Common Errors In English

MORE ERRORS

2009-12-05T10:25:00.000-08:00

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

OTHER COMMONLY MISSPELLED WORDS

2009-12-05T10:24:00.000-08:00

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

NON-ERRORS

2009-12-05T10:22:00.000-08:00

(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."

Common Errors Y-- Z

2009-12-05T10:21:00.000-08:00

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.

Common Errors W

2009-12-05T10:20:00.002-08:00

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."

Common Errors U -- V

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UFO

"UFO" stands for "Unidentified Flying Object," so if you're sure that
silvery disk is an alien spacecraft, there's no point in calling it a
"UFO." I love the sign I once saw in a Seattle bookstore labeling the
alien-invasion section: "Incorrectly Identified Flying Objects."

UGLY AMERICAN

The term "ugly American"--used to describe boorish people from the US
insensitive to those in other countries--bothers fans of the 1958 novel
The Ugly American, whose title character was actually sensitive and
thoughtful--he just looked ugly. The popularizers of this phrase hadn't
read the book, and judged its message too quickly by its title.

THE UKRAINE/UKRAINE

Some country names are preceded by an article--like "The United States"
and "La France"--but most are not. Sometimes it depends on what language
you are speaking: in English we call the latter country simply "France"
and "La Republica Argentina" is just "Argentina" although in the
nineteenth century the British often referred to it as "The Argentine."

When the region formerly known as "The Ukraine" split off from the old
Soviet Union, it declared its preference for dropping the article, and
the country is now properly called simply "Ukraine."

UNCHARTERED/UNCHARTED

"Unchartered" means "lacking a charter," and is a word most people have
little use for. "Uncharted" means "unmapped" or "unexplored," so the
expression meaning "to explore a new subject or area" is "enter
uncharted territory." Similarly, it's uncharted regions, waters, and
paths.

UNCONSCIENCE/UNCONSCIOUS

Do people confuse the unconscious with conscience because the stuff
fermenting in one's unconscious is often stuff that bothers one's
conscience? Whatever the cause, there is no such word as "unconscience."
And while we're on the subject, "subconscious" is not used in Freudian
psychology; it implies something that is merely not consciously thought
of, rather than something that is suppressed. The term is, however, used
by Jungians.

UNDER THE GUISE THAT/UNDER THE GUISE OF

Phishing e-mails try to extract valuable information from you so they
can rob you under the guise of protecting your online security. They are
disguising their theft as protection. There are other related phrases,
mostly ending in "that," such as "under the pretext that" and "with the
excuse that"; but "under the guise" requires "of," usually followed by a
gerund ending in "-ing."

UNDER WEIGH/UNDER WAY

The original expression for getting a boat moving has nothing to do with
weighing anchor and is "getting under way," but so many sophisticated
writers get this wrong that you're not likely to get into trouble if you
imitate them.

When "underway" is used elsewhere as an adjective or adverb, by far the
most common spelling is as a single word, as in "our plans are
underway"; though some authorities argue that the adverbial form should
be spelled as two words: "under way."

UNDERESTIMATED

Enthusiastic sportscasters often say of a surprisingly talented team
that "they cannot be underestimated" when what they mean is "they should
not be underestimated."

UNDERLINING/UNDERLYING

You can stress points by underlining them, but it's "underlying" in
expressions like "underlying story," "underlying motive," and
"underlying principle."

UNDERMIND/UNDERMINED

Some people believe in a mystical overmind, but not even they believe in
an "undermind." The word is "undermined." If you dig under a castle wall
to prepare to breach its defenses, you are undermining it, digging a
mine under it. The metaphor applies to all sorts of weakening of
opposing positions, most often in arguments.

UNDO/UNDUE

The verb "undo" is the opposite of "do." You undo your typing errors on
a computer or undo your shoelaces to go wading.

The adjective "undue" is the opposite of "due" and means "unwarranted"
or "improper." It is used in phrases like "undue influence," "undue
burdens," and "undue expense."

UNDOUBTABLY/UNDOUBTEDLY

Doubtless the spelling of "presumably" influences the misspelling
"undoubtably." The word is "undoubtedly." When something is undoubtedly
true, it is undoubted.

UNKEPT/UNKEMPT

"Unkempt" is an old version of "uncombed." The standard expression for a
sloppy-looking person is not "unkept," but "unkempt."

UNPLEASED/DISPLEASED

"Unpleased" is considered archaic; the standard modern word for your
reaction to something you don't like is "displeased.""

However "unpleasing" is still current to describe something that fails
to please: "the arrangement of 'Silent Night' for truck air horns was
unpleasing." But "displeasing" is more common.

UNREST

Journalists often use this mild term to describe all manner of civil
disorders, but it's silly to call mayhem or chaos merely "unrest" when
there are bullets flying about and bodies lying in the streets.

UNTHAW/THAW

"Unthaw" is another illogical negative. Use "thaw."

UNTRACKED/ON TRACK

When things begin running smoothly and successfully, they get "on
track." Some people oddly substitute "untracked" for this expression,
perhaps thinking that to be "tracked" is to be stuck in a rut.

UPMOST/UTMOST

"Upmost" can mean "uppermost," referring to something on top. But
usually this word is a mistake for "utmost," meaning "most extreme."
"Utmost" is related to words like "utter," as in "The birthday party was
utter chaos."

UPTO/UP TO

Not upto alot lately? You might use some of your spare time memorizing
the fact that "up to" is a two-word phrase, as is "a lot."

URINE ANALYSIS/URINALYSIS

The technical term for the test you use to kick the druggies off the
team is not "urine analysis" but "urinalysis."

US/WE

ÒWeÓ is a subject form, ÒusÓ an object. We do things; things are done to
or for us.

If this doesnÕt help, you can try a couple of simple tests. If you are
clear about the difference between ÒIÓ and Òme,Ó try making your
sentence singular. ÒWeÓ becomes ÒIÓ in the singular and ÒusÓ becomes
Òme.Ó

ÒOur mothers and us are going shoppingÓ becomes Òmy mother and me are
going shoppingÓÑwhich is wrong. So the sentences should read ÒMy mother
and I are going shoppingÓ and ÒOur mothers and we are going shopping.Ó

But if that doesnÕt seem obvious, try eliminating everything but the
pronoun and the verb: ÒUs are going shoppingÓ should be Òwe are going
shopping.Ó

Test a sentence like Òus girls have sold more calendars than the guysÓ
by reducing it to Òus have sold.Ó This sounds wrong. It should be ÒWe
girls have sold.Ó

But Òthey gave us girls the prizeÓ is correct because Òthey gave us the
prizeÓ is also correct.

USE/USAGE

"Use" and "usage" overlap somewhat, but they are not entirely
synonymous. Many people treat "usage" as if it were just a fancier form
of "use" in phrases like "make usage of," where "make use of" is the
standard expression. As a rule of thumb, if either "use" or "usage"
seems appropriate, go with "use."

USE TO/USED TO

Because the D and the T are blended into a single consonant when this
phrase is pronounced, many writers are unaware that the D is even
present and omit it in writing. See also "suppose to."

USED TO COULD/USED TO BE ABLE

"I used to could lift a hay-bale with my teeth," says Jeb, meaning "I
used to be able to."

UTILIZE/USE

The best use for "utilize" is to mean "make use of": "Ryan utilized his
laptop in the library mainly as a pillow to rest his head on." In most
contexts, "use" is simpler and clearer. Many readers consider "utilize"
pretentious.

VAGUE REFERENCE

Vague reference is a common problem in sentences where "this," "it,"
"which" or other such words don't refer back to any one specific word or
phrase, but a whole situation. "I hitchhiked back to town, got picked up
by an alien spacecraft and was subjected to humiliating medical
experiments, which is why I didn't get my paper done on time." In
conversation this sort of thing goes unnoticed, but more care needs to
be taken in writing. There are lots of ways to reorganize this sentence
to avoid the vague reference. You could begin the sentence with
"because" and replace "which is why" with "so," for instance.

Sometimes the referent is only understood and not directly expressed at
all: "Changing your oil regularly is important, which is one reason your
engine burned up." The "which" refers to an implied failure to change
oil regularly, but doesn't actually refer back to any of the specific
words used earlier in the sentence.

Sometimes there is no logical referent: "In the book it says that
Shakespeare was in love with some 'dark lady'." This is a casual way of
using "it" that is not acceptable in formal written English. Write
instead "Arthur O. Williams says in The Sonnets that Shakespeare. . . ."

A reference may be ambiguous because it's not clear which of two
referents is meant: "Most women are attracted to guys with a good sense
of humor unless they are into practical jokes." Does "they" refer to
"women" or "guys"? It would be clearer if the sentence said "Most women
are attracted to guys with a good sense of humor, though not usually to
practical jokers."

VAIN/VANE/VEIN

When you have vanity you are conceited: you are vain. "You're so vain
you probably think this song is about you." This spelling can also mean
"futile," as in "All my love's in vain" (fruitless). Note that when
Ecclesiastes says that "all is vanity" it doesn't mean that everything
is conceited, but that everything is pointless.

A vane is a blade designed to move or be moved by gases or liquid, like
a weathervane.

A vein is a slender thread of something, like blood in a body or gold in
a mine. It can also be a line of thought, as in "After describing his
dog's habit of chewing on the sofa, Carlos went on in the same vein for
several minutes."

VARIOUS/SEVERAL

Many people say "she heard from various of the committee members that
they wanted to cancel the next meeting." "Several of the committee
members" would be better.

VARY/VERY

"Vary" means "to change." Don't substitute it for "very" in phrases like
"very nice" or "very happy."

VEIL OF TEARS/VALE OF TEARS

The expression "vale of tears" goes back to pious sentiments that
consider life on earth to be a series of sorrows to be left behind when
we go on to a better world in Heaven. It conjures up an image of a
suffering traveler laboring through a valley ("vale") of troubles and
sorrow. "Veil of tears" is poetic sounding, but it's a mistake.

VENDOR

Some writers are turning "vendor" into a verb meaning "to sell," writing
things like, "he was vendoring comic books on eBay." Since "vend" is
already a verb meaning "sell" and "vendor" is normally a noun, this
sounds very odd to many readers.

Other people use forms of the word to mean "to be certified as a vendor":
"Persons wishing to be vendored must complete the appropriate form."
This process is also referred to as "vendorization."

