Saturday, January 31, 2015

probably: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Saturday, January 31, 2015

probably
The two B’s in this word are particularly difficult to pronounce in sequence, so the word often comes out as “probly” and is even occasionally misspelled that way. When even the last B disappears, the pronunciation “prolly” suggests drunken slurring or, at best, an attempt at humor.






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Friday, January 30, 2015

worse comes to worse/worst comes to worst: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, January 30, 2015

worse comes to worse/worst comes to worst
The traditional idiom is “if worst comes to worst.” The modern variation “worse comes to worst” is a little more logical. “Worse comes to worse” is just a mistake.




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Thursday, January 29, 2015

costumer/customer: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, January 29, 2015

costumer/customer
Just what would a “costumer service” do? Supply extra-shiny spangles for a Broadway diva’s outfit? But this phrase is almost always a typographical error for “customer service,” and it appears on an enormous number of Web pages. Be careful not to swap the U and O when you type “customer.”

 
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Wednesday, January 28, 2015

suped up/souped up: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, January 28, 2015

suped up/souped up
The car you’ve souped up may be super, but it’s not “suped up.”


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Tuesday, January 27, 2015

impact: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, January 27, 2015

impact
One (very large) group of people thinks that using “impact” as a verb is just nifty: “The announcement of yet another bug in the software will strongly impact the price of the company’s stock.” Another (very passionate) group of people thinks that “impact” should be used only as a noun and considers the first group to be barbarians. Although the first group may well be winning the usage struggle, you risk offending more people by using “impact” as a verb than you will by substituting more traditional words like “affect” or “influence.”

 

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Paul Brians' latest blog post really airs it out.

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Monday, January 26, 2015

blunt/brunt: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Monday, January 26, 2015

blunt/brunt
Some people mistakenly substitute the adjective “blunt” for the noun “brunt” in standard expressions like “bear the brunt.” “Brunt” means “main force.”




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Sunday, January 25, 2015

your/you’re: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Sunday, January 25, 2015

your/you’re 
“You’re” is always a contraction of “you are.” If you’ve written “you’re,” try substituting “you are.” If it doesn’t work, the word you want is “your.” Your writing will improve if you’re careful about this.

If someone thanks you, write back “you’re welcome” for “you are welcome.”




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Saturday, January 24, 2015

salsa sauce/salsa: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Saturday, January 24, 2015

salsa sauce/salsa
Salsa is Spanish for “sauce,” so “salsa sauce” is redundant. Here in the US, where people now spend more on salsa than on ketchup (or catsup, if you prefer), few people are unaware that it’s a sauce. Anyone so sheltered as not to be aware of that fact will need a fuller explanation: “chopped tomatoes, onions, chilies, and cilantro.”


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Friday, January 23, 2015

overdo/overdue: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, January 23, 2015

overdo/overdue
If you overdo the cocktails after work you may be overdue for your daughter’s soccer game at 6:00.



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Thursday, January 22, 2015

incent/incentivize: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, January 22, 2015

incent/incentivize
Business folks sometimes use “incent” to mean “create an incentive,” but it’s not standard English. “Incentivize” is even more widely used, but strikes many people as an ugly substitute for “encourage.”

 

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Wednesday, January 21, 2015

click/clique: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, January 21, 2015

click/clique
Students lamenting the division of their schools into snobbish factions often misspell “clique” as “click.” In the original French, clique was synonymous with claque—an organized group of supporters at a theatrical event who tried to prompt positive audience response by clapping enthusiastically.

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Tuesday, January 20, 2015

chick/chic: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, January 20, 2015

chick/chic 
Something fashionable can be labeled with the French adjective chic, but it is definitely not chic to spell the word “chick” or “sheek.”


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Monday, January 19, 2015

Happy Belated Birthday/Belated Happy Birthday: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Monday, January 19, 2015

Happy Belated Birthday/Belated Happy Birthday
When someone has forgotten your birthday, they’re likely to send you a card reading “Happy Belated Birthday.” But this is a mistake. The birthday isn’t belated; the wishes are.

Better-phrased cards read “Belated Happy Birthday.” This form treats “Happy Birthday” as a phrase equivalent to something like “Late Congratulations.” (If you sent out your holiday cards in early January you might wish someone a “Belated Merry Christmas.”) Even clearer would be “Belated Happy Birthday Wishes,” but most people seem to consider this too wordy.

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Sunday, January 18, 2015

one-dimensional/two-dimensional: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Sunday, January 18, 2015

one-dimensional/two-dimensional 
Once upon a time most folks knew that “three-dimensional” characters or ideas were rounded, fleshed out, and complex; and “two-dimensional” ones were flat and uninteresting. It seems that the knowledge of basic geometry has declined in recent years, because today we hear uninteresting characters and ideas described as “one-dimensional.” According to Euclid, no physical object can be one-dimensional (of course, according to modern physics, even two-dimensionality is only an abstract concept). If you are still bothered by the notion that two dimensions are one too many, just use “flat.”



