Common Errors in English Usage

Common Errors in English Usage
by Paul Brians

paulbrians@gmail.com

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/


(Brownie points to anyone who catches inconsistencies between the main
site and this version.)

Note that italics are deliberately omitted on this page.

What is an error in English?

The concept of language errors is a fuzzy one. I'll leave to linguists
the technical definitions. Here we're concerned only with deviations
from the standard use of English as judged by sophisticated users such
as professional writers, editors, teachers, and literate executives and
personnel officers. The aim of this site is to help you avoid low
grades, lost employment opportunities, lost business, and titters of
amusement at the way you write or speak.

But isn't one person's mistake another's standard usage?

Often enough, but if your standard usage causes other people to consider
you stupid or ignorant, you may want to consider changing it. You have
the right to express yourself in any manner you please, but if you wish
to communicate effectively you should use nonstandard English only when
you intend to, rather than fall into it because you don't know any
better.

I'm learning English as a second language. Will this site help me
improve my English?

Very likely, though it's really aimed at the most common errors of
native speakers. The errors others make in English differ according to
the characteristics of their first languages. Speakers of other
languages tend to make some specific errors that are uncommon among
native speakers, so you may also want to consult sites dealing
specifically with English as a second language (see
http://www.cln.org/subjects/esl_cur.html and
http://esl.about.com/education/adulted/esl/). There is also a Help Desk
for ESL students at Washington State University at
http://www.wsu.edu/~gordonl/ESL/. An outstanding book you may want to
order is Ann Raimes'  Keys for Writers. This is not a
question-and-answer site for ESL.

Aren't some of these points awfully picky?

This is a relative matter. One person's gaffe is another's peccadillo.
Some common complaints about usage strike me as too persnickety, but I'm
just covering mistakes in English that happen to bother me. Feel free to
create your own page listing your own pet peeves, but I welcome
suggestions for additions to these pages.

What gives you the right to say what an error in English is?

I could take the easy way out and say I'm a professor of English and do
this sort of thing for a living. True, but my Ph.D. is in comparative
literature, not composition or linguistics, and I teach courses in the
history of ideas rather than language as such. But I admire good writing
and try to encourage it in my students.

I found a word you criticized in the dictionary!

You will find certain words or phrases criticized here listed in
dictionaries. Note carefully labels like "dial." (dialectical),
"nonstandard," and "obsolete" before assuming that the dictionary is
endorsing them. The primary job of a dictionary is to track how people
actually use language. Dictionaries differ among themselves on how much
guidance to usage they provide; but the goal of a usage guide like this
is substantially different: to protect you against patterns which are
regarded by substantial numbers of well-educated people as nonstandard.

Why do you discuss mainly American usage?

Because I'm an American, my readers are mostly American, most
English-speaking Web users are Americans, and American English is
quickly becoming an international standard. I often take note of
American deviations from standard British practice. However, the job is
complicated by the fact that Canadians, Australians, and many others
often follow patterns somewhere between the two. If the standard usage
where you are differs from what is described here, tell me about it, and
if I think it's important to do so, I'll note that fact. Meanwhile, just
assume that this site is primarily about American English.

If you write mainly about American English, why do you so often cite the "Oxford English Dictionary'?

First of all, I do not write exclusively about American English. I address UK usage in many entries on this site. Second, the OED strives to cover both UK and US usage, and often notes words or expressions as having either originated in or being used mainly in the US. It is by no means an exclusively British dictionary. Third, the OED is the recognized authority among linguists for etymology. It's not always the last word in explanations of word origins and history, but it is the first source to turn to. That's the main purpose for which I use the OED. Fourth, because the OED tends to be more conservative than some popular American dictionaries, when it accepts a controversial usage, that's worth noting. If even the OED regards a usage as accepted in modern English, then one should hesitate to argue that such usage is an error. But because the OED is so conservative, and doesn't always note when a formerly obsolete word is revived or changes in usage, it's not a perfect guide to contemporary usage. It is particularly weak in noting changes in spoken rather than written English.

Isn't it oppressive of immigrants and subjugated minorities to insist on
the use of standard English?

Language standards can certainly be used for oppressive purposes, but
most speakers and writers of all races and classes want to use language
in a way that will impress others. The fact is that the world is full of
teachers, employers, and other authorities who may penalize you for your
nonstandard use of the English language. Feel free to denounce these
people if you wish; but if you need their good opinion to get ahead,
you'd be wise to learn standard English. Note that I often suggest
differing usages as appropriate depending on the setting: spoken vs.
written, informal vs. formal; slang is often highly appropriate. In
fact, most of the errors discussed on this site are common in the
writing of privileged middle-class Americans, and some are
characteristic of people with advanced degrees and considerable
intellectual attainments. However you come down on this issue, note that
the great advantage of an open Web-based educational site like this is
that it's voluntary: take what you want and leave the rest. It's
interesting that I have received hundreds of messages from non-native
speakers thanking me for these pages and none from such people
complaining that my pages discriminate against them.

But you made a mistake yourself!

We all do, from time to time. Drop me a line if you think you've found
an error in my own writing. If I think you're right, I'll correct it;
but be prepared to be disagreed with. If you write me, please don't call
me "Brian." My given name is Paul.

For instructions on how to write me, see the bottom of this page.

This resource is copyrighted by Paul Brians. Permission is granted to
reprint or photocopy small numbers of it in its entirety or in part for
all local nonprofit, educational purposes provided that the author is
cited and the URL http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/ is included. As a
courtesy, please notify the author if you copy or link to this material.
Because the content changes frequently, and I need to maintain control
over the site, requests to create Web mirrors of the site are usually
declined.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

COMMON ERRORS IN ENGLISH USAGE

100 /hundreds

It looks cheesy to spell "hundreds" as "100's"; and it isn't really
logical because "100" doesn't mean "hundred"--it means specifically "one
hundred."

360 DEGREES/180 DEGREES

When you turn 360 degrees you've completed a circle and are back where
you started. So if you want to describe a position that's diametrically
opposed to another, the expression you want is not "360 degrees away"
but "180 degrees away."

A/AN

If the word following begins with a vowel sound, the word you want is
"an": "Have an apple, Adam." If the word following begins with a
consonant, but begins with a vowel sound, you still need "an": "An X-ray
will show whether there's a worm in it." It is nonstandard and often
considered sloppy speech to utter an "uh" sound in such cases.

The same rule applies to initialisms like "NGO" (for "non-governmental
organization"). Because the letter N is pronounced "en," it's "an NGO"
but when the phrase is spoken instead of the abbreviation, it's "a
non-governmental organization."

When the following word definitely begins with a consonant sound, you
need "a": "A snake told me apples enhance mental abilities."

Note that the letter Y can be either a vowel or a consonant. Although it
is sounded as a vowel in words like "pretty," at the beginning of words
it is usually sounded as a consonant, as in "a yolk."

Words beginning with the letter U which start with a Y consonant sound
like "university" and "utensil" also take an "a": "a university" and "a
utensil." But when an initial U has a vowel sound, the word is preceded
by "an": it's "an umpire," "an umbrella," and "an understanding."

See also "an historic."

A.D.

"A.D." does not mean "after death," as many people suppose. "B.C."
stands for the English phrase "before Christ," but "A.D." stands
confusingly for a Latin phrase: anno domini ("in the year of the
Lord"--the year Jesus was born). If the calendar actually changed with
Jesus' death, then what would we do with the years during which he
lived? Since Jesus was probably actually born around 6 B.C. or so, the
connection of the calendar with him can be misleading.

Many Biblical scholars, historians, and archeologists prefer the less
sectarian designations "before the Common Era" (B.C.E.) and "the Common
Era" (C.E.).

Traditionally "A.D." was placed before the year number and "B.C." after,
but many people now prefer to put both abbreviations after the numbers.

All of these abbreviations can also be spelled without their periods.

ALA / A LA

If you offer pie a la mode on your menu, be careful not to spell it "ala
mode" or--worse--"alamode." The accent over the first "a" is optional in
English, although this is an adaptation of the French phrase a la mode
de meaning "in the manner of." The one-word spelling used to be common;
but as people became more sensitive to preserving the spelling of
originally French phrases, it fell out of favor. In whose manner is it
to plop ice cream on your pie? Nobody really knows, but it's yummy.
Stick with the two-word spelling in all other uses of the phrase "a la"
as well.

AM/PM

"AM" stands for the Latin phrase Ante Meridiem --which means "before
noon"--and "PM" stands for Post Meridiem : "after noon." Although digital
clocks routinely label noon "12:00 PM" you should avoid this expression
not only because it is incorrect, but because many people will imagine
you are talking about midnight instead. The same goes for "12:00 AM."
You can say or write "twelve noon," "noon sharp," or "exactly at noon"
when you want designate a precise time.

It is now rare to see periods placed after these abbreviations: "A.M.";
but in formal writing it is still preferable to capitalize them, though
the lower-case "am" and "pm" are now so popular they are not likely to
get you into trouble.

Occasionally computer programs encourage you to write "AM" and "PM"
without a space before them, but others will misread your data if you
omit the space. The nonstandard habit of omitting the space is spreading
rapidly, and should be avoided in formal writing.


ABJECT

"Abject" is always negative, meaning "lowly" or "hopeless." You can't
experience "abject joy" unless you're being deliberately paradoxical.

ABLE TO

People are able to do things, but things are not able to be done: you
should not say, "the budget shortfall was able to be solved by selling
brownies."

ABOUT

"This isn't about you." What a great rebuke! But conservatives sniff at
this sort of abstract use of "about," as in "I'm all about good taste"
or "successful truffle-making is about temperature control"; so it's
better to avoid it in very formal English.

ABSORBTION/ABSORPTION

Although it's "absorbed" and "absorbing" the correct spelling of the
noun is "absorption."

But note that scientists distinguish between "absorption" as the process
of swallowing up or sucking in something and "adsorption" as the process
by which something adheres to the surface of something else without
being assimilated into it. Even technical writers often confuse these
two.

ABSTRUSE/OBTUSE

Most people first encounter "obtuse" in geometry class, where it labels
an angle of more than 90 degrees and less than 180. Imagine what sort of
blunt arrowhead that kind of angle would make and you will understand
why it also has a figurative meaning of "dull, stupid." But people often
mix the word up with "abstruse," which means "difficult to understand."

When you mean to criticize something for being needlessly complex or
baffling, the word you need is not "obtuse," but "abstruse."

ACADEMIA

Although some academics are undoubtedly nuts, the usual English-language
pronunciation of "academia" does not rhyme with "macadamia." The third
syllable is pronounced "deem." Just say "academe" and add "ee-yuh."

