Saturday, February 28, 2015

gratis/gratuitous: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Saturday, February 28, 2015

gratis/gratuitous
If you do something nice without being paid, you do it “gratis.” Technically, such a deed can also be “gratuitous”; but if you do or say something obnoxious and uncalled for, it’s always “gratuitous,” not “gratis.”

___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Friday, February 27, 2015

intrigue: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, February 27, 2015

intrigue
Something fascinating or alluring can be called “intriguing,” but “intrigue” as a noun means something rather different: scheming and plotting. Don’t say people or situations are full of intrigue when you mean they are intriguing. The name of the Oldsmobile car model called the Intrigue is probably based on this common confusion.


___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Thursday, February 26, 2015

in the fact that/in that: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, February 26, 2015

in the fact that/in that
Many people mistakenly write “in the fact that” when they mean simply “in that” in sentences like “It seemed wiser not to go to work in the fact that the boss had discovered the company picnic money was missing.” Omit “the fact.” While we’re at it, “infact” is not a word; “in fact” is always a two-word phrase.


___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

dew/do/doo/due: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, February 25, 2015

dew/do/doo/due
The original pronunciation of “dew” and “due” rhymed with “pew,” but American pronunciation has shifted toward pronouncing all of these words alike, and the result is much confusion in standard phrases. On a damp morning there is dew on the grass. Doo on the grass is the result of failing to pick up after your dog. The most common confusion is substituting “do” for “due” (owing) in phrases like “credit is due,” “due to circumstances,” and “bill is due.”

“Do” is normally a verb, but it can be a noun with meanings like “party,” “hairdo,” and “dos and don’ts.” Note that in the last phrase it is not necessary to insert an apostrophe before the S, and that if you choose to do so you’ll wind up with two apostrophes awkwardly close together: “don’t’s.”


___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

theory: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, February 24, 2015


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.


___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Monday, February 23, 2015

its/it’s: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Monday, February 23, 2015

its/it’s
The exception to the general rule that one should use an apostrophe to indicate possession is in possessive pronouns. Some of them are not a problem. “Mine” has no misleading “s” at the end to invite an apostrophe. And few people are tempted to write “hi’s,” though the equally erroneous “her’s” is fairly common, as are “our’s” and “their’s”—all wrong, wrong, wrong. The problem with avoiding “it’s” as a possessive is that this spelling is perfectly correct as a contraction meaning “it is.” Just remember one point and you’ll never make this mistake again: “it’s” always means “it is” or “it has” and nothing else.

There is one personal pronoun—uncommon in American English—which takes an apostrophe in its possessive form: “one,” as in the title of Virginia Woolf’s famous book, A Room of One’s Own.



___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Saturday, February 21, 2015

beat/bead: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Saturday, February 21, 2015

beat/bead
In American English when you focus narrowly on something or define it carefully you “get a bead” or “draw a bead” on it. In this expression the term “bead” comes from the former name for the little metal bump on the end of a gun barrel which helped the shooter aim precisely at a target. “Beat” is often mistakenly substituted for “bead” by people who imagine that the expression has something to do with matching the timing of the person or activity being observed, catching up with it.


___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Friday, February 20, 2015

stationary/stationery: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, February 20, 2015

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.”


___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Oregon: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, February 19, 2015

Oregon
Oregon natives and other Westerners pronounce the state name’s last syllable to sound like “gun,” not “gone.”


___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

later/latter: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, February 18, 2015

later/latter
Except in the expression “latter-day” (modern), the word “latter” usually refers back to the last-mentioned of a set of alternatives. “We gave the kids a choice of a vacation in Paris, Rome, or Disney World. Of course the latter was their choice.” In other contexts not referring back to such a list, the word you want is “later.”

Conservatives prefer to reserve “latter” for the last-named of no more than two items.

 
___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

ruff/rough: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, February 17, 2015

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.

___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Monday, February 16, 2015

normalcy vs. normality: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Monday, February 16, 2015

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.”




___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Sunday, February 15, 2015

snuck/sneaked: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Sunday, February 15, 2015

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.”







___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Saturday, February 14, 2015

romantic: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Saturday, February 14, 2015

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.


___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Friday, February 13, 2015

so/very: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, February 13, 2015

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.


__________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Thursday, February 12, 2015

abject: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, February 12, 2015

abject
“Abject” is always negative—it means “hopeless,” not “extreme.” You can’t experience “abject joy” unless you’re being deliberately paradoxical.