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Saturday, January 17, 2015

alliterate/illiterate: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Saturday, January 17, 2015

alliterate/illiterate
Pairs of words with the same initial sound alliterate, like “wild and wooly.” Those who can’t read are illiterate.

 

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Today is the birthday of Ben Franklin (1706)—here is a cartoon from the 2006 edition of the calendar to mark the occasion.

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Friday, January 16, 2015

loath/loathe: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, January 16, 2015

loath/loathe
“Loath” rhymes with “both” and is a rather formal adjective meaning “reluctant,” whereas “loathe” rhymes with “clothe” and is a common verb meaning “dislike intensely.” Kenji is loath to go to the conference at Kilauea because he loathes volcanos.


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Thursday, January 15, 2015

reeking havoc/wreaking havoc: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, January 15, 2015

reeking havoc/wreaking havoc
“Reeking” means “smelling strongly,” so that can’t be right. The phrase simply means “working great destruction.” “Havoc” has always referred to general destruction in English, but one very old phrase incorporating the word was “cry havoc,” which meant to give an army the signal for pillage. To “play havoc with” means the same thing as to “wreak havoc.” Avoid as well the mistaken “wreck havoc.”



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Wednesday, January 14, 2015

troop/troupe: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, January 14, 2015

troop/troupe
A group of performers is a troupe. Any other group of people, military or otherwise, is a troop. A police officer, member of a mounted military group or similar person is a trooper, but a gung-ho worker is a real trouper.

Troops are normally groups, despite the current vogue among journalists of saying things like “two troops were wounded in the battle” when they mean “two soldiers.” “Two troops” would be two groups of soldiers, not two individuals.

The popularity of this use of “troop” is encouraged by the fact that the various branches of the US military services insist that only members of the Army should be called “soldiers.” Marines, Air Force personnel, and Navy sailors all object to being called “soldiers” but there is no other traditional generic term for an unknown military person. When the branch of the service is known the writer would do better to refer to an individual by the appropriate branch label. “Troops” is more justifiable when referring to a mixed group—say, of Marines and Army personnel: “the President ordered 15,000 more troops into the region.”


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Tuesday, January 13, 2015

very unique/unique: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, January 13, 2015

very unique/unique
“Unique” singles out one of a kind. That “un” at the beginning is a form of “one.” A thing is unique (the only one of its kind) or it is not. Something may be almost unique (there are very few like it), but nothing is “very unique.”


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Monday, January 12, 2015

plain/plane: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Monday, January 12, 2015

plain/plane
Both of these words have to do with flatness. A flat prairie is a plain, and you use a plane to smooth flat a piece of wood.

“Plain” is also an adjective which can describe things that are ordinary, simple, or unattractive.

But whether you go the airport to catch a plane or meditate to achieve a higher plane of consciousness, the meanings that have to do with things high up are spelled “plane.”


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Sunday, January 11, 2015

done/did: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Sunday, January 11, 2015

done/did
The past participle of “do” is “done,” so it’s not “they have did what they promised not to do” but “they have done. . . .” But without a helping verb, the word is “did.” Nonstandard: “I done good on the test.” Standard: “I did well on the test.”


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Saturday, January 10, 2015

credible/credulous: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Saturday, January 10, 2015

credible/credulous
“Credible” means “believable” or “trustworthy.” It is also used in a more abstract sense, meaning something like “worthy”: “She made a credible lyric soprano.” Don’t confuse “credible” with “credulous,” a much rarer word which means “gullible.” “He was incredulous” means “he didn’t believe it” whereas “he was incredible” means “he was wonderful” (but use the latter expression only in casual speech).

Although you will commonly see it said of some far-fetched story either that “it strains credulity” or that “it strains credibility,” the latter is more traditional. Something that strains credulity would be beyond the powers of even a very gullible person to believe. This form of the saying isn’t very effective because a credulous person isn’t straining to believe things anyway. Such a person believes easily without thinking. It makes more sense to say that something too weird or wild to be credible “strains credibility.”


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Thursday, January 8, 2015

doubt that/doubt whether/doubt if: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, January 9, 2015

doubt that/doubt whether/doubt if
If you really doubt that something is true (suspect that it’s false), use “doubt that”: “I doubt that Fred has really lost 25 pounds.” If you want to express genuine uncertainty, use “whether”: “I doubt whether we’ll see the comet if the clouds don’t clear soon.” “Doubt if” can be substituted for “doubt whether,” though it’s considered somewhat more casual, but don’t use it when you mean “doubt that.”