However, there's an interesting possibility if you go with
"ack-uh-DAME-ee-yuh: although some people will sneer at your lack of
sophistication, others will assume you're using the Latin pronunciation
and being learned.

ACAPELLA, A CAPELLA

In referring to singing unaccompanied by instruments, the traditional
spelling is the Italian one, "a cappella": two words, two Ps, two Ls.
The Latin spelling "a capella" is learned; but in the realm of musical
terminology, we usually stick with Italian. The one-word spelling
"acapella" is widely used by Americans, including by some performing
groups; but this is generally regarded by musical experts as an error.

ACCEDE/EXCEED

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

ACCENT MARKS

In what follows, "accent mark" will be used in a loose sense to include
all diacritical marks that guide pronunciation. Operating systems and
programs differ in how they produce accent marks, but it's worth
learning how yours works. Writing them in by hand afterwards looks
amateurish.

Words adopted from foreign languages sometimes carry their accent marks
with them, as in "fiance" "protege," and "cliche." As words become more
at home in English, they tend to shed the marks: "Cafe" is often spelled
"cafe." Unfortunately, "resume" seems to be losing its marks one at a
time (see under "vita/vitae").

Many computer users have not learned their systems well enough to
understand how to produce the desired accent and often insert an
apostrophe (curled) or foot mark (straight) after the accented letter
instead: "cafe'." This is both ugly and incorrect. The same error is
commonly seen on storefront signs.

So far we've used examples containing acute (right-leaning) accent
marks. French and Italian (but not Spanish) words often contain grave
(left-leaning) accents; in Italian it's a caffe. It is important not to
substitute one kind of accent for the other.

The diaeresis over a letter signifies that it is to be pronounced as a
separate syllable: "noel" and "naive" are sometimes spelled with a
diaeresis, for instance. The umlaut, which looks identical, modifies the
sound of a vowel, as in German Fraulein (girl), where the accent mark
changes the "frow" sound of Frau (woman) to "froy." Rock groups like
"Blue Oyster Cult" scattered umlauts about nonsensically to create an
exotic look.

Spanish words not completely assimilated into English like pinata and
nino retain the tilde, which tells you that an "N" is to be pronounced
with a "Y" sound after it. In English-language publications accent marks
are often discarded, but the acute and grave accents are the ones most
often retained.

[Note: the accent marks in this entry may not display properly on all
operating systems. Consult the page on accent marks to see them
properly.]

ACCEPT/EXCEPT

If you offer me Godiva chocolates I will gladly accept them--except for
the candied violet ones. Just remember that the "X" in "except" excludes
things--they tend to stand out, be different. In contrast, just look at
those two cozy "Cs" snuggling up together. Very accepting. And be
careful; when typing "except" it often comes out "expect."

ACCESS/GET ACCESS TO

"Access" is one of many nouns that's been turned into a verb in recent
years. Conservatives object to phrases like "you can access your account
online." Substitute "use," "reach," or "get access to" if you want to
please them.

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."

ACCIDENTLY/ACCIDENTALLY

You can remember this one by remembering how to spell "accidental."
There are quite a few words with -ally suffixes (like "incidentally")
which are not to be confused with words that have "-ly" suffixes (like
"independently"). "Incidental" is a word, but "independental" is not.

ACCURATE/PRECISE

In ordinary usage, "accurate" and "precise" are often used as rough
synonyms, but scientists like to distinguish between them. Someone could
say that a snake is over a meter long and be accurate (the snake really
does exceed one meter in length), but that is not a precise measurement.
To be precise, the measurement would have to be more exact: the snake is
1.23 meters long. The same distinction applies in scientific contexts to
the related words "accuracy" and "precision."

ACRONYMS AND APOSTROPHES

One unusual modern use of the apostrophe is in plural acronyms, like
"ICBM's" "NGO's" and "CD's". Since this pattern violates the rule that
apostrophes are not used before an S indicating a plural, many people
object to it. It is also perfectly legitimate to write "CDs," etc.  See
also "50's." But the use of apostrophes with initialisms like "learn
your ABC's and "mind your P's and Q's" is now so universal as to be
acceptable in almost any context.

Note that "acronym" was used originally only to label pronounceable
abbreviations like "NATO," but is now generally applied to all sorts of
initialisms. Be aware that some people consider this extended definition
of "acronym" to be an error.

ACROSSED/ACROSS

The chicken may have crossed the road, but did so by walking across it.

ACTIONABLE/DOABLE

"Actionable" is a technical term referring to something that provides
grounds for a legal action or lawsuit. People in the business world have
begun using it as a fancy synonym for "doable" or "feasible." This is
both pretentious and confusing.

ACTUAL FACT/ACTUALLY

"In actual fact" is an unnecessarily complicated way of saying
"actually."

AD NAUSEUM/AD NAUSEAM

Seeing how often "ad nauseam" is misspelled makes some people want to
throw up. English writers also often mistakenly half-translate the
phrase as "ad nausea."

This Latin phrase comes from a term in logic, the "argumentum ad
nauseam," in which debaters wear out the opposition by just repeating
arguments until they get sick of the whole thing and give in.

ADD/AD

"Advertisement" is abbreviated "ad," not "add."

ADAPT/ADOPT

You can adopt a child or a custom or a law; in all of these cases you
are making the object of the adoption your own, accepting it. If you
adapt something, however, you are changing it.

ADDICTING/ADDICTIVE

Do you find beer nuts "addicting" or "addictive"? "Addicting" is a
perfectly legitimate word, but much less common than "addictive," and
some people will scowl at you if you use it.

ADMINISTER/MINISTER

You can minister to someone by administering first aid.  Note how the
"ad" in "administer resembles "aid" in order to remember the correct
form of the latter phrase. "Minister" as a verb always requires "to"
following it.

ADMINISTRATE/ADMINISTER

Although it is very popular with administrators and others, many people
scorn "administrate" as an unnecessary substitute for the more common
verb form "administer."

ADMISSION/ADMITTANCE

"Admission" is a much more common word than "admittance" and is a good
choice for almost all contexts. You may gain admission or admittance to
a college, but you'll probably be dealing with its admissions office.
When "admittance" is used, it's most likely to refer to physical entry
into some place or other, as is indicated by signs saying "No
Admittance."

In electronics, admittance is the opposite of impedance.

ADULTRY/ADULTERY

"Adultery" is often misspelled "adultry," as if it were something every
adult should try. This spelling error is likely to get you snickered at.
The term does not refer to all sorts of illicit sex: at least one of the
partners involved has to be married for the relationship to be
adulterous.

ADVANCE/ADVANCED

When you hear about something in advance, earlier than other people, you
get advance notice or information. "Advanced" means "complex,
sophisticated" and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the
revealing of secrets.

ADVERSE/AVERSE

The word "adverse" turns up most frequently in the phrase "adverse
circumstances," meaning difficult circumstances, circumstances which act
as an adversary; but people often confuse this word with "averse," a
much rarer word, meaning having a strong feeling against, or aversion
toward.

ADVICE/ADVISE

"Advice" is the noun, "advise" the verb. When Ann Landers advises
people, she gives them advice.

ADVISER/ADVISOR

"Adviser" and "advisor" are equally fine spellings. There is no
distinction between them.

ADVOCATE FOR/ADVOCATE

When they are acting as advocates for a cause, people often say they are
"advocating for"--say--traffic safety. This is not as widely accepted as
"campaigning for" or "working toward." Saying you are "advocating for
the blind" leaves a lot of listeners wondering what it is you advocate
for them. If you can substitute "advocate" for "advocate for," you
should do so: "I advocate for higher pay for teachers" becomes "I
advocate higher pay for teachers."

AESTHETIC/ASCETIC

People often encounter these two words first in college, and may confuse
one with the other although they have almost opposite connotations.
"Aesthetic" (also spelled "esthetic") has to do with beauty, whereas
"ascetic" has to do with avoiding pleasure, including presumably the
pleasure of looking at beautiful things.

St. Francis had an ascetic attitude toward life, whereas Oscar Wilde had
an esthetic attitude toward life.

AFFECT/EFFECT

There are five distinct words here. When "affect" is accented on the
final syllable (a-FECT), it is usually a verb meaning "have an influence
on": "The million-dollar donation from the industrialist did not affect
my vote against the Clean Air Act."

Occasionally a pretentious person is said to affect an artificial air of
sophistication. Speaking with a borrowed French accent or ostentatiously
wearing a large diamond ear stud might be an affectation. In this sort
of context, "affect" means "to make a display of or deliberately
cultivate."

Another unusual meaning is indicated when the word is accented on the
first syllable (AFF-ect), meaning "emotion." In this case the word is
used mostly by psychiatrists and social scientists--people who normally
know how to spell it.

The real problem arises when people confuse the first spelling with the
second: "effect." This too can be two different words. The more common
one is a noun: "When I left the stove on, the effect was that the house
filled with smoke." When you affect a situation, you have an effect on
it.

The less common is a verb meaning "to create": "I'm trying to effect a
change in the way we purchase widgets." No wonder people are confused.
Note especially that the proper expression is not "take affect" but
"take effect"--become effective. Hey, nobody ever said English was
logical: just memorize it and get on with your life.

The stuff in your purse? Your personal effects.

The stuff in movies? Sound effects and special effects.

AFFLUENCE/EFFLUENCE

Wealth brings affluence; sewage is effluence.

AFGHAN/AFGHANI

The citizens of Afghanistan are Afghans. Similarly, it's Afghan food,
Afghan politics, and Afghan afghans. The only time to use "Afghani" is
in reference to the unit of Afghan currency by that name. Afghans spend
Afghanis.

AFRICAN AMERICAN

There have been several polite terms used in the US to refer to
persons of African descent: "colored," "negro," "Black,"
"Afro-American," and "African American." "Colored" is definitely dated,
though "people of color" is now widely used with a broader meaning,
including anyone with non-European ancestry, sometimes even when their
skin is not discernibly darker than that of a typical European. A few
contemporary writers like to defy convention by referring to themselves
as "negro." "Black," formerly a proudly assertive label claimed by young
radicals in the 1960s, is now seen by some people as a racist insult.
Some people insist on capitalizing "Black," but others prefer "black."
The safest and most common neutral term is "African American," but
Americans sometimes misuse it to label people of African descent living
in other countries or even actual Africans. To qualify as an "African
American" you have to be an American.