___________
Proverbial? Paul Brians thinks not in his most recent blog post.

This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

sole/soul: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, February 11, 2015

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

 
___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

goal/objective: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, February 10, 2015

goal/objective
Most language authorities consider “goal” to be a synonym of “objective,” and some dismiss the popular bureaucratic phrase “goals and objectives” as a meaningless redundancy.

However, if you have to deal with people who insist there is a distinction, here is their usual argument: goals are general, objectives are more specific. If your goal is to create a safer work environment, your objective might be to remove the potted poison ivy plant from your desk. In education, a typical example would be that if your goal is to improve your French, one objective might be to master the subjunctive.


___________
Read Paul Brians' latest blog post here.

This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Monday, February 9, 2015

veracious/voracious: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Monday, February 9, 2015

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.



___________
Happy birthday, Thomas Paine (1737).

This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Sunday, February 8, 2015

gaff/gaffe: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Sunday, February 8, 2015

gaff/gaffe
“Gaffe” means “embarrassing mistake,” and should not be mixed up with “gaff”: a large hook.


___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Saturday, February 7, 2015

all and all/all in all: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Saturday, February 7, 2015

all and all/all in all
“The dog got into the fried chicken, we forgot the sunscreen, and the kids started whining at the end, but all in all the picnic was a success.” “All in all” is a traditional phrase which can mean “all things considered,” “after all,” or “nevertheless.” People unfamiliar with the traditional wording often change it to “all and all,” but this is nonstandard.


___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Friday, February 6, 2015

key: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, February 6, 2015

key
“Deceptive marketing is key to their success as a company.” “Careful folding of the egg whites is key.” This very popular sort of use of “key” as an adjective by itself to mean “crucial” sets the teeth of some of us on edge. It derives from an older usage of “key” as a metaphorical noun: “The key to true happiness is an abundant supply of chocolate.” “Key” as an adjective modifying a noun is also traditional: “Key evidence in the case was mislaid by the police.”

But adjectival “key” without a noun to modify it is not so traditional. If this sort of thing bothers you (as it does me), you’ll have to grit your teeth and sigh. It’s not going away.

 
___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Catch-22: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, February 5, 2015

Catch-22
People familiar with Joseph Heller’s novel are irritated when they see “Catch-22” used to label any simple hitch or problem rather than this sort of circular predicament: you can’t get published until you have an agent, and you can’t get an agent until you’ve been published. “There’s a catch” will do fine for most other situations.




___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

me either/me neither: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, February 4, 2015

me either/me neither
Inside a longer sentence, “me either” can be perfectly legitimate: “whole-wheat pie crust doesn’t appeal to me either.” But by itself, meaning “neither do I,” in reply to a previous negative statement, it has to be “me neither”: “I don’t like whole-wheat pie crust.” “Me neither.”


 
___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

personal/personnel: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, February 3, 2015

personal/personnel
Employees are personnel, but private individuals considered separately from their jobs have personal lives.




___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Monday, February 2, 2015

deja vu: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Monday, February 2, 2015

deja vu
In French déjà vu means literally “already seen” and usually refers to something excessively familiar. However, the phrase—sans accent marks—was introduced into English mainly as a psychological term indicating the sensation one experiences when feeling that something has been experienced before when this is in fact not the case. If you feel strongly that you have been previously in a place where you know you have never before been, you are experiencing a sensation of deja vu. English usage is rapidly sliding back toward the French meaning, confusing listeners who expect the phrase to refer to a false sensation rather than a factual familiarity, as in “Congress is in session and talking about campaign finance reform, creating a sense of deja vu.” In this relatively new sense, the phrase has the same associations as the colloquial “same old same old” (increasingly often misspelled “sameo sameo” by illiterates). A common misspelling by those who know a little French is “deja vous.”

Baseball player Yogi Berra famously mangled this expression in his redundant statement, “It’s like deja vu all over again.” Over the ensuing decades clever writers would allude to this blunder in their prose by repeating the phrase “deja vu all over again,” assuming that their readers would catch the allusion and share a chuckle with them. Unfortunately, recently the phrase has been worn to a frazzle and become all but substituted for the original, so that not only has it become a very tired joke indeed—a whole generation has grown up thinking that Berra’s malapropism is the correct form of the expression. Give it a rest, folks!





___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!

Sunday, February 1, 2015

repungent/repugnant, pungent: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Sunday, February 1, 2015

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.



___________
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.

Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!