This pattern is probably inspired by the widespread use of "vendor" to
label suppliers on commercial Web sites. Instead of thinking of vendors
as mere merchants, dealers, or sellers, some special quality is being
attributed to them.

None of this is standard English.

VERB TENSE

If the situation being described is an ongoing or current one, the
present tense is needed, even in a past-tense context: "Last week she
admitted that she is really a brunette" (not "was").

Pairs of verbs that go together logically have to be kept in the same
tense. Incorrect: "Patricia described her trip to China and writes that
the Great Wall really impressed her." Since "described" is in the past
tense, and the writing contains her descriptions, "writes" should be
"wrote."

Lots of people get into trouble with sentences that describe a
hypothetical situation in the past: "If he would have packed his own
suitcase, he would have noticed that the cat was in it." That first
"would have" should be a simple "had": "If he had packed his own
suitcase he would have noticed that the cat was in it." Also "The game
would have been more fun if we had [not "would have"] won." This sort of
construction consists of two parts: a hypothetical cause in the past and
its logical effect. The hypothetical cause needs to be put into the past
tense: "had." Only the effect is made conditional: "would have." Note
that in the second example above the effect is referred to before the
cause.

Students summarizing the plot of a play, movie, or novel are often
unfamiliar with the tradition of doing so in the present tense: "Hester
embroiders an " A" on her dress." Think of the events in a piece of
fiction as happening whenever you read them--they exist in an eternal
present even if they are narrated in the past tense. Even those who are
familiar with this pattern get tripped up when they begin to discuss the
historical or biographical context of a work, properly using the past
tense, and forget to shift back to the present when they return to plot
summary. Here's how it's done correctly: "Mark Twain's days on the
Mississippi were long past when he wrote Huckleberry Finn; but Huck's
love for life on the river clearly reflects his youthful experience as a
steamboat pilot." The verb "reflects" is in the present tense. Often the
author's activity in writing is rendered in the present tense as well:
"Twain depicts Pap as a disgusting drunk." What about when you are
comparing events that occur at two different times in the same
narrative? You still have to stick to the present: "Tom puts Jim through
a lot of unnecessary misery before telling him that he is free." Just
remember when you go from English to your history class that you have to
shift back to the past tense for narrating historical events: "Napoleon
lost the battle of Waterloo."

VERBAGE/VERBIAGE

"Verbiage" is an insulting term usually meant to disparage needlessly
wordy prose. Don't use it to mean simply "wording." There is no such
word as "verbage."

VERACIOUS/VORACIOUS

If you are extremely hungry, you may have a "voracious" appetite (think
of the O as an open mouth, ready to devour anything). "Veracious" is an
unusual word meaning "truthful, honest" (think about the E in "verify").
A truthful person has "veracity." "Voracity," meaning "extreme appetite"
is a rare word you are unlikely to have a use for; "voraciousness" is
more common.

VERSE/PLAY AGAINST

Some young people use "verse" as a verb meaning "to play against," as in
"I'll verse you at basketball after school." Computer gamers are
particularly fond of virtual opponents versing each other. Presumably
this bit of slang derives from the word "versus," but it's not standard
English and is likely to confuse outsiders.

VERSES/VERSUS

The "vs." in a law case like "Brown vs. The Board of Education" stands
for Latin versus (meaning "against"). Don't confuse it with the word for
lines of poetry--"verses"--when describing other conflicts, like the
upcoming football game featuring Oakesdale versus Pinewood.

Note that in formal legal contexts the abbreviation is usually just
"v.", as in "Brown v. The Board of Education."

VERY SORT OF, VERY KIND OF

"He's very sort of buffed." Wha . . ? He can't be very buffed and only
sort of buffed at the same time. It's an error to follow the phrase
"very sort of" with an adjective (a quality, such as "rich," "happy,"
"conscientious").

It's all right to say "very sort of" when "very" means "exact,"
"precise," and the phrase is followed by an noun (a thing or person):
"the very sort of pastry I can't resist," "the very sort of boss I can't
stand."

Less common is the equally confused expression "very kind of" as in
"he's very kind of charming when he's trying to impress women."

Of course "very kind of" is fine in appreciative comments where "kind"
is an adjective meaning "generous," "helpful," like "it was very kind of
you to shovel Mrs. Mukherjee's front walk."

VERY UNIQUE/UNIQUE

"Unique" singles out one of a kind. That "un" at the beginning is a form
of "one." A thing is unique (the only one of its kind) or it is not.
Something may be almost unique (there are very few like it), but nothing
is "very unique."

VICIOUS/VISCOUS CIRCLE/CYCLE

The term "vicious circle" was invented by logicians to describe a form
of fallacious circular argument in which each term of the argument draws
on the other: "Democracy is the best form of government because
democratic elections produce the best governments." The phrase has been
extended in popular usage to all kinds of self-exacerbating processes
such as this: poor people often find themselves borrowing money to pay
off their debts, but in the process create even more onerous debts which
in their turn will need to be financed by further borrowing. Sensing
vaguely that such destructive spirals are not closed loops, people have
transmuted "vicious circle" into "vicious cycle." The problem with this
perfectly logical change is that a lot of people know what the original
"correct" phrase was and are likely to scorn users of the new one. They
go beyond scorn to contempt however toward those poor souls who render
the phrase as "viscous cycle." Don't use this expression unless you are
discussing a Harley-Davidson in dire need of an oil change.

VIDEO/FILM

Many of us can remember when portable transistorized radios were
ignorantly called "transistors." We have a tendency to abbreviate the
names of various sorts of electronic technology (see "stereo" and
"satellite"), often in the process confusing the medium with the
content. Video is the electronic reproduction of images, and applies to
broadcast and cable television, prerecorded videocassette recordings
(made on a videocassette recorder, or VCR), and related technologies.
MTV appropriated this broad term for a very narrow meaning: "videotaped
productions of visual material meant to accompany popular music
recordings." This is now what most people mean when they speak of "a
video," unless they are "renting a video," in which case they mean a
videocassette or DVD recording of a film. One also hears people
referring to theatrical films that they happened to have viewed in
videotaped reproduction as "videos." This is simply wrong. A film is a
film (or movie), whether it is projected on a screen from 35 or 70 mm
film or broadcast via the NTSC, SECAM or PAL standard. Orson Welles'
"Citizen Kane" is not now and never will be a "video."

VINEGARETTE/VINAIGRETTE

Naive diners and restaurant workers alike commonly mispronounce the
classic French dressing called "vinaigrette" as if it were
"vinegarette." To be more sophisticated, say "vin-uh-GRETT" (the first
syllable rhymes with "seen").

VINTAGE POINT/VANTAGE POINT

The spot from which you have a good view is a vantage point.

VIRII/VIRUSES

Hackers like to use "virii" as the plural form of "virus," but Latin
scholars object that this invented term does not follow standard
patterns in that language, and that there is already a perfectly good
plural in English: "viruses."

VITAE/VITA

Unless you are going to claim credit for accomplishments in previous
incarnations, you should refer to your "vita," not your "vitae." All
kidding aside, the "ae" in "vitae" supposedly indicates the genitive
rather than the plural; but the derivation of "vita" from "curriculum
vitae" is purely speculative (see the Oxford English Dictionary), and
"vitae" on its own makes no sense grammatically.

"Resume," by the way, is a French word with both "Es" accented, and
literally means "summary." In English one often sees it without the
accents, or with only the second accent, neither of which is a serious
error. But if you're trying to show how multilingual you are, remember
the first accent.

VIOLA/VOILA

A viola is a flower or a musical instrument. The expression which means
"behold!" is "voila." It comes from a French expression literally
meaning "look there!" In French it is spelled with a grave accent over
the A, but when it was adopted into English, it lost its accent. Such
barbarous misspellings as "vwala" are even worse, caused by the
reluctance of English speakers to believe that "OI" can represent the
sound "wah," as it usually does in French.

VOLUMN/VOLUME

There are a few unusual words in English when ending in "MN" in which
the "N" is silent, such as "hymn" and "column," but "volume" is not one
of them.

VOLUMPTUOUS/VOLUPTUOUS

Given the current mania for slim, taut bodies, it is understandable--if
amusing--that some folks should confuse voluptuousness with lumpiness.
In fact, "voluptuous" is derived from Latin "voluptas," which refers to
sensual pleasure and not to shape at all. A voluptuous body is a
luxurious body.

Common Errors T

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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.

Common Errors S

2009-12-05T10:18:00.001-08:00

SACRED/SCARED

This is one of those silly typos which your spelling checker won't
catch: gods are sacred, the damned in Hell are scared.

SACRELIGIOUS/SACRILEGIOUS

Doing something sacrilegious involves committing sacrilege. Don't let
the related word "religious" trick you into misspelling the word as
"sacreligious."

SAFETY DEPOSIT BOX/SAFE DEPOSIT BOX

Those who prefer "safe deposit box" feel that the box in question is a
container for the safe deposit of goods; it is not a box in which to
deposit your safety. But manufacturers and dealers in this kind of safe
are split in their usage. Just be aware that some people feel that
"safety deposit" is an error whereas no one is likely to look down on
you for saying "safe deposit box."

SAIL/SALE/SELL

These simple and familiar words are surprisingly often confused in
writing. You sail a boat which has a sail of canvas. You sell your old
fondue pot at a yard sale.

SALSA SAUCE/SALSA

"Salsa" is Spanish for "sauce," so "salsa sauce" is redundant. Here in
the US, where people now spend more on salsa than on ketchup (or
catsup, if you prefer), few people are unaware that it's a sauce. Anyone
so sheltered as not to be aware of that fact will need a fuller
explanation: "chopped tomatoes, onions, chilies and cilantro."

SAME DIFFERENCE

This is a jokey, deliberately illogical slang expression that doesn't
belong in formal writing.

SARCASTIC/IRONIC

Not all ironic comments are sarcastic. Sarcasm is meant to mock or
wound. Irony can be amusing without being maliciously aimed at hurting
anyone.

SATELLITE

Originally a satellite was a follower. Astronomers applied the term to
smaller bodies orbiting about planets, like our moon. Then we began
launching artificial satellites. Since few people were familiar with the
term in its technical meaning, the adjective "artificial" was quickly
dropped in popular usage. So far so bad. Then television began to be
broadcast via satellite. Much if not all television now wends its way
through a satellite at some point, but in the popular imagination only
broadcasts received at the viewing site via a dish antenna aimed at a
satellite qualify to be called "satellite television." Thus we see motel
signs boasting:

AIR CONDITIONING * SATELLITE

People say things like "the fight's going to be shown on satellite." The
word has become a pathetic fragment of its former self. The
technologically literate speaker will avoid these slovenly
abbreviations.