Although it is traditional to hyphenate "African-American,"
"Irish-American," "Cuban-American," etc., there is a recent trend toward
omitting the hyphen, possibly in reaction to the belittling phrase
"hyphenated Americans." However, some styles still call for the hyphen
when the phrase is used adjectivally, so that you might be an African
American who enjoys African-American writers. Omitting the hyphen may
puzzle some readers, but it's not likely to offend anyone.

AFTERALL/AFTER ALL

"After all" is always two words.

AFTERWARDS/AFTERWORDS

Like "towards," "forwards," and "homewards," "afterwards" ends with
-wards.

"Afterwords" are sometimes the explanatory essays at the ends of books
or speeches uttered at the end of plays or other works. They are made up
of words.

AGNOSTIC/ATHEIST

Both agnostics and atheists are regularly criticized as illogical by
people who don't understand the meaning of these terms. An agnostic is a
person who believes that the existence of a god or gods cannot be proven
or known. Agnosticism is a statement about the limits of human
knowledge. It is an error to suppose that agnostics perpetually hesitate
between faith and doubt: they are confident they cannot know the
ultimate truth. Similarly, atheists believe there are no gods. Atheists
need not be able to disprove the existence of gods to be consistent just
as believers do not need to be able to prove that gods do exist in order
to be regarded as religious. Both attitudes have to do with beliefs, not
knowledge.

"Agnostic" is often used metaphorically of any refusal to make a
judgment, usually on the basis of a lack of evidence; people can be
agnostic about acupuncture, for instance, if they believe there is not
enough evidence one way or another to decide its effectiveness.

AGREEANCE/AGREEMENT

When you agree with someone you are in agreement.

AHOLD/HOLD

In standard English you just "get hold" of something or somebody.

AID/AIDE

In American English, a personal assistant is usually an "aide" (nurse's
aide, presidential aide) but an inanimate object or process is always an
"aid" (hearing aid, first aid).

AIN'T

"Ain't" has a long and vital history as a substitute for "isn't,"
"aren't" and so on. It was originally formed from a contraction of "am
not" and is still commonly used in that sense. Even though it has been
universally condemned as the classic "mistake" in English, everyone uses
it occasionally as part of a joking phrase or to convey a down-to-earth
quality. But if you always use it instead of the more "proper"
contractions you're sure to be branded as uneducated.

AISLE/ISLE

An aisle is a narrow passageway, especially in a church or store; an
isle is an island. Propose to the person you're stranded on a desert
isle with and maybe you'll march down the aisle together after you're
rescued.

ALL BE IT/ALBEIT

"Albeit" is a single word meaning "although": "Rani's recipe called for
a tablespoon of saffron, which made it very tasty, albeit rather
expensive." It should not be broken up into three separate words as "all
be it," just as "although" is not broken up into "all though."

ALL

Put this word where it belongs in the sentence. In negative statements,
don't write "All the pictures didn't show her dimples" when you mean
"The pictures didn't all show her dimples."

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.


ALL FOR NOT/ALL FOR NAUGHT

"Naught" means "nothing," and the phrase "all for naught" means "all for
nothing." This is often misspelled "all for not" and occasionally "all
for knot."

ALL GOES WELL/AUGURS WELL

Some folks who don't understand the word "augur" (to foretell based on
omens) try to make sense of the common phrase "augurs well" by mangling
it into "all goes well." "Augurs well" is synonymous with "bodes well."

ALL OF THE SUDDEN/ALL OF A SUDDEN

An unexpected event happens not "all of the sudden" but "all of a
sudden."

ALL READY/ALREADY

"All ready" is a phrase meaning "completely prepared," as in "As soon as
I put my coat on, I'll be all ready." "Already," however, is an adverb
used to describe something that has happened before a certain time, as
in "What do you mean you'd rather stay home? I've already got my coat
on."

ALLEGED, ALLEGEDLY

Seeking to avoid prejudging the facts in a crime and protect the rights
of the accused, reporters sometimes over-use "alleged" and "allegedly."
If it is clear that someone has been robbed at gunpoint, it's not
necessary to describe it as an alleged robbery nor the victim as an
alleged victim. This practice insultingly casts doubt on the honesty of
the victim and protects no one. An accused perpetrator is one whose
guilt is not yet established, so it is redundant to speak of an "alleged
accused." If the perpetrator has not yet been identified, it's pointless
to speak of the search for an "alleged perpetrator."

ALLITERATE/ILLITERATE

Pairs of words which begin with the same sound are said to alliterate,
like "wild and wooly." Those who can't read are illiterate.

ALLS/ALL

"Alls I know is . . ." may result from anticipating the "S" in "is," but
the standard expression is "All I know is. . . ."

ALLUDE/ELUDE

You can allude (refer) to your daughter's membership in the honor
society when boasting about her, but a criminal tries to elude (escape)
captivity. There is no such word as "illude."

ALLUDE/REFER

To allude to something is to refer to it indirectly, by suggestion. If
you are being direct and unambiguous, you refer to the subject rather
than alluding to it.

ALLUSION/ILLUSION

An allusion is a reference, something you allude to: "Her allusion to
flowers reminded me that Valentine's Day was coming." In that English
paper, don't write "literary illusions" when you mean "allusions." A
mirage, hallucination, or a magic trick is an illusion. (Doesn't being
fooled just make you ill?)

ALLUSIVE/ELUSIVE/ILLUSIVE

When a lawyer alludes to his client's poor mother, he is being allusive.
When the mole keeps eluding the traps you've set in the garden, it's
being elusive. We also speak of matters that are difficult to
understand, identify, or remember as elusive. Illusions can be illusive,
but we more often refer to them as illusory.

ALMOST

Like "only," "almost" must come immediately before the word or phrase it
modifies: "She almost gave a million dollars to the museum" means
something quite different from "She gave almost a million dollars to the
museum." Right? So you shouldn't write, "There was almost a riotous
reaction when the will was read" when what you mean is "There was an
almost riotous reaction."

ALONG THE SAME VEIN/IN THE SAME VEIN, ALONG THE SAME LINE

The expressions "in the same vein" and "along the same line" mean the
same thing (on the same subject), but those who cross-pollinate them to
create the hybrid "along the same vein" sound a little odd to those who
are used to the standard expressions.

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."

ALOUD/ALLOWED

If you think Grandma allowed the kids to eat too much ice cream, you'd
better not say so aloud, or her feelings will be hurt. "Aloud" means
"out loud" and refers to sounds (most often speech) that can be heard by
others. But this word is often misused when people mean "allowed,"
meaning "permitted."

ALRIGHT/ALL RIGHT

The correct form of this phrase has become so rare in the popular press
that many readers have probably never noticed that it is actually two
words. But if you want to avoid irritating traditionalists you'd better
tell them that you feel "all right" rather than "alright."

ALTAR/ALTER

An altar is that platform at the front of a church or in a temple; to
alter something is to change it.

ALTERIOR/ULTERIOR

When you have a concealed reason for doing something, it's an ulterior
motive.

ALTERNATE/ALTERNATIVE

Although UK authorities disapprove, in US usage, "alternate" is
frequently an adjective, substituted for the older "alternative": "an
alternate route." "Alternate" can also be a noun; a substitute delegate
is, for instance, called an "alternate." But when you're speaking of
"every other" as in "our club meets on alternate Tuesdays," you can't
substitute "alternative."

ALTHO, THO

The casual spellings "altho" and "tho" are not acceptable in formal or
edited English. Stick with "although" and "though."

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").

ALUMNUS/ALUMNI

We used to have "alumnus" (male singular), "alumni" (male plural),
"alumna" (female singular) and "alumnae" (female plural); but the latter
two are now popular only among older female graduates, with the first
two terms becoming unisex. However, it is still important to distinguish
between one alumnus and a stadium full of alumni. Never say, "I am an
alumni" if you don't want to cast discredit on your school. Many avoid
the whole problem by resorting to the informal abbreviation "alum."

AMATURE/AMATEUR

Most of the words we've borrowed from the French that have retained
their "-eur" endings are pretty sophisticated, like "restaurateur"
(notice, no "N") and "auteur" (in film criticism), but "amateur"
attracts amateurish spelling.

AMBIGUOUS/AMBIVALENT

Even though the prefix "ambi-" means "both,"  "ambiguous" has come to
mean "unclear," "undefined," while "ambivalent" means "torn between two
opposing feelings or views." If your attitude cannot be defined into two
polarized alternatives, then you're ambiguous, not ambivalent.

AMBIVALENT/INDIFFERENT

If you feel pulled in two directions about some issue, you're ambivalent
about it; but if you have no particular feelings about it, you're
indifferent.

AMERICAN

Some Canadians and many Latin Americans are understandably irritated
when US citizens refer to themselves simply as "Americans." Canadians
(and only Canadians) use the term "North American" to include themselves
in a two-member group with their neighbor to the south, though
geographers usually include Mexico in North America. When addressing an
international audience composed largely of people from the Americas, it
is wise to consider their sensitivities.

However, it is pointless to try to ban this usage in all contexts.
Outside of the Americas, "American" is universally understood to refer
to things relating to the US. There is no good substitute. Brazilians,
Argentineans, and Canadians all have unique terms to refer to
themselves. None of them refer  routinely to themselves as "Americans"
outside of contexts like the "Organization of American States." Frank
Lloyd Wright promoted "Usonian," but it never caught on. For better or
worse, "American" is standard English for "citizen or resident of the
United States of America."

AMONGST/AMONG

Although in America "amongst" has not dated nearly as badly as "whilst,"
it is still less common in standard speech than "among." The -st forms
are still widely used in the UK.

AMORAL/IMMORAL

"Amoral" is a rather technical word meaning "unrelated to morality."
When you mean to denounce someone's behavior, call it "immoral."

AMOUNT/NUMBER

This is a vast subject. I will try to limit the number of words I expend
on it so as not to use up too great an amount of space. The confusion
between the two categories of words relating to amount and number is so
pervasive that those of us who still distinguish between them constitute
an endangered species; but if you want to avoid our ire, learn the
difference. Amount words relate to quantities of things that are
measured in bulk; number words to things that can be counted.

In the second sentence above, it would have been improper to write "the
amount of words" because words are discrete entities which can be
counted, or numbered.

Here is a handy chart to distinguish the two categories of words:

amount vs. number quantity vs. number little vs. few less vs. fewer much
vs. many

You can eat fewer cookies, but you drink less milk. If you eat too many
cookies, people will probably think you've had too much dessert. If the
thing being measured is being considered in countable units, then use
number words. Even a substance which is considered in bulk can also be
measured by number of units. For instance, you shouldn't drink too much
wine, but you should also avoid drinking too many glasses of wine. Note
that here you are counting glasses. They can be numbered.

