Friday, April 27, 2012

hence why/hence: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, April 27, 2012

hence why/hence
 Shakespeare and the Bible keep alive one meaning of the old word “hence”: “away from here” (“get thee hence”). There’s no need to add “from” to the word, though you often see “from hence” in pretentious writing, and it’s not likely to bother many readers.

But another sense of the word “hence” (“therefore”) causes more trouble because writers often add “why” to it: “I got tired of mowing the lawn, hence why I bought the goat.” “Hence” and “why” serve the same function in a sentence like this; use just one or the other, not both: “hence I bought the goat” or “that’s why I bought the goat.”


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