stance/stand: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, March 31, 2015

stance/stand
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.

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Paul Brians' latest blog post takes the bindlestick and runs away with it.

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idea/ideal: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Monday, March 30, 2015

idea/ideal
Any thought can be an idea, but only the best ideas worth pursuing are ideals.

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threw/through: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Sunday, March 29, 2015

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.”

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Happy birthday, Cy Young (1867).

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exorcise/exercise: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Saturday, March 28, 2015

exorcise/exercise
You can try to exorcise evil spirits using an exorcist; but when you give your body a workout, it’s exercise.

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bail/bale: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, March 27, 2015

bail/bale 
You bail the boat and bale the hay.

In the expression “bail out” meaning to abandon a position or situation, it is nonstandard in America to use “bale,” though that spelling is widely accepted in the UK. The metaphor in the US is to compare oneself when jumping out of a plane to a bucket of water being tossed out of a boat, though that is probably not the origin of the phrase.

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Rueben/Reuben: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, March 26, 2015

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.


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soar/sore: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, March 25, 2015

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.”

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tender hooks/tenterhooks: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, March 24, 2015

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.

 
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exasperate/exacerbate: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Monday, March 23, 2015

exasperate/exacerbate
People get exasperated (irritated); situations get exacerbated (made worse).


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practice/practise: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Sunday, March 22, 2015

practice/practise
In the United Kingdom, “practice” is the noun, “practise” the verb; but in the US the spelling “practice” is commonly used for both, though the distinction is sometimes observed. “Practise” as a noun is, however, always wrong in both places: a doctor always has a “practice,” never a “practise.”

 
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everytime/every time: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Saturday, March 21, 2015

everytime/every time
“Every time” is always two separate words.

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sail/sale/sell: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, March 20, 2015

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.


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naval/navel: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, March 19, 2015

naval/navel
Your bellybutton is your navel, and navel oranges look like they have one; all terms having to do with ships and sailing require “naval.”

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arthuritis/arthritis: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, March 18, 2015

arthuritis/arthritis 
If there were such a word as “arthuritis” it might mean the overwhelming desire to pull swords out of stones; but that ache in your joints is caused by “arthritis.”

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lightening/lightning: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, March 17, 2015

lightening/lightning
Those bright flashes in the storm clouds indeed used to be referred to as “lightening,” later as “light’ning,” but now they are simply “lightning.”

“Lightening” has a quite different meaning in modern English: making lighter, as in lightening your load or lightening the color of your hair.




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orientate/orient: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Monday, March 16, 2015

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

The same pattern applies to “disorientate” vs. “disorient.”


 
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passed/past: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Sunday, March 15, 2015

passed/past
If you are referring to a distance or a period of time before now, use “past”: “the police car drove past the suspect’s house” (distance) or “the team performed well in the past” (time). If you are describing the action of passing, however, you need to use “passed”: “when John passed the gravy, he spilled it on his lap,” “the teacher was astonished that none of the students had passed the test,” “after a brief illness, he passed away.” Remember that no matter however you have “passed the time” you have never “past the time,” not even in the distant past.

“Past” can be an adjective, a noun, a preposition, or an adverb, but never a verb. If you need to write the past tense of the verb “to pass,” use “passed.” 

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question/ask: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Saturday, March 14, 2015

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.”

 
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shoe-in/shoo-in: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, March 13, 2015

shoe-in/shoo-in
This expression purportedly comes from the practice of corrupt jockeys holding their horses back and shooing a preselected winner across the finish line to guarantee that it will win. A “shoo-in” is now an easy winner, with no connotation of dishonesty. “Shoe-in” is a common misspelling.


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tact/tack: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, March 12, 2015

tact/tack
The expression “take a different tack” has nothing to do with tactfulness and everything to do with sailing, in which it is a direction taken. One tacks—abruptly turns—a boat. To “take a different tack” is to try another approach.

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focus around/focus on: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, March 11, 2015

focus around/focus on
The popular expression “focus around” makes little sense. An example: “Next quarter’s advertising will focus around our line of computer games.” It is presumably meant to convey something like “concentrate on a number of different items in a single category.” But “focus on” better conveys the idea of a sharp focus. “Focus around” suggests a jittery, shifting view rather than determined concentration.


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not my forte: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, March 10, 2015

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.

 

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humus/hummus: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Monday, March 9, 2015

humus/hummus
The rotted plant matter you spread on your garden to enrich it is humus.

The chickpea spread you dip your pita into is hummus (or hoummos). Turks call it humus, but that spelling of the word is better avoided in English: your guests might suspect you are serving them dirt.

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tragedy/travesty: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Sunday, March 8, 2015

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.

 
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daylight savings time/daylight saving time: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Saturday, March 7, 2015

daylight savings time/daylight saving time
The official term is “daylight saving time,” not “savings time.”

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no such a thing/no such thing: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, March 6, 2015

no such a thing/no such thing
Some say “there’s no such thing as bad publicity,” but in phrases like this it’s much less common to insert an “a” after “such” so that the phrase becomes “no such a thing.”

This variation followed by a phrase beginning with “as” will probably not be noticed in most contexts, but it tends to sound more obviously nonstandard when the phrase stands by itself as a simple negation: “Eric told me the grocery store was handing out free steaks. No such a thing.” It sounds better to most people to say instead “no such thing.”

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email/e-mail: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, March 5, 2015

email/e-mail
Although the spelling “email” is extremely popular, some people prefer “e-mail,” which follows the same pattern as “e-commerce.” The E stands for “electronic.”

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Paul Brians' latest blog post looks at mistakes and puns using "petal," "pedal," and "peddle."

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cite/site/sight: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, March 4, 2015

cite/site/sight
You cite the author in an endnote; you visit a Web site or the site of the crime, and you sight your beloved running toward you in slow motion on the beach (a sight for sore eyes!).

You travel to see the sights. It’s called not “siteseeing” but sightseeing.


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for sale/on sale: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, March 3, 2015

for sale/on sale
If you’re selling something, it’s for sale; but if you lower the price, it goes on sale.



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shutter to think/shudder to think: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Monday, March 2, 2015

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

 
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online/on line/in line: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Sunday, March 1, 2015

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

As for real physical lines, New Yorkers and Bostonians wait “on line” (in queues), but most Americans wait “in line.”

 

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