The most common mistake of this kind is to refer to an "amount" of
people instead of a "number" of people.

Just to confuse things, "more" can be used either way: you can eat more
cookies and drink more milk.

Exceptions to the less/fewer pattern are references to units of time and
money, which are usually treated as amounts: less than an hour, less
than five dollars. Only when you are referring to specific coins or
bills would you use fewer: "I have fewer than five state quarters to go
to make my collection complete."

AMPITHEATER/AMPHITHEATER

The classy way to pronounce the first syllable of this word is "amf-,"
but if you choose the more popular "amp-" remember that you still have
to include the H after the P when spelling it. UK-standard writers
spell it "amphitheatre," of course.

AN HISTORIC/A HISTORIC

You should use "an" before a word beginning with an "H" only if the "H"
is not pronounced: "An honest effort"; it's properly "a historic event"
though many sophisticated speakers somehow prefer the sound of "an
historic," so that version is not likely to get you into any real
trouble.

ANALOGOUS

Even though "analogy" is spoken with a soft "G," use a hard "G" in
pronouncing "analogous" so that it sounds like the beginning of the word
"gust." Many people mistakenly use a soft G, which sounds like the
beginning of the word "just."    
       
ANCESTOR/DESCENDANT

When Albus Dumbledore said that Lord Voldemort was "the last remaining
ancestor of Salazar Slytherin," more than one person noted that he had
made a serious verbal bumble; and in later printings of Harry Potter and
the Chamber of Secrets author J. K. Rowling corrected that to "last
remaining descendant." People surprisingly often confuse these two terms
with each other. Your great-grandmother is your ancestor; you are her
descendant.

ANECDOTE/ANTIDOTE

A humorist relates "anecdotes." The doctor prescribes "antidotes" for
children who have swallowed poison. Laughter may be the best medicine,
but that's no reason to confuse these two with each other.

AND ALSO/AND, ALSO

"And also" is redundant; say just "and" or "also."

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.

ANGEL/ANGLE

People who want to write about winged beings from Heaven often miscall
them "angles." A triangle has three angles. The Heavenly Host is made of
angels. Just remember the adjectival form: "angelic." If you pronounce
it aloud you'll be reminded that the E comes before the L.

ANOTHER WORDS/IN OTHER WORDS

When you reword a statement, you can preface it by saying "in other
words." The phrase is not "another words."

ANTECLIMAX/ANTICLIMAX

When an exciting build-up leads to a disappointing end, the result is an
anticlimax--the opposite of a climax. The prefix "anti-" is used to
indicate opposition whereas the prefix "ante-" is used to indicate that
something precedes something else; so be careful not to misspell this
word "anteclimax."

ANTIHERO

In literature, theater, and film, an antihero is a central character who
is not very admirable: weak, lazy, incompetent, or mean-spirited.
However, antiheroes are rarely actually evil, and you should not use
this word as a synonym for "villain" if you want to get a good grade on
your English lit paper.

ANXIOUS/EAGER

Most people use "anxious" interchangeably with "eager," but its original
meaning had to do with worrying, being full of anxiety. Perfectly
correct phrases like, "anxious to please" obscure the nervous tension
implicit in this word and lead people to say less correct things like
"I'm anxious for Christmas morning to come so I can open my presents."
Traditionalists frown on anxiety-free anxiousness. Say instead you are
eager for or looking forward to a happy event.

ANY

Instead of saying "he was the worst of any of the dancers," say "he was
the worst of the dancers."

ANY WHERE/ANYWHERE

"Anywhere," like "somewhere" and "nowhere," is always one word.

       
ANYWHERES/ANYWHERE

"Anywheres" is a dialectical variation on the standard English word
"anywhere."

ANYMORE/ANY MORE

In the first place, the traditional (though now uncommon) spelling is as
two words: "any more" as in "We do not sell bananas any more." In the
second place, it should not be used at the beginning of a sentence as a
synonym for "nowadays." In certain dialects of English it is common to
utter phrases like "anymore you have to grow your own if you want really
ripe tomatoes," but this is guaranteed to jolt listeners who aren't used
to it. Even if they can't quite figure out what's wrong, they'll feel
that your speech is vaguely clunky and awkward. "Any more" always needs
to be used as part of an expression of negation except in questions like
"Do you have any more bananas?" Now you won't make that mistake any
more, will you?

ANYONE/ANY ONE

When it means "anybody," "anyone" is spelled as a single word: "anyone
can enter the drawing."

But when it means "any single one," "any one" is spelled as two words:
"any one of the tickets may win."

ANYTIME/ANY TIME

Though it is often compressed into a single word by analogy with
"anywhere" and similar words, "any time" is traditionally a two-word
phrase.

ANYWAYS/ANYWAY

"Anyways" at the beginning of a sentence usually indicates that the
speaker has resumed a narrative thread: "Anyways, I told Matilda that
guy was a lazy bum before she ever married him." It also occurs at the
end of phrases and sentences, meaning "in any case": "He wasn't all that
good-looking anyways." A slightly less rustic quality can be imparted to
these sentences by substituting the more formal "anyway." Neither
expression is a good idea in formal written English. The two-word phrase
"any way" has many legitimate uses, however: "Is there any way to
prevent the impending disaster?"

APART/A PART

Paradoxically, the one-word form implies separation while the two-word
form implies union. Feuding roommates decide to live apart. Their time
together may be a part of their life they will remember with some
bitterness.

APIECE/A PIECE

When you mean "each" the expression is "apiece": these pizzas are really
cheap--only ten dollars apiece." But when "piece" actually refers to a
piece of something, the required two-word expression is "a piece ":
"This pizza is really expensive--they sell it by the slice for ten
dollars a piece."

Despite misspellings in popular music, the expression is not "down the
road apiece"; it's "down the road a piece."

APPAULED/APPALLED

Those of us named Paul are appalled at the misspelling of this word. No
U, two L's please. And it's certainly not "uphauled"!

       
APOSTROPHES

First let's all join in a hearty curse of the grammarians who inserted
the wretched apostrophe into possessives in the first place. It was all
a mistake. Our ancestors used to write "Johns hat" meaning "the hat of
John" without the slightest ambiguity. However, some time in the
Renaissance certain scholars decided that the simple "s" of possession
must have been formed out of a contraction of the more "proper" "John
his hat." Since in English we mark contractions with an apostrophe, they
did so, and we were stuck with the stupid "John's hat." Their error can
be a handy reminder though: if you're not sure whether a noun ending in
"s" should be followed by an apostrophe, ask yourself whether you could
plausibly substitute "his" or "her" for the S.

The exception to this pattern involves personal pronouns indicating
possession like "his," "hers," and "its." For more on this point, see
"its/it's."

Get this straight once and for all: when the S is added to a word simply
to make it a plural, no apostrophe is used (except in expressions where
letters or numerals are treated like words, like "mind your P's and Q's"
and "learn your ABC's").

Apostrophes are also used to indicate omitted letters in real
contractions: "do not" becomes "don't."

Why can't we all agree to do away with the wretched apostrophe? Because
its two uses--contraction and possession--have people so thoroughly
confused that they are always putting in apostrophes where they don't
belong, in simple plurals ("cucumber's for sale") and family names when
they are referred to collectively ("the Smith's" ).

The practice of putting improper apostrophes in family names on signs in
front yards is an endless source of confusion. "The Brown's" is just
plain wrong. (If you wanted to suggest "the residence of the Browns" you
would have to write "Browns'," with the apostrophe after the S, which is
there to indicate a plural number, not as an indication of possession.)
If you simply want to indicate that a family named Brown lives here, the
sign out front should read simply "The Browns." When a name ends in an S
you need to add an ES to make it plural: "the Adamses."

No apostrophes for simple plural names or names ending in S, OK? I get
irritated when people address me as "Mr. Brian's." What about when
plural names are used to indicate possession? "The Browns' cat" is
standard (the second S is "understood"), though some prefer "the
Browns's cat." The pattern is the same with names ending in S: "the
Adamses' cat" or--theoretically--"the Adamses's cat," though that would be
mighty awkward.

Apostrophes are also misplaced in common plural nouns on signs:
"Restrooms are for customer's use only." Who is this privileged customer
to deserve a private bathroom? The sign should read "for customers'
use."

For ordinary nouns, the pattern for adding an apostrophe to express
possession is straightforward. For singular nouns, add an apostrophe
plus an S: "the duck's bill." If the singular noun happens to end in one
S or even two, you still just add an apostrophe and an S: "the boss's
desk."

For plural nouns which end in S, however, add only the apostrophe: "the
ducks' bills." But if a plural noun does not end in S, then you follow
the same pattern as for singular nouns by adding an apostrophe and an S:
"the children's menu."

It is not uncommon to see the "S" wrongly apostrophized even in verbs,
as in the mistaken "He complain's a lot."

Unfortunately, some character sets do not include proper curled
apostrophes, including basic HTML and ASCII. If you do not turn off the
"smart quotes" feature in your word processor, the result will be ugly
gibberish in your writing which will make it hard to read.

But if you wish to create a true apostrophe in HTML ['] instead of a
straight "foot mark" ['], you can write this code: ’.

Another problem involving smart quotes arises when you need to begin a
word with an apostrophe, as in "the roaring '20s" or "give 'em a break."
Smart quotes will curl those opening apostrophes the wrong way.

There's more than one way to solve this problem, but here are the
easiest ones in Microsoft Word: 1) for Windows users, hold down the CTRL
key and hit the apostrophe key twice, 2) for Mac users, hold down the
option and shift keys and hit the right square bracket key. If all else
fails, you can type a pair of single quotation marks and delete the
first one.

See also "acronyms and apostrophes."

APPOSE/OPPOSE

These two spellings originally meant the same thing, but now "appose" is
a rare word having to do with placing one thing close to or on something
else (compare with juxtapose). It mainly occurs today as an error
spelling-checkers won't catch when the word intended is "oppose," meaning
to be against something. If you object to a proposed course of action,
you are opposed (not "apposed") to it.

APPRAISE/APPRISE

When you estimate the value of something, you appraise it. When you
inform people of a situation, you apprise them of it.

APROPOS/APPROPRIATE

"Apropos," (anglicized from the French phrase "a propos") means
relevant, connected with what has gone before; it should not be used as
an all-purpose substitute for "appropriate." It would be inappropriate,
for example, to say "Your tuxedo was perfectly apropos for the opera
gala." Even though it's not pronounced, be careful not to omit the final
"S" in spelling "apropos."

ARAB/ARABIC/ARABIAN

Arabs are a people whose place of ethnic origin is the Arabian
Peninsula.