*At least motels have not yet adopted the automobile industry's
truncation of "air conditioning" to "air."

SAW/SEEN

In standard English, it's "I've seen" not "I've saw." The helping verb
"have" (abbreviated here to "'ve") requires "seen." In the simple past
(no helping verb), the expression is "I saw," not "I seen." "I've seen a
lot of ugly cars, but when I saw that old beat-up Rambler I couldn't
believe my eyes."

SAY/TELL

You say "Hello, Mr. Chips" to the teacher, and then tell him about what
you did last summer. You can't "tell that" except in expressions like
"go tell that to your old girlfriend."

SCEPTIC/SKEPTIC

Believe it or not, the British spellings are "sceptic" and "scepticism";
the American spellings are "skeptic" and "skepticism."

SCHIZOPHRENIC

In popular usage, "schizophrenic" (and the more slangy and now dated
"schizoid") indicates "split between two attitudes." This drives people
with training in psychiatry crazy. "Schizo-" does indeed mean "split,"
but it is used here to mean "split off from reality." Someone with a
Jekyll-and-Hyde personality is suffering from "multiple personality
disorder" (or, more recently, "dissociative identity disorder"), not
"schizophrenia."

SCI-FI

"Sci-fi," the widely used abbreviation for "science fiction," is
objectionable to most professional science fiction writers, scholars,
and many fans. Some of them scornfully designate alien monster movies
and other trivial entertainments "sci-fi" (which they pronounce
"skiffy") to distinguish them from true science fiction. The preferred
abbreviation in these circles is "SF." The problem with this
abbreviation is that to the general public "SF" means "San Francisco."
"The Sci-Fi Channel" has exacerbated the conflict over this term. If you
are a reporter approaching a science fiction writer or expert you
immediately mark yourself as an outsider by using the term "sci-fi."

SCONE/SCONCE

If you fling a jam-covered biscuit at the wall and it sticks, the result
may be a "wall scone"; but if you are describing a wall-mounted light
fixture, the word you want is "sconce."

SCOTCH/SCOTS

Scottish people generally refer to themselves as "Scots" or "Scottish"
rather than "Scotch."

SCOTCH FREE/SCOT FREE

Getting away with something "scot free" has nothing to do with the Scots
(or Scotch). The scot was a medieval tax; if you evaded paying it you
got off scot free. Some people wrongly suppose this phrase alludes to
Dred Scott, the American slave who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom.
The phrase is "scot free": no H, one T.

SEA CHANGE

In Shakespeare's "Tempest," Ariel deceitfully sings to Ferdinand:

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.

This rich language has so captivated the ears of generations of writers
that they feel compelled to describe as "sea changes" not only
alterations that are "rich and strange," but, less appropriately, those
that are simply large or sudden. Always popular, this cliche has
recently become so pervasive as to make "sea" an almost inextricable
companion to "change," whatever its meaning. In its original context, it
meant nothing more complex than "a change caused by the sea." Since the
phrase is almost always improperly used and is greatly over-used, it has
suffered a swamp change into something dull and tiresome. Avoid the
phrase; otherwise you will irritate those who know it and puzzle those
who do not.

SEAM/SEEM

"Seem" is the verb, "seam" the noun. Use "seam" only for things like the
line produced when two pieces of cloth are sewn together or a thread of
coal in a geological formation.

SECOND OF ALL/SECOND

"First of all" makes sense when you want to emphasize the primacy of the
first item in a series, but it should not be followed by "second of
all," where the expression serves no such function. And "secondly" is an
adverbial form that makes no sense at all in enumeration (neither does
"firstly"). As you go through your list, say simply "second," "third,"
"fourth," etc.

SEGWAY/SEGUE

When you shift to a new topic or activity, you segue. Many people
unfamiliar with the unusual Italian spelling of the word misspell it as
"segway." This error is being encouraged by the deliberately punning
name used by the manufacturers of the Segway Human Transporter.

SELECT/SELECTED

"Select" means "special, chosen because of its outstanding qualities."
If you are writing an ad for a furniture store offering low prices on
some of its recliners, call them "selected recliners," not "select
recliners," unless they are truly outstanding and not just leftovers
you're trying to move out of the store.

SELF-WORTH/SELF-ESTEEM

To say that a person has a low sense of self-worth makes sense, though
it's inelegant; but people commonly truncate the phrase, saying instead,
"He has low self-worth." This would literally mean that he isn't worth
much rather than that he has a low opinion of himself. "Self-esteem"
sounds much more literate.

SENSE/SINCE

"Sense" is a verb meaning "feel" ("I sense you near me") or a noun
meaning "intelligence" ("have some common sense!"). Don't use it when
you need the adverb "since" ("since you went away," "since you're up
anyway, would you please let the cat out?")

SENSUAL/SENSUOUS

"Sensual" usually relates to physical desires and experiences, and often
means "sexy." But "sensuous" is more often used for esthetic pleasures,
like "sensuous music." The two words do overlap a good deal. The leather
seats in your new car may be sensuous; but if they turn you on, they
might be sensual. "Sensual" often has a slightly racy or even judgmental
tone lacking in "sensuous."

SENTENCE FRAGMENTS

There are actually many fine uses for sentence fragments. Here's a brief
scene from an imaginary Greek tragedy composed entirely of fragments:

Menelaus: Aha! Helen! Helen (startled): Beloved husband! Menelaus: Slut!
Paris (entering, seeing Menelaus): Oops. 'Bye. Menelaus: Not so fast!
(stabs Paris). Paris: Arrggh!

Some people get into trouble by breaking a perfectly good sentence in
two: "We did some research in newspapers. Like the National Inquirer."
The second phrase belongs in the same sentence with the first, not
dangling off on its own.

A more common kind of troublesome fragment is a would-be sentence
introduced by a word or phrase that suggests it's part of some other
sentence: "By picking up the garbage the fraternity had strewn around
the street the weekend before got the group a favorable story in the
paper." Just lop off "by" to convert this into a proper complete
sentence.

SERGEANT OF ARMS/SERGEANT AT ARMS

The officer charged with maintaining order in a meeting is the "sergeant
at arms," not "of arms."

SERVICE/SERVE

A mechanic services your car and a stallion services a mare; but most of
the time when you want to talk about the goods or services you supply,
the word you want is "serve": "Our firm serves the hotel industry."

SET/SIT

In some dialects people say "come on in and set a spell," but in
standard English the word is "sit." You set down an object or a child
you happen to be carrying; but those seating themselves sit. If you mix
these two up it will not sit well with some people.

SETUP/SET UP

Technical writers sometimes confuse "setup" as a noun ("check the
setup") with the phrase "set up" ("set up the experiment").

SHALL/WILL

"Will" has almost entirely replaced "shall" in American English except
in legal documents and in questions like "Shall we have red wine with
the duck?"

SHEAR/SHEER

You can cut through cloth with a pair of shears, but if the cloth is
translucent it's sheer. People who write about a "shear blouse" do so
out of sheer ignorance.

SHEATH/SHEAF

If you take your knife out of its sheath (case) you can use it to cut a
sheaf (bundle) of wheat to serve as a centerpiece.

SHERBERT/SHERBET

The name for these icy desserts is derived from Turkish/Persian
"sorbet," but the "R" in the first syllable seems to seduce many
speakers into adding one in the second, where it doesn't belong. A
California chain called "Herbert's Sherbets" had me confused on this
point for years when I was growing up.

SHIMMY/SHINNY

You shinny--or shin (climb)--up a tree or pole; but on the dance floor
or in a vibrating vehicle you shimmy (shake).

SHOE-IN/SHOO-IN

A race horse so fast that you can merely shoo it across the finish line
rather than having to urge it on with stronger measures is a "shoo-in":
an easy winner. It is particularly unfortunate when this expression is
misspelled "shoe-in" because to "shoehorn" something in is to squeeze it
in with great difficulty.

SHONE/SHOWN

"Shone" is the past tense of "shine": "long after sunset, the moon still
shone brightly in the sky."

"Shown" is a past tense form of "show": "foreign films are rarely shown
at our local theater."

SHOOK/SHAKEN

Elvis Presley couldn't have very well sung "I'm all shaken up," but that
is the grammatically correct form. "Shook" is the simple past tense of
"shake," and quite correct in sentences like "I shook my piggy bank but
all that came out was a paper clip." But in sentences with a helping
verb, you need "shaken": "The quarterback had shaken the champagne
bottle before emptying it on the coach."

SHRUNK/SHRANK

The simple past tense form of "shrink" is "shrank" and the past
participle is "shrunk"; it should be "Honey, I Shrank the Kids," not
"Honey, I Shrunk the Kids." (Thanks a lot, Disney.)

"Honey, I've shrunk the kids" would be standard, and also grammatically
acceptable is "Honey, I've shrunken the kids" (though deplorable from a
child-rearing point of view).

SHUTTER TO THINK/SHUDDER TO THINK

When you are so horrified by a thought that you tremble at it, you
shudder to think it.

SICK/SIC

The command given to a dog, "sic 'em," derives from the word "seek." The
1992 punk rock album titled "Sick 'Em" has helped popularize the common
misspelling of this phrase. Unless you want to tell how you incited your
pit bull to vomit on someone's shoes, don't write "sick 'em" or "sick
the dog."

The standard spelling of the -ing form of the word is "siccing."

In a different context, the Latin word sic ("thus") inserted into a
quotation is an editorial comment calling attention to a misspelling or
other error in the original which you do not want to be blamed for but
are accurately reproducing: "She acted like a real pre-Madonna (sic)."
When commenting on someone else's faulty writing, you really want to
avoid misspelling this word as sick.

Although it's occasionally useful in preventing misunderstanding, "sic"
is usually just a way of being snotty about someone else's mistake,
largely replaced now by "lol." Sometimes it's appropriate to correct the
mistakes in writing you're quoting; and when errors abound, you needn't
mark each one with a "sic"--your readers will notice.

SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS/SIERRA NEVADAS

Sierra is Spanish for "sawtooth mountain range," so knowledgeable
Westerners usually avoid a redundancy by simply referring to "the Sierra
Nevadas" or simply "the Sierras." Transplanted weather forecasters often
get this wrong.