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brainchild: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, January 8, 2015

brainchild
Some people misuse “brainchild,” as in “Steve Jobs is the brainchild behind the iPhone.” A brainchild is not a person, but the child (product) of someone’s brain. So the iPhone is the brainchild of Steve Jobs.


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Wednesday, January 7, 2015

furl/furrow: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, January 7, 2015

furl/furrow
When you concentrate really hard so that furrows appear in your forehead, you furrow your brow—an expression that means “worry, puzzle over.” When you lower a sail and wrap it tightly around the mast to secure it you furl it. If you can furl your brow you belong in a sideshow.


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Blogging Big Mouth Billy Bass: Paul Brians' latest post is here.

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Tuesday, January 6, 2015

I/me/myself: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, January 6, 2015

I/me/myself
In the old days when people studied traditional grammar, we could simply say, “The first person singular pronoun is ‘I’ when it’s a subject and ‘me’ when it’s an object,” but now few people know what that means. Let’s see if we can apply some common sense here. The misuse of “I” and “myself” for “me” is caused by nervousness about “me.” Educated people know that “Jim and me are goin’ down to slop the hogs,” is not elegant speech, not “correct.” It should be “Jim and I” because if I were slopping the hogs alone I would never say “Me is going. . . .” If you refer to yourself first, the same rule applies: It’s not “Me and Jim are going” but “I and Jim are going.”

So far so good. But the notion that there is something wrong with “me” leads people to overcorrect and avoid it where it is perfectly appropriate. People will say “The document had to be signed by both Susan and I” when the correct statement would be, “The document had to be signed by both Susan and me.”

All this confusion can easily be avoided if you just remove the second party from the sentences where you feel tempted to use “myself” as an object or feel nervous about “me.” You wouldn’t say, “The IRS sent the refund check to I,” so you shouldn’t say “The IRS sent the refund check to my wife and I” either.

Trying even harder to avoid the lowly “me,” many people will substitute “myself,” as in “the suspect uttered epithets at Officer O’Leary and myself.” Conservatives often object to this sort of use of “myself” when “me” or “I” would do. It’s usually appropriate to use “myself” when you have used “I” earlier in the same sentence: “I am not particularly fond of goat cheese myself.” “I kept half the loot for myself.” “Myself” is also fine in expressions like “young people like myself” or “a picture of my boyfriend and myself.” In informal English, beginning a sentence with “myself” to express an opinion is widely accepted: “Myself, I can’t stand dried parmesan cheese.” In all of these instances you are emphasizing your own role in the sentence, and “myself” helps do that.

On a related point, those who continue to announce “It is I” have traditional grammatical correctness on their side, but they are vastly outnumbered by those who proudly boast “it’s me!” There’s not much that can be done about this now. Similarly, if a caller asks for Susan and Susan answers “This is she,” her somewhat antiquated correctness may startle the questioner into confusion.


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Monday, January 5, 2015

weak/week: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Monday, January 5, 2015

weak/week
People often absentmindedly write “last weak” or “next weak.” Less often they write “I feel week.” These mistakes will not be caught by a spelling checker.

“Weak” is the opposite of “strong.” A week is made up of seven days.


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Sunday, January 4, 2015

infact/in fact: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Sunday, January 4, 2015

infact/in fact
“In fact” is always two words.


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Saturday, January 3, 2015

not all that/not very: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Saturday, January 3, 2015

not all that/not very
The slangy phrase “not all that,” as in “The dessert was not all that tasty,” doesn’t belong in formal writing. “Not very” would work, but something more specific would be even better: “The pudding tasted like library paste.”
 
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Of mangers and stables: Paul Brians notes some mixed-up usage pertaining to the Christmas story in his latest blog post.

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Friday, January 2, 2015

connaisseur/connoisseur: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, January 2, 2015

connaisseur/connoisseur
Some complain that English “connoisseur” is a misspelling of French connaisseur; but when we borrowed this word from the French in the 18th century, it was spelled connoisseur. Is it our fault the French later decided to shift the spelling of many OI words to the more phonetically accurate AI? Of those Francophone purists who insist we should follow their example I say, let ’em eat bifteck.


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Thursday, January 1, 2015

everyday: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, January 1, 2015

everyday
“Everyday” is a perfectly good adjective, as in “I’m most comfortable in my everyday clothes.” The problem comes when people turn the adverbial phrase “every day” into a single word. It is incorrect to write “I take a shower everyday.” It should be “I take a shower every day.”

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Today's entry originally ran on January 1, 2006—the first day of the first edition of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. The print calendar was called the "Daily Boxed Calendar" because "Page-a-day" is trademarked. With the benefit of hindsight I see it should have been called the "Everyday Every Day Calendar."

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