The language which they speak, and which has spread widely to other
areas, is Arabic. "Arabic" is not generally used as an adjective except
when referring to the language or in a few traditional phrases such as
"gum arabic" and "arabic numerals." Note that in these few phrases the
word is not capitalized. Otherwise it is "Arab customs," "Arab groups,"
"Arab countries," etc.

A group of Arab individuals is made of Arabs, not "Arabics" or
"Arabians." The noun "Arabian" by itself normally refers to Arabian
horses. The other main use of the word is in referring to the collection
of stories known as "The Arabian Nights."

However, the phrase "Saudi Arabian" may be used in referring to citizens
of the country of Saudi Arabia, and to aspects of the culture of that
country. But it is important to remember that there are many Arabs in
other lands, and that this phrase does not refer properly to them.
Citizens of Saudi Arabia are often referred to instead as "Saudis,"
although strictly speaking this term refers to members of the Saudi royal
family and is usually journalistic shorthand for "Saudi Arabian
government."

It is also important not to treat the term "Arab" as interchangeable
with "Muslim." There are many Arabs who are not Muslims, and the
majority of Muslims are not Arab. "Arab" refers to an ethnic identity,
"Muslim" to a religious identity.

The standard pronunciation of "Arab" in English is "AIR-rub." Unless you
are referring to the character in West Side Story called "A-rab" (with
the second syllable rhyming with "cab"), you'll sound better educated if
you stick with the standard version.

AROUND/ABOUT

Lots of people think it's just nifty to say things like "We're having
ongoing discussions around the proposed merger." This strikes some of us
as irritating and pointless jargon. We feel it should be "discussions
about" rather than "around."

ARRANT/ERRANT

In modern English "arrant" is usually used to describe someone
notorious, thoroughly shameless: an arrant villain, an arrant thief. It
has a rather old-fashioned air to it, and is often used in antique
phrases like "an arrant knave."

"Errant" is also an antique word, now used exclusively to mean
"wandering," especially in the phrase "a knight errant" (a wandering
knight). As here, it usually follows the noun it modifies. Although you
can argue that "arrant" also used to have this meaning, most readers
will regard its use in this sense today not as learned, but as mistaken.

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."

ARTIC/ARCTIC

Although some brand names have incorporated this popular error, remember
that the Arctic Circle is an arc.  By the way, Ralph Vaughan Williams
called his suite drawn from the score of the film "Scott of the
Antarctic," the "Sinfonia Antartica," but that's Italian, not English.

ARTISANAL/ARTESIAN

For the past half-century foodies have referred to foods and drinks made
in small batches by hand using traditional methods as artisanal--made by
artisans: workers in handicrafts. It has also been extended to a wide
variety of other handmade products. Dictionaries agree that the word
should be pronounced "ARR-tizz-uh-nul" with the accent on the first
syllable and the second syllable rhyming with "fizz." Just say "artisan"
and add "-ul."

Diners and restaurant workers alike commonly confuse the pronunciation
of its first three syllables with that of
"artesian"--"arr-TEE-zhun"--which is an adjective to describe water
which spurts out of the earth under natural pressure. In this word the
accent falls on the second syllable, pronounced like "tea." A spring
such as this is called an "artesian spring" or "artesian well."

If you hand-bottle water from a natural spring in your back yard I
suppose you could label the result artisanal artesian water.

AS/THAT, WHO

In some American dialects it is common to say things like "I see lots of
folks as ain't got the sense to come in out out of the rain." In
standard English, the expression would be "folks that" or "folks who."

AS BEST AS/AS BEST

You can try to be as good as you can be, but it's not standard to say
that you do something "as best as you can." You need to eliminate the
second "as" when "good" changes to "best." You can try to do something
as best you can. You can also do the best that you can (or even better,
the best you can).

Unlike asbestos removal, "as best as" removal is easy, and you don't
have to wear a hazmat suit.

AS FAR AS

Originally people used to say things like "As far as music is concerned,
I especially love Baroque opera." Recently they have begun to drop the
"is concerned" part of the phrase. Perhaps this shift was influenced by
confusion with a similar phrase, "as for." "As for money, I don't have
any," is fine; "As far as money, I don't have any," is clumsy.

AS FOLLOW/AS FOLLOWS

"My birthday requests are as follows." This standard phrase doesn't
change number when the items to follow grow from one to many. It's never
correct to say "as follow."

AS LESS AS POSSIBLE/AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE

The expression is not "as less as possible," but "as little as possible."

AS OF YET/YET

"As of yet" is a windy and pretentious substitute for plain old English
"yet" or "as yet," an unjustified extension of the pattern in sentences
like "as of Friday the 27th of May."

AS PER/IN ACCORDANCE WITH

"Enclosed is the shipment of #2 toggle bolts as per your order of June
14" writes the businessman, unaware that not only is the "as" redundant,
he is sounding very old-fashioned and pretentious. The meaning is "in
accordance with," or "in response to the request made;" but it is better
to avoid these cumbersome substitutes altogether: "Enclosed is the
shipment of bolts you ordered June 14."

AS SUCH

The expression "as such" has to refer to some status mentioned earlier.
"The CEO was a former drill sergeant, and as such expected everyone to
obey his orders instantly." In this case "such" refers back to "former
drill sergeant." But often people only imply that which is referred to,
as in "The CEO had a high opinion of himself and as such expected
everyone to obey his orders instantly." Here the "such" cannot logically
refer back to "opinion." Replace "as such" with "therefore."

ASCARED/SCARED

The misspelling "ascared" is probably influenced by the spelling of the
synonym "afraid," but the standard English word is "scared."

ASCENT/ASSENT

"Assent" is a verb meaning "agreement," "consent." "Ascent" is a noun
meaning "climb." When you get people to agree with you, you gain their
assent. When you climb a mountain, you make an ascent.

ASCRIBE/SUBSCRIBE

If you agree with a theory or belief, you subscribe to it, just as you
subscribe to a magazine.

Ascribe is a very different word. If you ascribe a belief to someone,
you are attributing the belief to that person, perhaps wrongly.

ASOCIAL/ANTISOCIAL

Someone who doesn't enjoy socializing at parties might be described as
either "asocial" or "antisocial"; but "asocial" is too mild a term to
describe someone who commits an antisocial act like planting a bomb.
"Asocial" suggests indifference to or separation from society, whereas
"anti-social" more often suggests active hostility toward society.

ASPECT/RESPECT

When used to refer to different elements of or perspectives on a thing
or idea, these words are closely related, but not interchangeable. It's
"in all respects," not "in all aspects." Similarly, one can say "in some
respects" but not "in some aspects." One says "in this respect," not "in
this aspect. " One looks at all "aspects" of an issue, not at all
"respects."

ASSESS

"Assess" is a transitive verb; it needs an object. You can assess your
team's chances of winning the bowl game; but you cannot assess that they
are playing better than last year. "Assess" is not an all-purpose
synonym of "judge" or "estimate." Most of the time if you write "assess
that" you are making a mistake. The errors arise when "that" is being
used as a conjunction. Exceptions arise when "that" is a pronoun or
adverb: "How do you asssess that?" "I assess that team's chances as
good."

ASSURE/ENSURE/INSURE

To "assure" a person of something is to make him or her confident of it.
According to Associated Press style, to "ensure" that something happens
is to make certain that it does, and to "insure" is to issue an
insurance policy. Other authorities, however, consider "ensure" and
"insure" interchangeable. To please conservatives, make the distinction.
However, it is worth noting that in older usage these spellings were not
clearly distinguished.

European "life assurance" companies take the position that all
policy-holders are mortal and someone will definitely collect, thus
assuring heirs of some income. American companies tend to go with
"insurance" for coverage of life as well as of fire, theft, etc.

ASTERICK/ASTERISK

Some people not only spell this word without the second S, they say it
that way too. It comes from Greek asteriskos: "little star." Tisk, tisk,
remember the "-isk"; "asterick" is icky.

In countries where the Asterix comics are popular, that spelling gets
wrongly used for "asterisk" as well.

ASTROLOGY/ASTRONOMY

Modern astronomers consider astrology an outdated superstition. You'll
embarrass yourself if you use the term "astrology" to label the
scientific study of the cosmos. In writing about history, however, you
may have occasion to note that ancient astrologers, whose main goal was
to peer into the future, incidentally did some sound astronomy as they
studied the positions and movements of celestial objects.

ASWELL/AS WELL

No matter how you use it, the expression "as well" is always two words,
despite the fact that many people seem to think it should be spelled
"aswell." Examples: "I don't like plastic trees as well as real ones for
Christmas." "Now that we've opened our stockings, let's open our other
presents as well."

AT ALL

Some of us are irritated when a grocery checker asks "Do you want any
help out with that at all?" "At all" is traditionally used in negative
contexts: "Can't you give me any help at all?" The current pattern of
using the phrase in positive offers of help unintentionally suggests aid
reluctantly given or minimal in extent. As a way of making yourself
sound less polite than you intend, it ranks right up there with "no
problem" instead of "you're welcome."

ATM machine/ATM

"ATM" means "Automated Teller Machine," so if you say "ATM machine" you
are really saying "Automated Teller Machine machine."

ATHIEST/ATHEIST

An atheist is the opposite of a theist. "Theos" is Greek for "god." Make
sure the "TH" is followed immediately by an "E."

ATHLETE

Tired of people stereotyping you as a dummy just because you're a jock?
One way to impress them is to pronounce "athlete" properly, with just
two syllables, as "ATH-leet" instead of using the common
mispronunciation "ATH-uh-leet."

ATTAIN/OBTAIN

"Attain" means "reach" and "obtain" means "get." You attain a
mountaintop, but obtain a rare baseball card. "Attain" usually implies a
required amount of labor or difficulty; nothing is necessarily implied
about the difficulty of obtaining that card. Maybe you just found it in
your brother's dresser drawer.

Some things you obtain can also be attained. If you want to emphasize
how hard you worked in college, you might say you attained your degree;
but if you want to emphasize that you have a valid degree that qualifies
you for a certain job, you might say you obtained it. If you just bought
it from a diploma mill for fifty bucks, you definitely only obtained it.

ATTRIBUTE/CONTRIBUTE

When trying to give credit to someone, say that you attribute your
success to their help, not contribute. (Of course, a politician may
attribute his success to those who contribute to his campaign fund, but
probably only in private.)

AUGUR/AUGER

An augur was an ancient Roman prophet, and as a verb the word means
"foretell"--"their love augurs well for a successful marriage." Don't
mix this word up with "auger," a tool for boring holes. Some people
mishear the phrase "augurs well" as "all goes well" and mistakenly use
that instead.

