Friday, July 31, 2015

altogether/all together: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, July 31, 2015

altogether/all together
“Altogether” is an adverb meaning “completely,” “entirely.” For example: “When he first saw the examination questions, he was altogether baffled.” “All together,” in contrast, is a phrase meaning “in a group.” For example: “The wedding guests were gathered all together in the garden.” Undressed people are said in informal speech to be “in the altogether” (perhaps a shortening of the phrase “altogether naked”).

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Thursday, July 30, 2015

not: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, July 30, 2015

not
You need to put “not” in the right spot in a sentence to make it say what you intend. “Not all fraternity members are drunks” means some are, but “All fraternity members are not drunks” means none of them is.
 

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Wednesday, July 29, 2015

substance-free: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, July 29, 2015

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”?



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Tuesday, July 28, 2015

caddy-corner/catty-corner, cater-corner, kitty-corner: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, July 28, 2015

caddy-corner/catty-corner, cater-corner, kitty-corner 
This expression, meaning “diagonally opposite,” was formed from a misspelling in English of the French word quatre (“four”) prefixed to “corner.” Although the word has nothing to do with cats or kittens, in various dialects all three spellings are acceptable: “catty,” “cater,” or “kitty.”

But unless you have somebody holding your golf clubs permanently stationed in the corner of your room, you shouldn’t use the spelling “caddy corner.”



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Monday, July 27, 2015

how to/how can I: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Monday, July 27, 2015

how to/how can I
You can ask someone how to publish a novel; but when you do, don’t write “How to publish a novel?” Instead ask “How can I publish a novel?” or “How does someone publish a novel?” If you’re in luck, the person you’ve asked will tell you how to do it. “How to” belongs in statements, not questions.
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Sunday, July 26, 2015

callous/callused: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Sunday, July 26, 2015

callous/callused
Calling someone “callous” is a way of metaphorically suggesting a lack of feeling similar to that caused by calluses on the skin; but if you are speaking literally of the tough build-up on a person’s hand or foot, the word you need is “callused.”

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Saturday, July 25, 2015

emulate/imitate: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Saturday, July 25, 2015

emulate/imitate
People generally know what “imitate” means, but they sometimes don’t understand that “emulate” is a more specialized word with a purely positive function, meaning to try to equal or match. Thus if you try to climb the same mountain your big brother did, you’re emulating him; but if you copy his habit of sticking peas up his nose, you’re just imitating him.


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Friday, July 24, 2015

fluke: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, July 24, 2015

fluke
A fluke was originally a lucky stroke in billiards, and it still means a fortunate chance event. It is nonstandard to use the word to label an unfortunate chance event. There are lucky flukes, but no unlucky ones.



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Paul Brians' latest blog post shows he's hip to the correct spelling of "tie-dye."

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Thursday, July 23, 2015

road to hoe/row to hoe: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, July 23, 2015

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.


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Wednesday, July 22, 2015

minus/hyphen: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, July 22, 2015

minus/hyphen
When baffled computer users phone Support they may say they have a Model AB “minus” 231. In the model name “AB-231” the linking character is a hyphen, though “dash” will do. “Minus” makes no sense in such contexts, but is so common that support personnel have begun to adopt it too.

 
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Tuesday, July 21, 2015

timber/timbre: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, July 21, 2015

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.”

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Monday, July 20, 2015

desert/dessert: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Monday, July 20, 2015

desert/dessert
Perhaps these two words are confused partly because “dessert” is one of the few words in English with a double S pronounced like Z (“brassiere” is another). That impoverished stretch of sand called a “desert” can only afford one S. In contrast, that rich gooey extra thing at the end of the meal called a “dessert” indulges in two of them. The word in the phrase “he got his just deserts” is confusingly pronounced just like “desserts.”

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Sunday, July 19, 2015

in the mist/in the midst: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Sunday, July 19, 2015

in the mist/in the midst
When you are surrounded by something, you’re in the midst of it—its middle. If you’re in a mist, you’re just in a fog.

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Saturday, July 18, 2015

in spite of/despite: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Saturday, July 18, 2015

in spite of/despite
Although “in spite of” is perfectly standard English, some people prefer “despite” because it is shorter. Be careful not to mix the two together by saying “despite of” except as part of the phrase “in despite of” meaning “in defiance of.”

And note that unlike “despite,” “in spite” should always be spelled as two separate words.

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Friday, July 17, 2015

wary/weary/leery: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, July 17, 2015

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


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Paul Brians’ latest blog post discusses one of death’s most popular euphemisms.

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Thursday, July 16, 2015

primer: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, July 16, 2015

primer 
When this word is used in the US to mean “elementary textbook” it is pronounced with a short I: “primmer” (rhymes with “dimmer”). All other meanings are pronounced with a long I: “prymer” (rhymes with “timer”).


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Wednesday, July 15, 2015

service/serve: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, July 15, 2015

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.”

 
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Tuesday, July 14, 2015

rapport: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, July 14, 2015

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.