Some object to the familiar abbreviation "Sierras," but this form, like
"Rockies" and "Smokies" is too well established to be considered
erroneous.

SIGNALED OUT/SINGLED OUT

When a single individual is separated out from a larger group, usually
by being especially noticed or treated differently, that individual is
being "singled out." This expression has nothing to do with signalling.

SILICON/SILICONE

Silicon is a chemical element, the basic stuff of which microchips are
made. Sand is largely silicon. Silicones are plastics and other
materials containing silicon, the most commonly discussed example being
silicone breast implants. Less used by the general public is "silica":
an oxide of silicon.

SIMPLISTIC

"Simplistic" means "overly simple," and is always used negatively. Don't
substitute it when you just mean to say "simple" or even "very simple."

SINGLE QUOTATION MARKS

In standard American writing, the only use for single quotation marks is
to designate a quotation within a quotation. Students are exposed by
Penguin Books and other publishers to the British practice of using
single quotes for normal quotations and become confused. Some strange
folkloric process has convinced many people that while entire sentences
and long phrases are surrounded by conventional double quotation marks,
single words and short phrases take single quotation marks. "Wrong," I
insist.

SISTER-IN-LAWS/SISTERS-IN-LAW

Your spouse's female siblings are not your sister-in-laws, but your
sisters-in-law. The same pattern applies to brothers-in-law,
fathers-in-law, and mothers-in-law.

SKIDDISH/SKITTISH

If you nervously avoid something you are not "skiddish" about it; the
word is "skittish."

SLIGHT OF HAND/SLEIGHT OF HAND

"Sleight" is an old word meaning "cleverness, skill," and the proper
expression is "sleight of hand." it's easy to understand why it's
confused with "slight" since the two words are pronounced in exactly the
same way.

SLOG IT OUT/SLUG IT OUT

Slogging is a slow, messy business, typically tramping through sticky
mud or metaphorically struggling with other difficult tasks. You might
slog through a pile of receipts to do your taxes. If you are engaged in
a fierce battle with an adversary, however, you slug it out, like boxers
slugging each other. There is no such expression as "slog it out."

SLOW GIN/SLOE GIN

A small European plum named a "sloe" is used to flavor the liqueur
called "sloe gin." You should probably sip it slowly, but that has
nothing to do with its name.

SLUFF OFF/SLOUGH OFF

You use a loofah to slough off dead skin.

SNUCK/SNEAKED

In American English "snuck" has become increasingly common as the past
tense of "sneak." This is one of many cases in which people's humorously
self-conscious use of dialect has influenced others to adopt it as
standard and it is now often seen even in sophisticated writing in the
US But it is safer to use the traditional form: "sneaked."

SOMETIME/SOME TIME

"Let's get together sometime." When you use the one-word form, it
suggests some indefinite time in the future. "Some time" is not wrong in
this sort of context, but it is required when being more specific:
"Choose some time that fits in your schedule." "Some" is an adjective
here modifying "time." The same pattern applies to "someday" (vague) and
"some day" (specific).

SO/VERY

Originally people said things like "I was so delighted with the wrapping
that I couldn't bring myself to open the package." But then they began
to lazily say "You made me so happy," no longer explaining just how
happy that was. This pattern of using "so" as a simple intensifier
meaning "very" is now standard in casual speech, but is out of place in
formal writing, where "very" or another intensifier works better.
Without vocal emphasis, the "so" conveys little in print.

SO FUN/SO MUCH FUN

Strictly a young person's usage: "That party was so fun!" If you don't
want to be perceived as a gum-chewing airhead, say "so much fun."

SOAR/SORE

By far the more common word is "sore" which refers to aches, pains and
wounds: sore feet, sore backs, sores on your skin. The more unusual word
used to describe the act of gliding through the air or swooping up
toward the heavens is spelled "soar." This second word is often used
metaphorically: eagles, spirits, and prices can all soar. If you know
your parts of speech, just keep in mind that "soar" is always a verb,
and "sore" can be either a noun ("running sore") or an adjective ("sore
loser") but never a verb. In archaic English "sore" could also be an
adverb meaning "sorely" or "severely": "they were sore afraid."

SOCIAL/SOCIETAL

"Societal" as an adjective has been in existence for a couple of
centuries, but has become widely used only in the recent past. People
who imagine that "social" has too many frivolous connotations of mere
partying often resort to it to make their language more serious and
impressive. It is best used by social scientists and others in referring
to the influence of societies: "societal patterns among the Ibo of
eastern Nigeria." Used in place of "social" in ordinary speech and
writing it sounds pretentious.

SOJOURN/JOURNEY

Although the spelling of this word confuses many people into thinking it
means "journey," a sojourn is actually a temporary stay in one place. If
you're constantly on the move, you're not engaged in a sojourn.

SOLE/SOUL

The bottom of your foot is your sole; your spirit is your soul.

SOMEWHAT OF A/SOMEWHAT, SOMETHING OF A

This error is the result of confusing two perfectly good usages: "She is
somewhat awkward," and "He is something of a klutz." Use one or the
other instead.

SOME WHERE/SOMEWHERE

"Somewhere," like "anywhere" and "nowhere," is always one word.

SOMETIMES NOT ALWAYS/SOMETIMES, NOT ALWAYS

Expressions like "not always," "don't always," and "aren't always"
overlap in meaning with "sometimes," but don't belong in the same phrase
with this word--they're redundant.

"Sometimes I don't always feel like jogging" doesn't make any sense. Say
either "sometimes I don't feel like jogging" or "I don't always feel
like jogging."

SONG/WORK OR COMPOSITION

When you're writing that cultural event report based on last night's
symphony concert, don't call the music performed "songs." Songs are
strictly pieces of music which are sung--by singers. Instrumental
numbers may be called "works," "compositions," or even "pieces." Be
careful, though: a single piece may have several different movements;
and it would be wrong to refer to the Adagio of Beethoven's Moonlight
Sonata as a "piece." It's just a piece of a piece.

See also music/singing.

SOONER/RATHER

"I'd sooner starve than eat what they serve in the cafeteria" is less
formal than "I'd rather starve."

SOONER THAN LATER/SOONER RATHER THAN LATER

The traditional expression "sooner rather than later" is now commonly
abbreviated to the less logical "sooner than later." The shorter form is
very popular, but is more likely to cause raised eyebrows than the
similarly abbreviated expression "long story short."

See "long story short."

SOUP DU JOUR OF THE DAY/SOUP OF THE DAY

"Soupe du jour" (note the "E" on the end of "soupe") means "soup of the
day." If you're going to use French to be pretentious on a menu, it's
important to learn the meaning of the words you're using. Often what is
offered is potage, anyway. Keep it simple, keep it in English, and you
can't go wrong.

SORT AFTER/SOUGHT AFTER

Something popular which many people are searching for is "sought after".
If you are sorting a thing, you've presumably already found it. When
this phrase precedes a noun or noun phrase which it modifies, it has to
be hyphenated: "Action Comics #1 is a much sought-after comic book
because it was the first to feature Superman."

SOUR GRAPES

In a famous fable by Aesop, a fox declared that he didn't care that he
could not reach an attractive bunch of grapes because he imagined they
were probably sour anyway. You express sour grapes when you put down
something you can't get: "winning the lottery is just a big headache
anyway." The phrase is misused in all sorts of ways by people who don't
know the original story and imagine it means something more general like
"bitterness" or "resentment."

SOWCOW/SALCHOW

There's a fancy turning jump in ice skating named after Swedish figure
skater Ulrich Salchow; but every Winter Olympics millions of people
think they hear the commentators saying "sowcow" and that's how they
proceed to misspell it.

SPACES AFTER A PERIOD

In the old days of typewriters using only monospaced fonts in which a
period occupied as much horizontal space as any other letter, it was
standard to double-space after each one to clearly separate out each
sentence from the following one. However, when justified, variable-width
type is set for printing it has always been standard to use only one
space between sentences. Modern computers produce type that is more like
print, and most modern styles call for only one space after a period.
This is especially important if you are preparing a text for publication
which will be laid out from your electronic copy. If you find it
difficult to adopt the one-space pattern, when you are finished writing
you can do a global search-and-replace to find all double spaces and
replace them with single spaces.

SPADED/SPAYED

If you have neutered your dog, you've spayed it; save the spading until
it dies.

SPECIALLY/ESPECIALLY

In most contexts "specially" is more common than "especially," but when
you mean "particularly" "especially" works better: "I am not especially
excited about inheriting my grandmother's neurotic Siamese cat."
"Especial" in the place of "special" is very formal and rather
old-fashioned.

SPECIE/SPECIES

In both the original Latin and in English "species" is the spelling of
both the singular and plural forms. Amphiprion ocellaris is one species
of clownfish. Many species of fish are endangered by overfishing.

Specie is a technical term referring to the physical form of money,
particularly coins.

SPICKET/SPIGOT

A faucet is a "spigot," not a "spicket."

SPICY

"Spicy" has two different meanings: intensely flavored and peppery.
Someone who asks for food that is not spicy intending to avoid only
pepper may get bland, flavorless food instead. It's good to be specific
about what you dislike. South Asian cooks asked to avoid pepper have
been known to omit only seed pepper and use a free hand with chopped
green or red chilies. If you are such a cook, be aware that timid
American diners mean by "pepper" all biting, hot spices and they will
probably not enjoy chili peppers or large amounts of ginger, though they
may love cardamom, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, etc.

When you see the word "chilli" on an Indian menu, the spelling being
used is that of the British.

SPAN/SPUN

Don't say "the demon span her head around." The past tense of "spin" in
this sense is "spun."

SPARE OF THE MOMENT/SPUR OF THE MOMENT

You don't see people wearing spurs much any more, which may explain why
some are vague about the significance of metaphorical spurs. Anything
that prompts you to do something can be a spur to action. We say of
people that are prompted in this way that they are "spurred on" by fear,
ambition, greed, or some other cause.

So a momentary impulse which causes you to act without advance planning
can result in a decision made "on the spur of the moment."

Then there is the expression "spare moment": "Sorry, Honey, when I was
getting the kids ready for school I couldn't spare a moment to clean up
the mess the dog made in the kitchen."

This latter pattern seems to lead some people to mistakenly imagine that
the expression is "on the spare of the moment."

SPIRITUALISM/SPIRITUALITY

The most common meaning of "spiritualism" is belief in the possibility
of communication with the spirits of the dead.