AURAL/ORAL

"Aural" has to do with things you hear, "oral" with things you say, or
relating to your mouth.

AVAIDABLE/AVAILABLE

Many people mispronounce and misspell "available" as "avaidable," whose
peculiar spelling seems to be influenced by "avoidable," a word which
has opposite connotations.

"Avaidable" is avoidable; avoid it.

AVENGE/REVENGE

When you try to get vengeance for people who've been wronged, you want
to avenge them. You can also avenge a wrong itself: "He avenged the
murder by taking vengeance on the killer." Substituting "revenge" for
"avenge" in such contexts is very common, but frowned on by some people.
They feel that if you seek revenge in the pursuit of justice you want to
avenge wrongs: not revenge them.

AVOCATION/VOCATION

Your avocation is just your hobby; don't mix it up with your job: your
vocation.

AWAY/A WAY

"Jessica commented on my haircut in a way that made me think maybe I
shouldn't have let my little sister do it for me." In this sort of
context, "a way" should always be two distinct words, though many people
use the single word "away" instead. If you're uncertain, try
substituting another word for "way": "in a manner that," "in a style
that." If the result makes sense, you need the two-word phrase. Then you
can tell Jessica to just go away.

AWE, SHUCKS/AW, SHUCKS

"Aw, shucks," is a traditional folksy expression of modesty. An
"aw-shucks" kind of person declines to accept compliments. "Aw" is an
interjection roughly synonymous with "oh." "Awe" is a noun which most
often means "amazed admiration." So many people have begun to misspell
the familiar phrase "awe, shucks," that some writers think they are
being clever when they link it to the current expression "shock and
awe." Instead, they reveal their confusion.

AWHILE/A WHILE

When "awhile" is spelled as a single word, it is an adverb meaning "for
a time" ("stay awhile"); but when "while" is the object of a
prepositional phrase, like "Lend me your monkey wrench for a while" the
"while" must be separated from the "a." (But if the preposition "for"
were lacking in this sentence, "awhile" could be used in this way: "Lend
me your monkey wrench awhile.")

AX/ASK

The dialectical pronunciation of "ask" as "ax" is a sure marker of a
substandard education. You should avoid it in formal speaking
situations.

AXEL/AXLE

The centers of wheels are connected by axles. An axel is a tricky jump
in figure skating named after Axel Paulsen.

BACK/FORWARD/UP IN TIME

For most people you move an event forward by scheduling it to happen
sooner, but other people imagine the event being moved forward into the
future, postponed. This is what most--but not all--people mean by saying
they want to move an event back--later. Usage is also split on whether
moving an event up means making it happen sooner (most common) or later
(less common). The result is widespread confusion. When using these
expressions make clear your meaning by the context in which you use
them. "We need to move the meeting forward" is ambiguous; "we need to
move the meeting forward to an earlier date" is not.

Just to confuse things further, when you move the clock ahead in the
spring for daylight saving time, you make it later; but when you move a
meeting ahead, you make it sooner. Isn't English wonderful?

BACKSLASH/SLASH

This is a slash: /. Because the top of it leans forward, it is sometimes
called a "forward slash."

This is a backslash: \. Notice the way it leans back, distinguishing it
from the regular slash.

Slashes are often used to indicate directories and subdirectories in
computer systems such as Unix and in World Wide Web addresses.
Unfortunately, many people, assuming "backslash" is some sort of
technical term for the regular slash, use the term incorrectly, which
risks confusing those who know enough to distinguish between the two but
not enough to realize that Web addresses rarely contain backslashes.

BACKUP/BACK UP

To "back up" is an activity; "back up your computer regularly"; "back up
the truck to the garden plot and unload the compost."

A "backup" is a thing: "keep your backup copies in a safe place." Other
examples: a traffic backup, sewage backup, backup plan, backup forces.

Older writers often hyphenated this latter form ("back-up"), but this is
now rare.

BACKWARD/BACKWARDS

As an adverb, either word will do: "put the shirt on backward" or "put
the shirt on backwards." However, as an adjective, only "backward" will
do: "a backward glance." When in doubt, use "backward."

BACKYARD/BACK YARD

The thing itself is a two-word phrase: you grow vegetables in your back
yard. The adjective form that describes the location of something behind
your house is a single word: you have a backyard vegetable garden.

BAD/BADLY

In informal speech "bad" is sometimes used as an adverb: "the toilet was
leaking pretty bad" or "my arm hurt so bad I thought it was broken." In
formal writing, "badly" is preferred in both contexts.

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.

BAILOUT/BAIL OUT

Whether you are bailing out a rowboat or a bank, use the two-word
spelling to describe the action of doing it (the verb form): "we need to
bail out the boat before we can go fishing."

But to label the activity itself (the noun form), use the one-word
spelling: "this bailout is going to be expensive."

BALDFACED, BOLDFACED/BAREFACED

The only one of these spellings recognized by the Oxford English
Dictionary as meaning "shameless" is "barefaced." Etymologies often
refer to the prevalence of beards among Renaissance Englishmen, but
beards were probably too common to be considered as deceptively
concealing. It seems more likely that the term derived from the
widespread custom at that time among the upper classes of wearing masks
to social occasions where one would rather not be recognized.

BALL, BAWL

To "bawl" is to cry out loudly, so when you break down in tears you bawl
like a baby and when you reprimand people severely you bawl them out.
Don't use "ball" in these sorts of expressions. It has a number of
meanings, but none of them have to do with shouting and wailing unless
you're shouting "play ball!"

BARB WIRE, BOB WIRE/BARBED WIRE

In some parts of the country this prickly stuff is commonly called "barb
wire" or even "bob wire." When writing for a general audience, stick
with the standard "barbed wire."

BARE/BEAR

There are actually three words here. The simple one is the big growly
creature (unless you prefer the Winnie-the-Pooh type). Hardly anyone
past the age of ten gets that one wrong. The problem is the other two.
Stevedores bear burdens on their backs and mothers bear children. Both
mean "carry" (in the case of mothers, the meaning has been extended from
carrying the child during pregnancy to actually giving birth). But
strippers bare their bodies--sometimes bare-naked. The confusion between
this latter verb and "bear" creates many unintentionally amusing
sentences; so if you want to entertain your readers while convincing
them that you are a dolt, by all means mix them up. "Bear with me," the
standard expression, is a request for forbearance or patience. "Bare
with me" would be an invitation to undress. "Bare" has an adjectival
form: "The pioneers stripped the forest bare."

BASED AROUND, BASED OFF OF/BASED ON

You can build a structure around a center; but bases go on the bottom of
things, so you can't base something around something else.

Similarly, you can build something off of a starting point, but you
can't base anything off of anything. Something is always based on
something else.

BASISES/BASES

The plural of "basis" is "bases," pronounced "BAY-sees" (not to be
confused with Baywatch).

BASICLY/BASICALLY

There are "-ly" words and "-ally" words, and you basically just have to
memorize which is which. But "basically" is very much overused and is
often better avoided in favor of such expressions as  "essentially,"
"fundamentally," or "at heart."

BAITED BREATH/BATED BREATH

Although the odor of the chocolate truffle you just ate may be
irresistible bait to your beloved, the proper expression is "bated
breath." "Bated" here means "held, abated." You do something with bated
breath when you're so tense you're holding your breath.

BARTER/HAGGLE

When you offer to trade your vintage jeans for a handwoven shirt in
Guatemala, you are engaged in barter--no money is involved. One thing (or
service) is traded for another.

But when you offer to buy that shirt for less money than the vendor is
asking, you are engaged in haggling or bargaining, not bartering.

BAZAAR/BIZARRE

A "bazaar" is a market where miscellaneous goods are sold. "Bizarre," in
contrast, is an adjective meaning "strange," "weird."

BEAUROCRACY/BUREAUCRACY

The French bureaucrats from whom we get this word worked at their
bureaus (desks, spelled "bureaux" in French) in what came to be known as
bureaucracies.

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.

BECKON CALL/BECK AND CALL

This is a fine example of what linguists call "popular etymology."
People don't understand the origins of a word or expression and make one
up based on what seems logical to them. "Beck" is just an old shortened
version of "beckon." If you are at people's beck and call it means they
can summon you whenever they want: either by gesture (beck) or speech
(call).

BEGAN/BEGUN

In modern English "began" is the simple tense past tense of "begin": "he
began to study for the test at midnight."

But the past participle form--preceded by a helping verb--is "begun": "By
morning, he had begun to forget everything he'd studied that night."

FROM THE BEGINNING OF TIME

Stephen Hawking writes about the beginning of time, but few other people
do. People who write "from the beginning of time" or "since time began"
are usually being lazy. Their grasp of history is vague, so they resort
to these broad, sweeping phrases. Almost never is this usage literally
accurate: people have not fallen in love since time began, for instance,
because people arrived relatively late on the scene in the cosmic scheme
of things. When I visited Ferrara several years ago I was interested to
see that the whole population of the old city seemed to use bicycles for
transportation, cars being banned from the central area. I asked how
long this had been the custom and was told "We've ridden bicycles for
centuries." Since the bicycle was  invented only in the 1860s, I
strongly doubted this (no, Leonardo da Vinci did not invent the
bicycle--he just drew a picture of what one might look like--and some
people think that picture is a modern forgery). If you really don't know
the appropriate period from which your subject dates, you could
substitute a less silly but still vague phrase such as "for many years,"
or "for centuries"; but it's better simply to avoid historical
statements if you don't know your history.

See "today's modern society."

BEGS BELIEF/BEGGARS BELIEF

You beggar people by impoverishing them, reducing them to beggary. This
term now survives mainly in metaphorical expressions such as "it beggars
description" (exhausts my ability to describe it) or "it beggars belief"
(exhausts my ability to believe it).

People who aren't familiar with this meaning of the word "beggar" often
subsitute "beg," saying of something implausible that it "begs belief."
This makes no sense, for it implies that the story is trying to persuade
you to believe it.

BEGS THE QUESTION

An argument that improperly assumes as true the very point the speaker
is trying to argue for is said in formal logic to "beg the question."
Here is an example of a question-begging argument: "This painting is
trash because it is obviously worthless." The speaker is simply
asserting the worthlessness of the work, not presenting any evidence to
demonstrate that this is in fact the case. Since we never use "begs"
with this odd meaning ("to improperly take for granted") in any other
phrase, most people now suppose the phrase implies something quite
different: that the argument demands that a question about it be
asked--raises the question. Although using the expression in its
original sense is now rare, using it in the newer sense will cause
irritation among traditionalists.