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Monday, July 13, 2015

per/according to: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Monday, July 13, 2015

per/according to
Using “per” to mean “according to,” as in “ship the widgets as per the instructions of the customer,” is rather old-fashioned business jargon and is not welcome in other contexts. “Per” is fine when used in phrases involving figures like “miles per gallon.”

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Sunday, July 12, 2015

undoubtably/undoubtedly: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Sunday, July 12, 2015

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


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Saturday, July 11, 2015

gibe/jibe/jive: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Saturday, July 11, 2015

gibe/jibe/jive
“Gibe” is a now rare term meaning “to tease.” “Jibe” means “to agree,” but is usually used negatively, as in “The alibis of the two crooks didn’t jibe.” The latter word is often confused with “jive,” which derives from slang that originally meant to treat in a jazzy manner (“Jivin’ the Blues Away”) but also came to be associated with deception (“Don’t give me any of that jive”).


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Friday, July 10, 2015

would have/had: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, July 10, 2015

would have/had
People are often confused about how to discuss something that didn’t happen in the past. It’s standard usage to say “If I had remembered where I parked the car, I would have gotten home sooner.” Notice that in the part of the sentence containing “if” the helping verb is “had” but in the other part of the sentence, which depends logically on the first, the verb “gotten” is preceded by “would have.”

The same pattern applies when the “if” is in a later part of the sentence: “I would have gotten home sooner if I had remembered where I parked the car.” Plain old “had” stays with the “if” clause (the second one) and “would have” goes in the other clause (the first one).

The problem is that people used to thinking of “would have” as marking non-events in the past often replace a correct “had” with an incorrect “would have”: “If I would have remembered where I parked the car. . . .” This is nonstandard.

Even worse, the same mistake is made in sentences where no “if” is involved: “The robber wished he would have given the bank clerk a fake ID when she asked for one.” This should be “The robber wished he had given.”

One reminder of the correct pattern is that “had” all by itself can replace “if ... had”: “Had I remembered where I parked the car. ... “Would have” clearly can’t be used in this way, so you need to stick with plain old “had.”

 

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Thursday, July 9, 2015

wait on/wait for: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, July 9, 2015

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.”

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Wednesday, July 8, 2015

jerry-built/jury-rigged: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, July 8, 2015

jerry-built/jury-rigged
Although their etymologies are obscure and their meanings overlap, these are two distinct expressions. Something poorly built is “jerry-built.” Something rigged up temporarily in a makeshift manner with materials at hand, often in an ingenious manner, is “jury-rigged.” “Jerry-built” always has a negative connotation, whereas one can be impressed by the cleverness of a jury-rigged solution. Many people cross-pollinate these two expressions and mistakenly say “jerry-rigged” or “jury-built.”


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Tuesday, July 7, 2015

in lieu of/in light of: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, July 7, 2015

in lieu of/in light of
“In lieu of” (with “lieu” often misspelled) means “instead of” and should not be used in place of “in light of” in sentences like the following: “In light of the fact that Fred has just knocked the doughnuts on the floor, the meeting is adjourned.”


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Monday, July 6, 2015

foot/feet: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Monday, July 6, 2015

foot/feet
You can use eight-foot boards to side a house, but “foot” conveys a plural sense only in this sort of adjectival phrase combined with a number (and usually hyphenated). The boards are eight feet (not foot) long. It’s always x feet per second and x feet away.


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Sunday, July 5, 2015

forego/forgo: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Sunday, July 5, 2015

forego/forgo
The E in “forego” tells you it has to do with going before. It occurs mainly in the expression “foregone conclusion,” a conclusion arrived at in advance. “Forgo” means to abstain from or do without. “After finishing his steak, he decided to forgo the blueberry cheesecake.”

 

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Saturday, July 4, 2015

statue of limitations/statute of limitations: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Saturday, July 4, 2015

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.

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Friday, July 3, 2015

alot/a lot: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, July 3, 2015

alot/a lot 
Perhaps this common spelling error began because there does exist in English a word spelled “allot” which is a verb meaning to apportion or grant. The correct form, with “a” and “lot” separated by a space is perhaps not often encountered in print because formal writers usually use other expressions such as “a great deal,” “often,” etc.

You shouldn’t write “alittle” either. It’s “a little.”


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Thursday, July 2, 2015

good/well: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, July 2, 2015

good/well
You do something well, but a thing is good. The exception is verbs of sensation in phrases such as “the pie smells good,” or “I feel good.” Despite the arguments of nitpickers, this is standard usage. Saying “the pie smells well” would imply that the pastry in question had a nose. Similarly, “I feel well” is also acceptable, especially when discussing health; but it is not the only correct usage.



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Wednesday, July 1, 2015

doggy dog world/dog-eat-dog world: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, July 1, 2015

doggy dog world/dog-eat-dog world
The punning name of the popular rap star Snoop Doggy Dogg did a lot to spread this misspelling. The original image is of a cannibalistically competitive world in which people turn on each other, like dogs eating other dogs.


 
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