
mean "two soldiers." "Two troops" would be two groups of soldiers, not
two individuals.

TOUCH BASES/TOUCH BASE

Although in baseball a home-run hitter has to touch all four bases while
whizzing past, when you propose to linger with someone long enough to
compare notes, you do all your chatting at a single base. The expression
is "let's touch base."

TRANSITION

People in business, politics, and education love to turn nouns into
verbs; but many of their transformations irritate a good number of
listeners. High on the list of disliked terms is "transition" as a verb:
"Over the next month we are going to transition our payroll system from
cash to pizza discount coupons." You can say "make the transition," but
often plain "change" works fine.

TRY AND/TRY TO

Although "try and" is common in colloquial speech and will usually pass
unremarked there, in writing try to remember to use "try to" instead of
"try and."

TUSSLED/TOUSLED

Even if your hair gets messed up in a tussle with a friend, it gets
tousled, not tussled.