BEHAVIORS

"Behavior" has always referred to patterns of action, including multiple
actions, and did not have a separate plural form until social scientists
created it. Unless you are writing in psychology, sociology,
anthropology, or a related field, it is better to avoid the use of
"behaviors" in your writing.

See also "peoples."

BEING THAT/BECAUSE

Using "being that" to mean "because" is nonstandard, as in "Being that
the bank robber was fairly experienced, it was surprising that he showed
the teller his ID card when she asked for it." "Being as how" is even
worse. If "because" or "since" are too simple for your taste, you could
use "given that" or "in that" instead.

BELIEF/BELIEVE

People can't have religious "believes"; they have religious beliefs. If
you have it, it's a belief; if you do it, you believe.

BELIEF TOWARD/BELIEF IN

You may have a positive attitude toward an idea, but you have a belief
in it.

BELOW TABLE/TABLE BELOW

When calling your readers' attention to an illustration or table further
on in a text, the proper word order is not "the below table" but "the
table below."

BEMUSE/AMUSE

When you bemuse someone, you confuse them, and not necessarily in an
entertaining way. Don't confuse this word with "amuse."

BENEFACTOR/BENEFICIARY

Benefactors give benefits; beneficiaries receive them. We expect to hear
of generous benefactors and grateful beneficiaries.

BESIDE/BESIDES

"Besides" can mean "in addition to" as in "besides the puppy chow, Spot
scarfed up the filet mignon I was going to serve for dinner." "Beside,"
in contrast, usually means "next to." "I sat beside Cheryl all evening,
but she kept talking to Jerry instead." Using "beside" for "besides,"
won't usually get you in trouble; but using "besides" when you mean
"next to" will.

BETTER

When Chuck says "I better get my research started; the paper's due
tomorrow," he means "I had better," abbreviated in speech to "I'd
better." The same pattern is followed for "he'd better," "she'd better,"
and "they'd better."

BETWEEN

"Between 1939 to 1945" is obviously incorrect to most people--it should
be "between 1939 and 1945"--but the error is not so obvious when it is
written thus: "between 1939-1949." In this case, the "between" should be
dropped altogether. Also incorrect are expressions like "there were
between 15 to 20 people at the party." This should read "between 15 and
20 people."

BETWEEN YOU AND I/BETWEEN YOU AND ME

"Between you and me" is preferred in standard English.

See "I/me/myself."

BEYOND THE PAIL/BEYOND THE PALE

A pale is originally a stake of the kind which might make up a palisade,
or enclosure. The uncontrolled territory outside was then "beyond the
pale." The expression "beyond the pale" came to mean "bizarre, beyond
proper limits"; but people who don't understand the phrase often alter
the last word to "pail."

The area of Ireland called "the Pale" inside the Dublin region formerly
controlled by the British is often said to have been the inspiration for
this expression, but many authorities challenge that explanation.

BIAS/BIASED

A person who is influenced by a bias is biased. The expression is not
"they're bias," but "they're biased." Also, many people say someone is
"biased toward" something or someone when they mean biased against. To
have a bias toward something is to be biased in its favor.

See also "prejudice/prejudiced."

BIBLE

Whether you are referring to the Jewish Bible (the Torah plus the
Prophets and the Writings) or the Protestant Bible (the Jewish Bible
plus the New Testament), or the Catholic Bible (which contains
everything in the Jewish and Protestant Bibles plus several other books
and passages mostly written in Greek in its Old Testament), the word
"Bible" must be capitalized. Remember that it is the title of a book,
and book titles are normally capitalized. An oddity in English usage is,
however, that "Bible" and the names of the various parts of the Bible
are not italicized or placed between quotation marks.

Even when used metaphorically of other sacred books, as in "The Qur'an
is the Bible of the Muslims," the word is usually capitalized; although
in secular contexts it is not: "Physicians' Desk Reference is the
pharmacists' bible." "Biblical" may be capitalized or not, as you choose
(or as your editor chooses).

Those who wish to be sensitive to the Jewish authorship of the Jewish
Bible may wish to use "Hebrew Bible" and "Christian Scriptures" instead
of the traditionally Christian nomenclature: "Old Testament" and "New
Testament." Modern Jewish scholars sometimes use the Hebrew acronym
"Tanakh" to refer to their Bible, but this term is not generally
understood by others.

BICEP/BICEPS

A biceps is a single muscle with two attaching tendons at one end.
Although "bicep" without the S is often used in casual speech, this
spelling is frowned on in medical and anatomical contexts.

BIT THE BULLET/BIT THE DUST

Someone of whom it is said "he bit the bullet" has made a tough decision
and decided to act on it. The expression is derived from the old
practice of having a wounded soldier bite down on a bullet to brace
himself against the pain of undergoing an amputation or other painful
operation. Some people confuse this with "bit the dust," which means
simply "died" (or more often, "was killed").

BIWEEKLY/SEMIWEEKLY

Technically, a biweekly meeting occurs every two weeks and a semiweekly
one occurs twice a week; but so few people get this straight that your
club is liable to disintegrate unless you avoid these words in the
newsletter and stick with "every other week" or "twice weekly." The same
is true of "bimonthly" and" semimonthly," though "biennial" and
"semi-annual" are less often confused with each other.

BLATANT

The classic meaning of "blatant" is "noisily conspicuous," but it has
long been extended to any objectionable obviousness. A person engaging
in blatant behavior is usually behaving in a highly objectionable
manner, being brazen. Unfortunately, many people nowadays think that
"blatant" simply means "obvious" and use it in a positive sense, as in
"Kim wrote a blatantly brilliant paper." Use "blatant" or "blatantly"
only when you think the people you are talking about should be ashamed
of themselves.

BLINDSIGHTED/BLINDSIDED

When you are struck by surprise from an unexpected direction, you are
blindsided, as if from your blind side. Do not be confused by the many
punning titles using the deliberate misspelling "blindsighted" into
using the latter spelling for this meaning.

BLOCK/BLOC

"Block" has a host of uses, including as the spelling in the phrase
"block of time." But for groups of people and nations, use the French
spelling "bloc": "bloc of young voters," "Cold War-era Eastern bloc of
nations." Don't be confused by punning names for groups and Web sites
like "Writer's Bloc."

BLUNT/BRUNT

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

BOARDERS/BORDERS

Boarders are residents in a boarding house or school paying for their
room and board (food), fighters who board ships, or more recently,
people who go snowboarding a lot. You can also board animals, though
usually only people are called "boarders." All of these have some
connection with boards: hunks of wood (the planks of a table, the deck
of a ship, a snowboard).

All uses having to do with boundaries and edges are spelled "border":
border collies, Doctors Without Borders, borderline disorders, border
guard.

BOAST YOUR CONFIDENCE/BOLSTER YOUR CONFIDENCE

A bolster is a large pillow, and when you bolster something you support
it as if you were propping it up with a pillow. Thus the expression is
"bolster your confidence." People unfamiliar with the word sometimes say
instead "boast your confidence." They may also be confusing this saying
with "boost your confidence."

BONAFIED/BONA FIDE

"Bona fide" is a Latin phrase meaning "in good faith," most often used
to mean "genuine" today. It is often misspelled as if it were the past
tense of an imaginary verb: "bonafy."

BORED OF/BORED WITH

When you get tired of something you are bored with it (not of it).

BORN/BORNE

This distinction is a bit tricky. When birth is being discussed, the
past tense of "bear" is usually "born": "I was born in a trailer--but it
was an Airstream." Note that the form used here is passive: you are the
one somebody else--your mother--bore. But if the form is active, you
need an "E" on the end, as in "Midnight has borne another litter of
kittens in Dad's old fishing hat" (Midnight did the bearing).

But in other meanings not having to do with birth, "borne" is always the
past tense of "bear": "My brother's constant teasing about my green hair
was more than could be borne."

BORN OUT OF/BORN OF

Write "my love of dance was born of my viewing old Ginger Rogers-Fred
Astaire movies," not "born out of." The latter expression is probably
substituted because of confusion with the expression "borne out" as in
"my concerns about having another office party were borne out when Mr.
Peabody spilled his beer into the fax machine." The only correct (if
antiquated) use of "born out of" is in the phrase "born out of wedlock."

BORROW/LOAN

In some dialects it is common to substitute "borrow" for "loan" or
"lend," as in "borrow me that hammer of yours, will you, Jeb?" In
standard English the person providing an item can loan it; but the
person receiving it borrows it.

For "loan" vs. "lend, see "Non-Errors."

BORROW OFF/BORROW FROM

In some dialects you can borrow five dollars off a friend; but in
standard English you borrow the money from a friend.

BOTH/EACH

There are times when it is important to use "each" instead of "both."
Few people will be confused if you say "I gave both of the boys a
baseball glove," meaning "I gave both of the boys baseball gloves"
because it is unlikely that two boys would be expected to share one
glove; but you risk confusion if you say "I gave both of the boys $50."
It is possible to construe this sentence as meaning that the boys shared
the same $50 gift. "I gave each of the boys $50" is clearer.

BOUGHT/BROUGHT

If you pay for something, you've bought it; if you bring something
you've brought it. These two words are probably interchanged most often
out of mere carelessness. A spelling checker won't catch the switch, so
watch out for it.



BONDS/BOUNDS

In expressions like "beyond the bounds of credibility" and "beyond the
bounds of decency" the word "bounds" is short for "boundaries," and
means "limits." Many people transform these sayings by substituting
"bonds" for "bounds," evidently thinking of people straining against
restraints, even going so far as to speak of the bonds of credibility
being stretched or broken. This usage makes a sort of sense, but it is
not traditional.

BOTH

"Both" refers to two items only. It is easy in speech to absent-mindedly
add items to an initial pair and wind up saying things like "I like both
mangos and papayas and Asian pears." Try to avoid this when writing.

How do you use "both" in a possessive construction? It's not easy. "It's
both of our home town" sounds awkward. Better to restructure the
sentence and say "it's the home town of both of us."

People occasionally say things like "I phoned both them," when they mean
"I phoned both of them," or "I phoned them both."

BOUGHTEN/BOUGHT

"Bought, " not "boughten" is the past tense of "buy." "Store-bought," a
colloquial expression for "not home-made," is already not formal
English; but it is not improved by being turned into "store-boughten."

BOUNCE/BOUNDS

A leaky ball may be out of bounce, but when it crosses the boundary line
off the basketball court or football field it goes out of bounds.
Similarly, any action or speech that goes beyond proper limits can be
called "out of bounds": "Mark thought that it was out of bounds for his
wife to go spelunking with Tristan, her old boyfriend."

