lamblast/lambaste: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, September 30, 2015

lamblast/lambaste
“Lambaste” has its roots in words having to do with beating, not blasting.

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accessory: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, September 29, 2015

accessory 
There’s an “ack” sound at the beginning of this word, though some mispronounce it as if the two C’s were to be sounded the same as the two SS’s.

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gild/guild: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Monday, September 28, 2015

gild/guild
You gild an object by covering it with gold; you can join an organization like the Theatre Guild.

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somewhat of a/somewhat, something of a: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Sunday, September 27, 2015

somewhat of a/somewhat, something of a 
 An “a” is most commonly inserted after “something of” rather than after “somewhat”: “She is somewhat awkward,” and “He is something of a klutz.” “Somewhat of a” will strike some readers as a little odd.

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accede/exceed: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Saturday, September 26, 2015

accede/exceed
If you drive too fast, you exceed the speed limit. “Accede” is a much rarer word meaning “give in, agree.”

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parallelled/paralleled: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, September 25, 2015

parallelled/paralleled
The spelling of the past tense of “parallel” is “paralleled.”


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electorial college/electoral college: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, September 24, 2015

electorial college/electoral college
It’s “electoral.”

 
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thusfar/thus far: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, September 23, 2015

thusfar/thus far
Some common phrases get fused in people’s mind 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.

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and/or: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, September 22, 2015

and/or
The legal phrase “and/or,” indicating that you can either choose between two alternatives or choose both of them, has proved irresistible in other contexts and is now widely acceptable though it irritates some readers as jargon. However, you can logically use it only when you are discussing choices which may or may not both be done: “Bring chips and/or beer.” It’s very much overused where simple “or” would do, and it would be wrong to say, “you can get to the campus for this morning’s meeting on a bike and/or in a car.” Choosing one eliminates the possibility of the other, so this isn’t an and/or situation.


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rye/wry: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Monday, September 21, 2015

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.


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brussel sprout/brussels sprout: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Sunday, September 20, 2015

brussel sprout/brussels sprout
These tiny cabbage-like vegetables are named after the Belgian city of Brussels, which has an S on the end. The correct spelling is “brussels sprout.”


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mono e mono/mano a mano: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Saturday, September 19, 2015

mono e mono/mano a mano
“Mono e mono” is an error caused by mishearing the Spanish expression mano a mano which means not “man-to-man” but “hand-to-hand,” as in hand-to-hand combat: one on one.

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empathy/sympathy: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, September 18, 2015

empathy/sympathy
If you think you feel just like another person, you are feeling empathy. If you just feel sorry for another person, you’re feeling sympathy.

Sometimes people say they “emphasize” with someone when they mean they “empathize” with him or her.

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functionality: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, September 17, 2015

functionality
You’ll find “functionality” in dictionaries, but it’s almost always used as a pretentious and inaccurate substitute for “function” or “usefulness.”

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pray/prey: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, September 16, 2015

pray/prey
If you want a miracle, pray to God. If you’re a criminal, you prey on your victims.

Incidentally, it’s “praying mantis,” not “preying mantis.” The insect holds its forefeet in a position suggesting prayer.


 
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lip-sing/lip-synch: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, September 15, 2015

lip-sing/lip-synch
When you pretend you are singing by synchronizing your lip movements to a recording, you lip-synch—the vocal equivalent of playing “air guitar.” Some people mistakenly think the expression is “lip-sing,” and they often omit the required hyphen as well. Note that you can lip-synch to speech as well singing.

Many writers use the spelling “sync” rather than “synch.” Users of each form tend to regard the other as weird, but in contemporary writing “sync” clearly prevails.


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motherload/mother lode: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Monday, September 14, 2015

motherload/mother lode
Although you may dig a load of ore out of a mother lode, the spelling “motherload” is a mistake which is probably influenced by people thinking it means something like “the mother of all loads.” A “lode” was originally a stream of water, but by analogy it became a vein of metal ore. Miners of precious metals dream of finding a really rich vein, which they refer to as a “mother lode,” most often spelled as two words, though you also commonly see it spelled as one.

 
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hence why/hence: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Sunday, September 13, 2015

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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double negatives: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Saturday, September 12, 2015

double negatives
It is not true, as some assert, that double negatives are always wrong; but the pattern in formal speech and writing is that two negatives equal a mild positive: “He is a not untalented guitarist” means he has some talent. In informal speech, however, double negatives are intended as negatives: “He ain’t got no talent” means he is a lousy musician. People are rarely confused about the meaning of either pattern, but you do need to take your audience into account when deciding which pattern to follow.

One of the funniest uses of the literary double negative is Douglas Adams’ description of a machine dispensing “a substance almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.”

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far and few between/few and far between: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, September 11, 2015

far and few between/few and far between 
The common expression “few and far between” is often carelessly flipped.


 

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progress/pass: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, September 10, 2015

progress/pass 
Events may progress in time, but time itself does not progress—it just passes.


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complementary/complimentary: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, September 9, 2015

complementary/complimentary
When paying someone a compliment like “I love what you’ve done with the kitchen!” you’re being complimentary. A free bonus item is also a complimentary gift. But items or people that go well with each other are complementary.

In geometry, complementary angles add up to 90°, whereas supplementary ones add up to 180°.

 
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for/fore/four: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, September 8, 2015

for/fore/four
The most common member of this trio is the preposition “for,” which is not a problem for most people. “Fore” always has to do with the front of something (it’s what you shout to warn someone when you’ve sent a golf ball their way). “Four” is just the number “4.” 

 
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dire straights/dire straits: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Monday, September 7, 2015

dire straights/dire straits
When you are threading your way through troubles as if you were traversing a dangerously narrow passage, you are in “dire straits.” The expression and the band by that name are often transformed by those who don’t understand the word “strait” into “dire straights.”

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mischievious/mischievous: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Sunday, September 6, 2015

mischievious/mischievous
The correct pronunciation of this word is “MISS-chuh-vuss,” not “miss-CHEE-vee-uss.” Don’t let that mischievous extra I sneak into the word.



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fortuitous/fortunate: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Saturday, September 5, 2015

fortuitous/fortunate
“Fortuitous” events happen by chance; they need not be fortunate events, only random ones: “It was purely fortuitous that the meter reader came along five minutes before I returned to my car.” Although fortunate events may be fortuitous, when you mean “lucky,” use “fortunate.”

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cowtow/kowtow: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, September 4, 2015

cowtow/kowtow
You can tow a cow to water, but you can’t make it drink. But the word that means bowing worshipfully before someone comes from the Chinese words for knocking one’s head on the ground, and is spelled “kowtow.”


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hole/whole: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, September 3, 2015

hole/whole
“Hole” and “whole” have almost opposite meanings. A hole is a lack of something, like the hole in a doughnut (despite the confusing fact that the little nubbins of fried dough are called “doughnut holes”). “Whole” means things like “entire,”“complete,” and “healthy” and is used in expressions like “the whole thing,” “whole milk,” “whole wheat,” and “with a whole heart.”


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done/finished: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, September 2, 2015

done/finished
Some claim “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.


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disgression/discretion: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, September 1, 2015

disgression/discretion
Discretion has to do with being discreet or with making choices. A lot of people hear it and get influenced by the quite different word “digression” which is used to label instances of people wandering off the point. The result is the nonword “disgression.” The expression is “you can do it at your own discretion.”

Also wrong but less common—and pretty funny—is “at your own desecration.”


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