A better term for other religious beliefs and activities is
"spirituality," as in "I'm going to the ashram to explore my
spirituality."

SPOKE/SAID

Novice writers of fictional dialogue sometimes become wary of repeating
"said" too often, resulting in odd constructions like this: "'You've got
gravy on your shirt,' she spoke."

You can speak a language or speak with someone, but you can't speak a
speech.

If you get tired of "said" you could have your characters whisper,
shout, hiss, or grumble; but you shouldn't be afraid of having them
simply say things. It won't bore your readers; they won't even notice.

SPREE

It used to be that a spree was mainly understood as a wild drinking
carouse, with the emphasis on spontaneity and abandon. Then it was used
metaphorically, as in a "shopping spree."

American journalists began to write of "killing sprees" by murderers
recklessly killing people at random ("spree" fits so nicely in
headlines).

But they go too far when they refer to terrorist bombing sprees.
Targeted, purposeful acts like these lack the element of spontaneity and
disorder that characterize a spree. Do they mean perhaps a "spate"?

STAID/STAYED

"Staid" is an adjective often used to label somebody who is rather
stodgy and dull, a stick-in-the mud. But in modern English the past
tense of the verb "stay" is "stayed": "I stayed at the office late
hoping to impress my boss."

STAND/STANCE

When you courageously resist opposing forces, you take--or make--a
stand. The metaphor is a military one, with the defending forces
refusing to flee from the attacker. Your stance, on the other hand, is
just your position--literal or figurative--which may not be particularly
militant. A golfer wanting to improve her drives may adopt a different
stance, or your stance on cojack may be that it doesn't belong on a
gourmet cheese platter; but if you organize a group to force the
neighbors to get rid of the hippo they've tethered in their front yard,
you're taking a stand.

STATES/COUNTRIES

Citizens of the United States, where states are smaller subdivisions of
the country, are sometimes surprised to see "states" referring instead
to foreign countries. Note that the US Department of State deals with
foreign affairs, not those of US states. Clearly distinguish these two
uses of "state" in your writing.

STATIONARY/STATIONERY

When something is standing still, it's stationary. That piece of paper
you write a letter on is stationery. Let the "E" in "stationery" remind
you of "envelope."

STINT/STENT

When the time to work comes, you've got to do your stint; but the
medical device installed to keep an artery open is a "stent." Even
people in the medical profession who should know better often use
"stint" when they mean "stent."

STEREO

"Stereo" refers properly to a means of reproducing sound in two or more
discrete channels to create a solid, apparently three-dimensional sound.
Because in the early days only fanciers of high fidelity (or hi-fi)
equipment could afford stereophonic sound, "stereo" came to be used as a
substitute for "high fidelity," and even "record player." Stereo
equipment (for instance a cheap portable cassette player) is not
necessarily high fidelity equipment. Visual technology creating a sense
of depth by using two different lenses can also use the root "stereo" as
in "stereoscope."

STOMP/STAMP

"Stomp" is colloquial, casual. A professional wrestler stomps his
opponent. In more formal contexts "stamp" is preferred. But you will
probably not be able to stamp out the spread of "stomp."

STRAIGHT/STRAIT

If something is not crooked or curved it's straight.

If it is a narrow passageway beween two bodies of water, it's a strait.
Place names like "Bering Strait" are almost always spelled "strait."

STRAIGHTJACKET/STRAITJACKET

The old word "strait" ("narrow, tight") has survived only as a noun in
geography referring to a narrow body of water ("the Bering Strait") and
in a few adjectival uses such as "straitjacket" (a narrowly confining
garment) and "strait-laced" (literally laced up tightly, but usually
meaning narrow-minded). Its unfamiliarity causes many people to
mistakenly substitute the more common "straight."

STATUE OF LIMITATIONS/STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS

What would a statue of limitations look like? A cop stopping traffic?
The Venus de Milo? Her missing arms would definitely limit her ability
to scratch what itches. The legal phrase limiting the period after which
an offense can no longer be prosecuted is the statute (law) of
limitations.

STEEP LEARNING CURVE

The phrase "steep learning curve" to describe a difficult-to-master
skill is mathematical nonsense. If the horizontal axis of the graph
represents time, then the vertical axis is probably supposed to
represent effort expended. If a task begins by being very difficult and
continues being so for a long time, then the curve would begin high
above the zero point on the vertical axis and descend very gradually,
producing a shallow learning curve, not a steep one.

Most people imagine a steep learning curve as describing a sharply
inclined slope beginning at zero; but logically that sort of curve would
describe a task that begins by being very easy and which rapidly becomes
harder and harder--not what people mean. The confusion is caused by
people's tendency to think of the curve as if it were a hill to be
climbed.

An alternative way of understanding this phrase would be to imagine that
the vertical axis represents degree of mastery; but in that case a
difficult task would begin at zero and rise very slowly over time--again
a shallow curve, not a steep one.

The problem is that most people's interpretation begins with the
vertical axis measuring mastery achieved (zero to begin with), but as
they move along the horizontal axis in time they unconsciously switch to
its opposite: remaining mastery needed (a lot, right away). This makes
no sense. The line needs to stand for the same variable along its whole
length to make a sensible chart.

There's little hope of abolishing this ubiquitous bit of pretentious
jargon, but you should avoid using it around mathematically
sophisticated people.

STOCK AND TRADE/STOCK IN TRADE

In this context, "trade" means "business." The items a business trades
in are its stock in trade. Metaphorically, the stuff needed by people to
carry on their activities can also be called their stock in trade:
"Bushy eyebrows, cigars, and quips were Groucho's stock in trade." This
expression has nothing to do with trading stock, as on a stock exchange,
and it should not be transformed into "stock and trade."

STOOD/STAYED

In standard English, "stayed" is the past tense of "stay," and "stood"
is the past tense of "stand." If you speak a dialect which uses "stood"
for the past tense of "stayed" and want to switch to standard usage, try
changing your sentence to the present tense to check: "I stood still"
becomes "I stand still." But "I stood up past midnight" becomes "I stay
up," not "I stand up." So you should say "I stayed up past midnight" and
"I stayed in the best hotel in town."

The popular saying "I shoulda stood in bed" conjures up an amusing
image, but it's not a model for standard usage.

STRESS ON/FEEL STRESS

"Stress on" is commonly misused used to mean "to experience stress" as
in "I'm stressing on the term paper I have to do." Still informal, but
better, is "I'm stressed about. . . ." In a more formal context you
could express the same idea by saying "I'm anxious about. . . ."

It is perfectly fine, however, to say that you place stress on
something, with "stress" being a noun rather than a verb.

STRICKEN/STRUCK

Most of the time the past participle of "strike" is "struck." The
exceptions are that you can be stricken with guilt, a misfortune, a
wound or a disease; and a passage in a document can be stricken out. The
rest of the time, stick with "struck."

STRONG SUITE/STRONG SUIT

"Strong suit" is an expression derived from card-playing, in which
hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades are the suits. When you put your best
foot forward your play your strong suit.

SUBMITTAL/SUBMISSION

"Submittal" is the act of submitting; it should not be used to describe
the thing being submitted, as in "clip a five-dollar bill to your
submittal and it will receive our earliest attention." In almost all
cases "submission" is clearer and more traditional than "submittal."

SUBSTANCE-FREE

An administrator at our university once announced that his goal was a
"substance-free" campus, which I suppose fit in with the fad of the
period for "virtual education." What he really meant was, of course, a
campus free of illegal drugs and alcohol, designated "controlled
substances" in the law. This is a very silly expression, but if he'd
just said "sober and straight" he would have sounded too censorious. How
about "drug- and alcohol-free"?

SUBSTITUTE WITH/SUBSTITUTE FOR

You can substitute pecans for the walnuts in a brownie recipe, but many
people mistakenly say "substitute with" instead, perhaps influenced by
the related expression "replace with." it's always "substitute for."

SUFFER WITH/SUFFER FROM

Although technical medical usage sometimes differs, in normal speech we
say that a person suffers from a disease rather than suffering with it.

SUIT/SUITE

Your bedroom suite consists of the bed, the nightstand, and whatever
other furniture goes with it. Your pajamas would be your bedroom suit.

SULKING/SKULKING

That guy sneaking furtively around the neighborhood is skulking around;
that teenager brooding in his bedroom because he got grounded is
sulking. "Sulking around" is not a traditional phrase.

SUMMARY/SUMMERY

When the weather is warm and summery and you don't feel like spending a
lot of time reading that long report from the restructuring committee,
just read the summary.

SUPED UP/SOUPED UP

The car you've souped up may be super, but it's not "suped up."

SUPERCEDE/SUPERSEDE

"Supersede," meaning to replace, originally meant "to sit higher" than,
from Latin sedere, "to sit." In the 18th century, rich people were often
carried about as they sat in sedan chairs. Don't be misled by the fact
that this word rhymes with words having quite different roots, such as
"intercede."

SUPPOSABLY, SUPPOSINGLY, SUPPOSIVELY/SUPPOSEDLY

"Supposedly" is the standard form. "Supposably" can be used only when
the meaning is "capable of being supposed," and then only in the US
You won't get into trouble if you stick with "supposedly."

SUPPOSE TO/SUPPOSED TO

Because the D and the T are blended into a single consonant when this
phrase is pronounced, many writers are unaware that the D is even
present and omit it in writing. You're supposed to get this one right if
you want to earn the respect of your readers. See also "use to."

SUPREMIST/SUPREMICIST

A neo-Nazi is a white supremacist, not "supremist."

SUSPECT/SUSPICIOUS

If your boss thinks you may have dipped into petty cash to pay your
gambling debts, you may be suspect (or "a suspect"). But if you think
somebody else did it, you are suspicious of them. Confusingly, if the
police suspect you of a crime, you can be described as a "suspicious
person" and if you constantly suspect others of crimes, you can also be
called "suspicious."

But "suspect" is not so flexible. A suspect is a person somebody is
suspicious of, never the person who is doing the suspecting. It never
makes sense to say "I am suspect that. . . ."

SURFING THE INTERNET

"Channel-surfing" developed as an ironic term to denote the very
unathletic activity of randomly changing channels on a television set
with a remote control. Its only similarity to surfboarding on real surf
has to do with the esthetic of "going with the flow." The Internet could
be a fearsomely difficult place to navigate until the World Wide Web was
invented; casual clicking on Web links was naturally quickly compared to
channel-surfing, so the expression "surfing the Web" was a natural
extension of the earlier expression. But the Web is only one aspect of
the Internet, and you label yourself as terminally uncool if you say
"surfing the Internet." (Cool people say "Net" anyway.) It makes no
sense to refer to targeted, purposeful searches for information as
"surfing"; for that reason I call my classes on Internet research
techniques "scuba-diving the Internet."

However, Jean Armour Polly, who claims to have originated the phrase
"surfing the Internet" in 1992, maintains that she intended it to have
exactly the connotations it now has. See her page on the history of the
term: (http://www.netmom.com/about/surfing_main.htm).

SWAM/SWUM

The regular past tense of "swim" is "swam": "I swam to the island."
However, when the word is preceded by a helping verb, it changes to
"swum": "I've swum to the island every day." The "'ve" stands for
"have," a helping verb.

SYLLABI/SYLLABUS

"Syllabi" is the plural of "syllabus," but you can also say
"syllabuses." Don't call a single course schedule a "syllabi."

Common Errors Q -- R

2009-12-05T10:16:00.000-08:00

Q/G

See "G/Q."

QUANTUM LEAP

The thing about quantum leaps is that they mark an abrupt change from
one state to a distinctly different one, with no in-between transitional
states being possible; but they are not large. In fact, in physics a
quantum leap is one of smallest sorts of changes worth talking about.
Leave "quantum leap" to the subatomic physicists unless you know what
you're talking about.

SQUASH/QUASH

You can squash a spider or a tomato; but when the meaning you intend is
"to suppress," as in rebellions or (especially) legal motions, the more
sophisticated term is "quash."

QUESTION/ASK

When you question someone, you may ask a series of questions trying to
arrive at the truth: "The police questioned Tom for five hours before he
admitted to having stolen the pig." "Question" can also mean
"challenge": "His mother questioned Timmy's claim that the cat had eaten
all the chocolate chip cookies." But if you are simply asking a question
to get a bit of information, it is not appropriate to say "I questioned
whether he had brought the anchovies" when what you really mean is "I
asked whether he had brought the anchovies."

QUEUE

If you're standing in a queue you'll have plenty of time to ponder the
unusual spelling of this word. Remember, it contains two "U's."

THE QUICK AND THE DEAD

The earliest meaning of the word "quick" in English is "alive." When a
baby was first felt to move in its mother's womb it was considered to
have come to life, and this moment was called "quickening." This
original meaning of the word "quick" has now died out except in the
phrase "the quick and the dead," kept alive by the King James
translation of Acts 10:42, which speaks of Jesus as judge "of quick and
dead," but even more by the continued recitation of the Apostles' Creed,
which says of Jesus that "he shall come to judge the quick and the
dead."

People who use this phrase to imply that speed is involved--liveliness
rather than aliveness--sometimes get credit for creating a clever pun
but more often come off as ignorant.

QUIET/QUITE

This is probably caused by a slip of the fingers more often than by a
slip of the mental gears, but one often sees "quite" (very) substituted
for "quiet" (shhh!). This is one of those common errors your spelling
checker will not catch, so look out for it.

QUOTE

A passage doesn't become a quote (or--better--"quotation") until you've
quoted it. The only time to refer to a "quote" is when you are referring
to someone quoting something. When referring to the original words,
simply call it a passage.

QUOTATION MARKS

The examples below are set off in order to avoid confusion over the use
of single and double quotation marks.

There are many ways to go wrong with quotation marks. They are often
used ironically:

She ran around with a bunch of "intellectuals."

The quotation marks around "intellectuals" indicate that the writer
believes that these are in fact so-called intellectuals, not real
intellectuals at all. The ironic use of quotation marks is very much
overdone, and is usually a sign of laziness indicating that the writer
has not bothered to find the precise word or expression necessary.

Advertisers unfortunately tend to use quotation marks merely for
emphasis:

"FRESH" TOMATOES 59 CENTS A POUND

The influence of the more common ironic usage tends to make the reader
question whether these tomatoes are really fresh. Underlining, bold
lettering, all caps--there are several less ambiguous ways to emphasize
words than placing them between quotation marks.

In American usage, single quotation marks are used normally only for
quoted words and phrases within quotations.

"Angela had the nerve to tell me "When I saw 'BYOB' on your invitation,
I assumed it meant 'Bring Your Old Boyfriend'."

British usage has traditionally been to reverse this relationship, with
single quotation marks being standard and double ones being used only
for quotations within quotations. (The English also call quotation marks
"inverted commas," though only the opening quotation mark is actually
inverted--and flipped, as well.) However, usage in the UK is shifting
toward the US pattern, (see, for instance, "The Times" of London);
though the printing of fiction tends to adhere to the older British
pattern, where US students are most likely to encounter it.

Block quotations like this should not be surrounded by any quotation
marks at all.

(A passage this short should not be rendered as a block quotation; you
need at least three lines of verse or five lines of prose to justify a
block quotation.) Normally you should leave extra space above and below
a block quotation.

When quoting a long passage involving more than one paragraph, quotation
marks go at the beginning of each paragraph, but at the end of only the
final one. Dialogue in which the speaker changes with each paragraph has
each speech enclosed in its own quotation marks.

Titles of books and other long works that might be printed as books are
usually italicized (except, for some reason, in newspapers); but the
titles of short poems, stories, essays, and other works that would be
more commonly printed within larger works (anthologies, collections,
periodicals, etc.) are enclosed in quotation marks.

There are different patterns for regulating how quotation marks relate
to other punctuation. Find out which one your teacher or editor prefers
and use it, or choose one of your own liking, but stick to it
consistently. One widely accepted authority in America is The Chicago
Manual of Style, whose guidelines are outlined below. Writers in
England, Canada, Australia, and other British-influenced countries
should be aware that their national patterns will be quite different and
variable.

I spent the morning reading Faulkner's "Barn Burning," which seemed to
be about a pyromaniac.

Periods are also normally placed inside quotation marks (with the
exception of terms being defined, see above). Colons and semicolons,
however, are preceded by quotation marks.

If the quoted matter ends with a question mark or exclamation point, it
is placed inside the quotation marks:

John asked, "When's dinner?"

But if it is the enclosing sentence which asks the question, then the
question mark comes after the quotation marks:

What did she mean, John wondered, by saying "as soon as you make it"?

Similarly:

Fred shouted, "Look out for the bull!"

but

When I was subsequently gored, all Timmy said was "this is kinda
boring"!

Finally, I must lament that many standard character sets, including
ASCII and basic HTML, lack true quotation marks which curl to enclose
the quoted matter, substituting instead ugly "inch" or "ditto" marks. As
far as I am concerned, there is not a single proper quotation mark on
this page. Some browsers can translate the code for a true quotation
mark (and true, curled apostrophes), but many cannot.

RBI/RBIs

Some people reason that since "RBI" stands for "runs batted in," there
is no need for an additional "S" to indicate a plural, and speak of "120
RBI." However, though somewhat illogical, it is standard to treat the
initialism as a word and say "RBIs." In writing, one can add an optional
apostrophe: "RBI's." Definitely nonstandard is the logical but weird
"RsBI."

The same pattern applies to other such plural initialisms as "WMDs"
("weapons of mass destruction"), "POWs" ("prisoners of war"), and "MREs"
("meals ready to eat"); but "RPMs" ("revolutions per minute") is less
widely accepted.

RPMs/RPM

"RPM" means "revolutions per minute," so it is redundant to add an S at
the end of the abbreviation--it's already plural. Adding the S is so
common among people working with cars that it's not likely to get you
into trouble, but you will impress some by avoiding it.

RACISM

The "C" in "racism" and "racist" is pronounced as a simple "S" sound,
Don't confuse it with the "SH" sound in "racial."

RACK/WRACK

If you are racked with pain or you feel nerve-racked, you are feeling as
if you were being stretched on that Medieval instrument of torture, the
rack. You rack your brains when you stretch them vigorously to search
out the truth like a torturer. "Wrack" has to do with ruinous accidents,
so if the stock market is wracked by rumors of imminent recession, it's
wrecked. If things are wrecked, they go to "wrack and ruin."

RAISE/RAZE

To raze a building is to demolish it so thoroughly that it looks like
it's been scraped right off the ground with a razor. To raise a building
is just the opposite: to erect it from the ground up.

RAMPART/RAMPANT

"Rampant" is an adjective which originally meant a posture seen in
animals on coats of arms: rearing up on their hind legs, but in modern
times it mainly means "wild" or "very widespread." Some people confuse
this word with "rampart," a noun denoting a barricade or fortification.

Crime, disease, and greed may all be rampant, but not "rampart."

RAN/RUN

Computer programmers have been heard to say "the program's been ran,"
when what they mean is "the program's been run."

RANDOM

Kyle can choose the shirt he'll wear for the day at random--they're all
orange. This sort of use of "at random" to mean "by chance," is
perfectly standard. (Kyle should get some new shirts, though.)

Less widely accepted are a couple of slangy uses of the word, mostly by
young people. In the first, "random" means "unknown," "unidentified" as
in "some random guy told me at the party that I reminded him of his old
girlfriend."

The other is to use random to mean "weird," "strange," as in "The party
at Jessica's was so random, not what I was expecting at all!" Evidently
in this expression randomness is being narrowed down to unlikelihood and
that is in turn being connected with strangeness, though randomness in
real life is usually quite ordinary and boring.

Use of either of these two expressions in formal speech or writing is
likely to annoy or confuse your audience.

RAPPORT

Many more people hear this word, meaning "affinity," than read it,
judging by the popularity of various misspellings such as "rapore" and
"rapoire." If you get along really well with someone, the two of you
have rapport.

RATE OF SPEED/RATE, SPEED

Lots of people like to say things like "traveling at a high rate of
speed." This is a redundancy. Say instead "traveling at a high rate" or
"traveling at high speed."

RATIO

A ratio is a way of expressing the relationship between one quantity and
another. If there is one teacher to fifty students, the teacher/student
ratio is one to fifty, and the student/teacher ratio fifty to one. If a
very dense but wealthy prince were being tutored by fifty teachers, the
teacher/student ratio would be fifty to one, and the student/teacher
ratio would be one to fifty. As you can see, the order in which the
numbers are compared is important.

The ratios discussed so far are "high"--the difference between the
numbers is large. The lowest possible ratio is one to one: one teacher
to one student. If you are campaigning for more individual attention in
the classroom, you want a higher number of teachers, but a lower
student/teacher ratio.

RATIONAL/RATIONALE

"Rational" is an adjective meaning "reasonable" or "logical": "Ivan made
a rational decision to sell his old car when he moved to New York."
"Rational" rhymes with "national."

"Rationale" is a noun which most often means "underlying reason": "His
rationale for this decision was that it would cost more to pay for
parking than the car was worth." "Rationale" rhymes with "passion pal."

RATIONALE/RATIONALIZATION

When you're explaining the reasoning behind your position, you're
presenting your rationale. But if you're just making up some lame excuse
to make your position appear better--whether to yourself or
others--you're engaging in rationalization.

RAVAGING/RAVISHING/RAVENOUS

To ravage is to pillage, sack, or devastate. The only time "ravaging" is
properly used is in phrases like "when the pirates had finished ravaging
the town, they turned to ravishing the women." Which brings us to
"ravish": meaning to rape, or rob violently. A trailer court can be
ravaged by a storm (nothing is stolen, but a lot of damage is done) but
not ravished. The crown jewels of Ruritania can be ravished (stolen
using violence) without being ravaged (damaged).

To confuse matters, people began back in the fourteenth century to speak
metaphorically of their souls being "ravished" by intense spiritual or
esthetic experiences. Thus we speak of a "ravishing woman" (the term is
rarely applied to men) today not because she literally rapes men who
look at her but because her devastating beauty penetrates their hearts
in an almost violent fashion. Despite contemporary society's heightened
sensitivity about rape, we still remain (perhaps fortunately)
unconscious of many of the transformations of the root meaning in words
with positive connotations such as "rapturous."

Originally, "raven" as a verb was synonymous with "ravish" in the sense
of "to steal by force." One of its specialized meanings became "devour,"
as in "the lion ravened her prey." By analogy, hungry people became
"ravenous" (as hungry as beasts), and that remains the only common use
of the word today.

If a woman smashes your apartment up, she ravages it. If she looks
stunningly beautiful, she is ravishing. If she eats the whole platter of
hors d'oeuvres you've set out for the party before the other guests
come, she's ravenous.

REACTIONARY/REACTIVE

Many people incorrectly use "reactionary" to mean "acting in response to
some outside stimulus." That's "reactive." "Reactionary" actually has a
very narrow meaning; it is a noun or adjective describing a form of
looking backward that goes beyond conservatism (wanting to prevent
change and maintain present conditions) to reaction--wanting to recreate
a lost past. The advocates of restoring Czarist rule in Russia are
reactionaries. While we're on the subject, the term "proactive" formed
by analogy with "reactive" seems superfluous to many of us. Use
"active," "assertive," or "positive" whenever you can instead.

READABLY/READILY

Some people mistakenly say of something easily available that it is
"readably available." The original expression has nothing to do with
reading; it is "readily available," ready at hand.

REAL/REALLY

The correct adverbial form is "really" rather than "real"; but even that
form is generally confined to casual speech, as in "When you
complimented me on my speech I felt really great!" To say "real great"
instead moves the speaker several steps downscale socially. However
"really" is a feeble qualifier. "Wonderful" is an acceptable substitute
for "really great" and you can give a definite upscale slant to your
speech by adopting the British "really quite wonderful." Usually,
however, it is better to replace the expression altogether with
something more precise: "almost seven feet tall" is better than "really
tall." To strive for intensity by repeating "really" as in "that dessert
you made was really, really good" demonstrates an impoverished
vocabulary.

REALTOR

For some reason, this word is often mispronounced as "real-a-ter"
instead of the proper "ree-ul-ter." Incidentally, realtors insist that
this is a term originally trademarked by the National Association of
Real Estate Boards (now renamed the "National Association of Realtors"),
that it must be capitalized, and that all non-members of that
association are mere "real estate associates." Common usage, however,
calls both "real estate agents," despite their protests.

REAP WHAT YOU SEW/REAP WHAT YOU SOW

When you plant seeds you sow them. Galatians 6:7 says "A man reaps what
he sows" (harvests what he plants, gets what he deserves). This
agricultural metaphor gets mangled frequently into "you reap what
you sew." At best, you might rip what you sew; but you probably wouldn't
want to tell people about it.

REASON BECAUSE

We often hear people say things like, "the reason there's a hole in the
screen door is because I tripped over the cat on my way out." The phrase
"is because" should be "is that." If you wanted to use "because," the
sentence should be phrased, "There's a hole in the screen door because I
tripped over the cat." U. "The reason being is" should be simply "the
reason being."

The similarly redundant common expression "the reason why" is generally
regarded as standard now, although some people still object to it.

REBELLING/REVOLTING

Even though "rebel" and "revolt" mean more or less the same thing,
people who are revolting are disgusting, not taking up arms against the
government.

REBUT/REFUTE

When you rebut someone's argument you argue against it. To refute
someone's argument is to prove it incorrect. Unless you are certain you
have achieved success, use "rebut."

RECENT/RESENT

There are actually three words to distinguish here. "Recent," always
pronounced with an unvoiced hissy S and with the accent on the first
syllable, means "not long ago," as in, " I appreciated your recent
encouragement." "Resent" has two different meanings with two different
pronunciations, both with the accent on the second syllable. In the most
common case, where "resent" means "feel annoyed at," the word is
pronounced with a voiced Z sound: "I resent your implication that I gave
you the chocolates only because I was hoping you'd share them with me."
In the less common case, the word means "to send again," and is
pronounced with an unvoiced hissy S sound: "The e-mail message bounced,
so I resent it." So say the intended word aloud. If the accent is on the
second syllable, "resent" is the spelling you need.

RECOGNIZE

In sloppy speech, this often comes out "reck-uh-nize." Sound the "G."

RECREATE/REINVENT

The expression "no need to reinvent the wheel" loses much of its wit
when "recreate" is substituted for the original verb. While we're at it,
"recreate" does not mean "to engage in recreation." If you play
basketball, you may be exercising, but you're not recreating.

RECUPERATE/RECOUP

If you are getting over an illness, you are recuperating; but if you
insist on remaining at the roulette table when your luck has been
running against you, you are seeking to recoup your losses.

REDICULOUS/RIDICULOUS

You may ridicule ideas because you find them ridiculous, but not
rediculous.

REDO IT OVER/REDO IT, DO IT OVER

"Redo it over" is redundant; say either "redo it" or "do it over." The
only time this phrase makes sense is in the phrase "redo it over and
over again."

REDUNDANCIES

There are many examples of redundancies in these pages: phrases which
say twice what needs to be said only once, like "past history."
Advertisers are particularly liable to redundancy in hyping their
offers: "as an added bonus" (as a bonus), "preplan" (plan), and "free
gift" (but look out for the shipping charges!). Two other common
redundancies which are clearly errors are "and plus" (plus) and "end
result" (result). But some other redundancies are contained in phrases
sanctioned by tradition: "safe haven," "hot water heater," "new
beginning," and "tuna fish."

REEKING HAVOC/WREAKING HAVOC

"Reeking" means "smelling strongly," so that can't be right. The phrase
simply means "working great destruction." "Havoc" has always referred to
general destruction in English, but one very old phrase incorporating
the word was "cry havoc," which meant to give an army the signal for
pillage. To "play havoc with" means the same thing as to "wreak havoc."
Avoid as well the mistaken "wreck havoc."

REFRAIN/RESTRAIN

"Restrain" is a transitive verb: it needs an object. Although "refrain"
was once a synonym for "restrain" it is now an intransitive verb: it
should not have an object. Here are examples of correct modern usage:
"When I pass the doughnut shop I have to restrain myself" ("myself" is
the object). "When I feel like throwing something at my boss, I usually
refrain from doing so." You can't refrain yourself or anyone else.

REFRIDGERATOR/REFRIGERATOR

Although "fridge" is short for "refrigerator," there is no "D" in the
longer word.

REFUTE/REJECT

To refute someone's argument is to prove it incorrect. If you attempt no
such proof but simply disagree with an argument the word you want is
"reject."

REGARD/REGARDS

Business English is deadly enough without scrambling it. "As regards
your downsizing plan . . ." is acceptable, if stiff. "In regard to" "and
"with regard to" are also correct. But "in regards to" is nonstandard.
You can also convey the same idea with "in respect to" or "with respect
to."

REGIME/REGIMEN/REGIMENT

Some people insist that "regime" should be used only in reference to
governments, and that people who say they are following a dietary regime
should instead use "regimen"; but "regime" has been a synonym of
"regimen" for over a century, and is widely accepted in that sense.

However "regiment" is an error in this sense. The only way you could
follow a strict regiment would be to march behind a highly disciplined
military unit. Your diet or exercise routine is not a "regiment."

REGRETFULLY/REGRETTABLY

Either word can be used as an adverb to introduce an expression of
regret, though conservatives prefer "regrettably" in sentences like
"Regrettably, it rained on the 4th of July." Within the body of a
sentence, however, "regretfully" may be used only to describe the manner
in which someone does something: "John had to regretfully decline his
beloved's invitation to go hang-gliding because he was terrified of
heights." If no specified person in the sentence is doing the
regretting, but the speaker is simply asserting "it is to be regretted,"
the word is "regrettably": "Their boss is regrettably stubborn."

REIGN/REIN

A king or queen reigns, but you rein in a horse. The expression "to give
rein" means to give in to an impulse as a spirited horse gives in to its
impulse to gallop when you slacken the reins. Similarly, the correct
expression is "free rein," not "free reign."

REKNOWN/RENOWN

When you won the national spelling bee you achieved great renown (fame).
Now you are a renowned speller (notice the -ed ending on the adjectival
form).

Many people mistakenly suppose that because "renown" has to do with
being well known the word should be spelled "reknown," but in fact it is
derived from the French word nom and has to do with gaining a name. In
French, fame is renomee.

RELIGION

Protestants often refer to "the Catholic religion." Catholicism is a
faith or a church. (Only Protestants belong to "denominations.") Both
Catholics and Protestants follow the Christian religion.

RELIGION BELIEVES/RELIGION TEACHES

People often write things like "Buddhism believes" when they mean to say
"Buddhism teaches," or "Buddhists believe." Religions do not believe,
they are the objects of belief.

RELIGIOSITY/PIETY

The main modern use of "religiosity" is to describe exaggerated or
ostentatious showing off of one's religiousness. A better word to label
the quality of being truly religious is "piety."

RELUCTANT/RETICENT

"Reticent" denotes only reluctance to speak; do not use it for any other
form of reluctance.

REMOTELY CLOSE

"Not even remotely close" is a fine example of an oxymoron. An idea can
be "not even remotely correct," but closeness and remoteness are
opposites; it doesn't make sense to have one modify the other. There are
lots of lists of oxymorons on the Web, but they mostly mix jokey
editorializing ("military intelligence" and "Microsoft Works") with true
oxymorons. Good for a laugh, but not providing much guidance to writers.
If there's a truly helpful oxymoron site you know of, I'd like to hear
about it.

REMUNERATION/RENUMERATION

Although "remuneration" looks as if it might mean "repayment" it usually
means simply "payment." In speech it is often confused with
"renumeration," which would mean re-counting (counting again).

REPUNGENT/REPUGNANT, PUNGENT

"Repungent" is an amusing mash-up of "repugnant" (disgusting) and
"pungent" (strong, especially used of smells). It is used for repulsive
smells; and though it is vivid, it's not standard English and may get
you laughed at.

RIFFLE/RIFLE

To rifle something is to steal it. The word also originally had the
sense of "to search thoroughly," often with intent to steal. But if you
are casually flipping through some papers, you riffle through them.

RONDEZVOUS/RENDEZVOUS

The first syllable of "rendezvous" rhymes with "pond" but is not spelled
like it. It comes from a word related to English "render" and is
hyphenated in French: "rendez-vous." In English the two elements are
smooshed together into one: "rendezvous."

REOCCURRING/RECURRING

It might seem logical to form this word from "occurring" by simply
adding a RE- prefix--logical, but wrong. The word is "recurring." The
root form is "recur," not "reoccur." For some reason "recurrent" is
seldom transformed into "reoccurrent."

REPEL/REPULSE

In most of their meanings these are synonyms, but if you are disgusted
by someone, you are repelled, not repulsed. The confusion is compounded
by the fact that "repellent" and "repulsive" mean the same thing. Go
figure.

REPLETE/COMPLETE

"Replete" usually means "stuffed," "full to overflowing." After eating a
complete ten-course meal, you are replete.

Although it has been used as a simple synonym for "complete," this is
now an unusual usage, and it is better to stick with the more common
word "complete" when you have a choice.

REPLY BACK/REPLY

"Reply back" is redundant because "reply" already conveys the idea of
getting back to someone. The same is true of "answer back" except in the
rather old-fashioned use of the phrase to describe the behavior of a
lippy kid rudely refusing to submit to the wishes of parents or
teachers.

REPORT INTO/REPORT ON

You can conduct an investigation into a matter, like a scandal or a
crime; but the result is a report on or of the results. You don't make a
report into anything. You could eliminate "into" altogether by using the
simpler "investigate" instead.

REQUEST/ASK

If you want something you can request it or you can ask for it. Many
people like "request" because it sounds more formal, more elegant; but
to other people it just sounds pretentious. There are many instances in
which plain old "ask" works better: "I'm asking my buddies to go camping
with me." "She asked him to walk the dog." Except on wedding
invitations, try to avoid "request" where "ask" will do as well.

RESIGNATE/RESONATE

When an idea gives you good vibes it resonates with you: "His call for
better schools resonates with the voters." Not resignates--resonates.

RESISTER/RESISTOR

A resistor is part of an electrical circuit; a person who resists
something is a "resister."

RESPIRATORY

Even health professionals tend to mispronounce this word by smooshing
the second and third syllables into one. This word has several possible
pronunciations, but "resp-uh-tory" is not one of them. However you say
it, try to at least hint at all five syllables.

RESPOND BACK/RESPOND, REPLY

It's possible that some people think they have to write "respond back"
to distinguish a reply from other kinds of responses, like groaning and
cursing, or chucking a request in the wastebasket; but most of the time
the context makes perfectly clear that "respond" means "answer" and the
"back" is redundant. Or you can just say "reply."

RESTIVE

"Restive" can mean "stubborn," "impatient," or "restless," but never
"relaxed" or "rested."

RETCH/WRETCH

If you vomit, you retch; if you behave in a wretched manner or fall into
wretched circumstances, you are a wretch.

RETROSPECTIVE/RETROACTIVE

"Retrospective" has to do with looking back, as is shown by the
similarity of its middle syllable to words like "spectacles." A
retrospective exhibit looks back at the earlier work of an artist.

"Retroactive," on the other hand, refers to actions, and is about making
a current change applicable to the past, especially in law. Retroactive
punishment is generally considered unjust. For instance, the city
council can't pass an ordinance retroactively punishing you for having
sung off-key in the karaoke bar on Main Street last Saturday night.

RETURN BACK/RETURN

"Return back" is a redundancy. Use just "return," unless you mean to say
instead "turn back."

REVELANT/RELEVANT

"Revelant" is both spoken and written frequently when "relevant" is
intended. The same is true of "revelance," a misspelling of "relevance."

REVERT/REPLY

The most common meaning of "revert" is "to return to an earlier
condition, time, or subject." When Dr. Jekyll drank the potion he
reverted to the brutish behavior of Mr. Hyde. But some pretentious
people have begun to use it mistakenly instead of "reply," writing when
they want you to get back to them about something, "revert to me at this
address." This would literally mean they are asking you to become them.

REVOLVE/ROTATE

In ordinary speech these two words are often treated as interchangeable,
though it's "revolving credit account" and "rotating crops." Scientists
make a sharp distinction between the two: the earth revolves (orbits)
around the sun but rotates (spins) around its axis.

REVUE/REVIEW

You can attend a musical revue in a theatre, but when you write up your
reactions for a newspaper, you're writing a review.

RHETORICAL QUESTIONS

A rhetorical question implies its own answer; it's a way of making a
point. Examples: "Aren't you ashamed of yourself?" "What business is it
of yours?" "How did that idiot ever get elected?" "What is so rare as a
day in June?" These aren't questions in the usual sense, but statements
in the form of a question.

Many people mistakenly suppose that any nonsensical question, or one
which cannot be answered, can be called a rhetorical question. The
following are not proper rhetorical questions: "What was the best thing
before sliced bread?" "If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears
it, does it make a sound?" "Who let the dogs out?"

Sometimes speakers ask questions so they can then proceed to answer
them: "Do we have enough troops to win the war? It all depends on how
you define victory." The speaker is engaging in rhetoric, but the
question asked is not a rhetorical question in the technical sense.
Instead this is a mock-dialogue, with the speaker taking both roles.

RIGHT OF PASSAGE/RITE OF PASSAGE

The more common phrase is "rite of passage"--a ritual one goes through
to move on to the next stage of life. Learning how to work the
combination on a locker is a rite of passage for many entering middle
school students. A "right of passage" would be the right to travel
through a certain territory, but you are unlikely to have any use for
the phrase.

RING ITS NECK/WRING ITS NECK

Wring the chicken's neck; and after you've cooked it, ring the dinner
bell.

RIO GRANDE RIVER/RIO GRANDE

Rio is Spanish for "river," so "Rio Grande River" is a redundancy. Just
write "Rio Grande." Non-Hispanic Americans have traditionally failed to
pronounce the final "E" in "Grande", but they" ve learned to do it to
designate the large size of latte, so perhaps it's time to start saying
it the proper Spanish way: "REE-oh GRAHN-day." Or to be really
international we could switch to the Mexican name: "Rio Bravo."

RISKY/RISQUE

People unfamiliar with the French-derived word "risque" ("slightly
indecent") often write "risky" by mistake. Bungee-jumping is risky, but
nude bungee-jumping is risque.

ROAD TO HOE/ROW TO HOE

Out in the cotton patch you have a tough row to hoe. This saying has
nothing to do with road construction.

ROLE/ROLL

An actor plays a role. Bill Gates is the entrepreneur's role model. But
you eat a sausage on a roll and roll out the barrel. To take attendance,
you call the roll.

ROLLOVER/ROLL OVER

A rollover used to be only a serious highway accident, but in the
computer world this spelling has also been used to label a feature on a
Web page which reacts in some way when you roll the ball inside a mouse
or a trackball over it without having to click. It also became an
adjective, as in "rollover feature." However, when giving users
instructions, the correct verb form is "roll over"--two words: "roll
over the photo of our dog to see his name pop up."

Since most people now use either optical mice or trackpads the term
"rollover" has become technically obsolete, but it persists.

ROMANTIC

If you are studying the arts, it's important to know that the word
"romantic" is used in such contexts to mean much more than "having to do
with romantic love." It originated in the Middle Ages to label
sensational narratives written in romance languages--rather than
Latin--depicting events like the fall of King Arthur's Round Table (in
French, novels are still called "romans" whether they depict love
affairs or not). In literature and art it often refers to materials that
are horrifying, exotic, enthralling, or otherwise emotionally
stimulating to an extreme degree. A romantic art song is as likely to be
about death as about love.

ROOT/ROUT/ROUTE

You can root for your team (cheer them on) and hope that they utterly
smash their opponents (create a rout), then come back in triumph on
Route 27 (a road).

ROUGE/ROGUE

You can create an artificial blush by using rouge; but a scoundrel who
deserves to be called a rogue is unlikely to blush naturally.

RUBBAGE

Although the generally obsolete form "rubbage" persists in some
dialects, many people will assume if you use it that you are confusing
"rubbish" with "garbage."

RUEBEN/REUBEN

Diner owners who put "Rueben sandwiches" on their menus may rue the day
they did so when they encounter a customer who cares about the correct
spelling of this classic American concoction of corned beef, sauerkraut,
Swiss cheese and Russian dressing on rye bread. Although the origin of
the sandwich is obscure, being credited to several different
restaurateurs, all of them spelled their name "Reuben," with the E
before the U.

RUFF/ROUGH

The slangy spelling "ruff" for "rough" is not appropriate in formal
writing, but your spelling-checker won't flag it because "ruff" has a
traditional meaning of its own, denoting a frilled collar.

RURAL

In some US dialects, the second R in "rural" is not pronounced, so
that it sounds like "ROO-ull" or even "rull." The dominant standard
pronunciation sounds both Rs, to rhyme with "plural."

RYE/WRY

"Wry" means "bent, twisted." Even if you don't have a wry sense of humor
you may crack a wry smile. No rye is involved.