BOURGEOIS

In the original French, a bourgeois was originally merely a free
inhabitant of a "bourg," or town. Through a natural evolution it became
the label for members of the property-owning class, then of the middle
class. As an adjective it is used with contempt by bohemians and
Marxists to label conservatives whose views are not sufficiently
revolutionary. The class made up of bourgeois (which is both the
singular and the plural form) is the bourgeoisie. Shaky spellers are
prone to leave out the "E" from the middle because "eoi" is not a
natural combination in English; but these words have remarkably enough
retained their French pronunciation: boorzhwah and boorzhwazee. The
feminine form, "bourgeoise," is rarely encountered in English.

BOUYANT/BUOYANT

Buoys are buoyant. In the older pronunciation of "buoyant" as "bwoyant"
this unusual spelling made more sense. Now that the pronunciation has
shifted to "boyant" we have to keep reminding ourselves that the U comes
before the O. The root noun, however, though often pronounced "boy" is
more traditionally pronounced "BOO-ee."

BOW

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the front end of a ship, it rhymes with 涄ow?and sounds just like the涀ough?on a tree.

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.

BRAND NAMES

Popular usage frequently converts brand names into generic ones, with
the generic name falling into disuse. Few people call gelatin dessert
mix anything other than "Jell-O," which helps to explain why it's hard
to find Nabisco's Royal Gelatin on the grocery shelves. All facial
tissues are "Kleenex" to the masses, all photocopies "Xeroxes." Such
commercial fame is, however, a two-edged sword: sales may be lost as
well as gained from such over-familiarity. Few people care whether their
"Frisbee" is the genuine Wham-O brand original or an imitation. Some of
these terms lack staying power: "Hoover" used to be synonymous with
"vacuum cleaner," and the brand name was even transmuted into a verb:
"to hoover" (these uses are still common in the UK). Most of the time
this sort of thing is fairly harmless, but if you are a motel operator
offering a different brand of whirlpool bath in your rooms, better not
call it a "Jacuzzi."

BRANG, BRUNG/BROUGHT

In some dialects the past tense of "bring" is "brang," and "brung" is
the past participle; but in standard English both are "brought."

BREACH/BREECH

Substitute a K for the CH in "breach" to remind you that the word has to
do with breakage: you can breach (break through) a dam or breach
(violate the terms of) a contract. As a noun, a breach is something
broken off or open, as in a breach in a military line during combat.

"Breech" however, refers to rear ends, as in "breeches" (slang spelling
"britches"). Thus "breech cloth," "breech birth," or "breech-loading
gun."

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends," means "let's charge into the
gap in the enemy's defenses," not "let's reach into our pants again."

BRAKE/BREAK

You brake to slow down; if your brakes fail and you drive through a
plate-glass window, you will break it.

BREAKUP/BREAK UP

A breakup is what happens when two people break up. The one-word form is
the result, whereas the two-word form is the action that leads to it.

BREATH/BREATHE

When you need to breathe, you take a breath. "Breathe" is the verb,
"breath" the noun.

BREECHES

The most common pronunciation of this word referring to pants rhymes
with "itches." The more phonetic spelling "britches" is perfectly
acceptable.

BRING/TAKE

When you are viewing the movement of something from the point of
arrival, use "bring": "When you come to the potluck, please bring a
green salad." Viewing things from the point of departure, you should use
"take": "When you go to the potluck, take a bottle of wine."

BRITAIN/BRITON

A British person is a Briton; only the country can be referred to as
"Britain."

BRITISH/ENGLISH

Americans tend to use the terms "British" and "English" interchangeably,
but Great Britain is made up of England plus Scotland and Wales. If you
are referring to this larger entity, the word you want is "British."
Britons not from England resent being referred to as "English."


BROACH/BROOCH

A decorative pin is a "brooch" even though it sounds like "broach"--a
quite different word. Although some dictionaries now accept the latter
spelling for jewelry, you risk looking ignorant to many readers if you
use it.

BROKE/BROKEN

When you break something, it's broken, not "broke," though a person or
organization which has run out of money can be said in informal speech
to be "broke." Otherwise, use "broke" only as the simple past tense of
"break," without a helping verb: "Azfar broke the record," but "The
record was broken by Azfar."

BRUNT/BUTT

A person who is the target of jokers is the butt of their humor (from an
old meaning of the word "butt": target for shooting at). But the object
of this joking has to bear the brunt of the mockery (from an old word
meaning a sharp blow or attack). A person is never a brunt. The person
being attacked receives the brunt of it.

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."

BUILD OFF OF/BUILD ON

You build "on" your earlier achievements, you don't build "off of" them.

BULLION/BOUILLON

Gold bricks are bullion. Boil down meat stock to get bouillon. It's an
expensive mistake to confuse bullion with bouillon in a recipe.

BULLY PULPIT

We occasionally still use the old positive meaning of the word "bully"
when congratulating somebody (sincerely or sarcastically) by saying
"Bully for you!" A century ago "bully" meant "good," "great."

That's why Theodore Roosevelt called the American presidency a "bully
pulpit," meaning that it provided him an outstanding platform from which
to preach his ideas. The expression is often misused by writers who
mistakenly think it has something to do with preaching at people in a
bullying way.

BUMRUSH/BUM'S RUSH

A 1987 recording by the rap group Public Enemy popularized the slang
term "bumrush" as a verb meaning "to crash into a show hoping to see it
for free," evidently by analogy with an earlier usage in which it meant
"a police raid."  In the hip-hop world to be "bumrushed" (also spelled
as two words) has evolved a secondary meaning, "to get beaten up by a
group of lowlifes, or "bums." However, older people are likely to take
all of these as mistakes for the traditional expression "bum's rush," as
in "Give that guy the bum's rush," i.e. throw him out unceremoniously,
treating him like an unwanted bum. It was traditionally the bum being
rushed, whereas in the newer expressions the bums are doing the rushing.
It's good to be aware of your audience when you use slang expressions
like this, to avoid baffling listeners.

Side note: Britons laughed themselves silly when they saw Americans
wandering around in sportswear with "B.U.M." plastered in huge letters
across their chests. "Bum" means "rear end" in the UK.

BUT . . . HOWEVER/BUT, HOWEVER

Since "but" and "however" perform the same function in a sentence, it's
not appropriate to use them together. Suppose you have written "but the
cake he made for my birthday, however, was his old girlfriend's favorite

BUTTLOAD/BOATLOAD

The original expression (meaning "a lot"), both more polite and more
logical, is "boatload."

BUTT NAKED/BUCK NAKED

The standard expression is "buck naked," and the contemporary "butt
naked" is an error that will get you laughed at in some circles.
However, it might be just as well if the new form were to triumph.
Originally a "buck" was a dandy, a pretentious, overdressed show-off of
a man. Condescendingly applied in the US to Native Americans and black
slaves, it quickly acquired negative connotations. To the historically
aware speaker, "buck naked" conjures up stereotypical images of naked
"savages" or--worse--slaves laboring naked on plantations. Consider
using the alternative expression "stark naked."

BUTTOX/BUTTOCKS

The popular phonetic spelling "buttox" ignores the fact that "buttocks"
(the traditional spelling) is a plural: one buttock, two buttocks.

BY/'BYE/BUY

These are probably confused with each other more often through haste
than through actual ignorance, but "by" is the common preposition in
phrases like "you should know by now." It can also serve a number of
other functions, but the main point here is not to confuse "by" with the
other two spellings: "'bye" is an abbreviated form of "goodbye"
(preferably with an apostrophe before it to indicate the missing
syllable), and "buy" is the verb meaning "purchase." "Buy" can also be a
noun, as in "that was a great buy." The term for the position of a
competitor who advances to the next level of a tournament without
playing is a "bye." All others are "by."

BY FAR AND AWAY/BY FAR, FAR AND AWAY

You could say that Halloween is by far your favorite holiday, or you can
say that it's far and away your favorite holiday; but if you combine the
two expressions and say "by far and away" you'll annoy some people and
puzzle others who can't figure out why it doesn't sound quite right.

CACAO/COCOA

Technically speaking, the plant is called a "cacao tree" and the seeds
and the chocolate powder made from them are called "cocoa." These
spellings are often swapped, but in contexts where botanical names
matter, it's better to stick with "cacao tree."

Neither of these should be confused with "coca," the source of cocaine.

CACHE/CACHET

"Cache" comes from the French verb "cacher," meaning "to hide," and in
English is pronounced exactly like the word "cash." But reporters
speaking of a cache (hidden hoard) of weapons or drugs often
mispronounce it to sound like cachet--"ca-SHAY"--a word with a very
different meaning: originally a seal affixed to a document, now a
quality attributed to anything with authority or prestige. Rolex watches
have cachet.

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."

CALL THE QUESTION

This is more a matter of parliamentary procedure than of correct
English, but people are generally confused about what "calling the
question" means. They often suppose that it means simply "let's vote!"
and some even imagine that it is necessary to call for the question
before a vote may be taken. You even see deferential meeting chairs
pleading, "Would someone like to call for the question?"

But "calling the question" when done properly should be a rare
occurrence. If debate has dragged on longer than you feel is really
warranted, you can "call the question," at which time the chair has to
immediately ask those assembled to vote to determine whether or not
debate should be cut off or continue. The motion to call the question is
itself not debatable. If two-thirds of those voting agree that the
discussion should have died some time ago, they will support the call.
Then, and only then, will the vote be taken on the question itself.

Potentially this parliamentary maneuver would be a great way to shut
down windy speakers who insist on prolonging a discussion when a clear
consensus has already been arrived at; but since so few people
understand what it means, it rarely works as intended.

Chairs: when someone "calls the question," explain what the phrase means
and ask if that is what's intended. Other folks: you'll get further most
of the time just saying "Let's vote!"

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 feet, the
word you need is "callused."

CALLS FOR/PREDICTS

Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.

Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you
do call for them?

Shakespeare: Henry IV, Part 1

Newspeople constantly joke that the weather service is to blame for the
weather, so we shouldn't be surprised when they tell us that the
forecast "calls for rain" when what they mean is that it "predicts"
rain.  Remember, wherever you live, the weather is uncalled for.

CALM, COOL, AND COLLECTIVE/CALM, COOL, AND COLLECTED

Unless you're living in an unusually tranquil commune, you wouldn't be
"calm, cool, and collective." The last word in this traditional phrase
is "collected," in the sense of such phrases as "let me sit down a
minute and collect my thoughts." If you leave out "cool" the last word
still has to be "collected."

CALVARY/CAVALRY

"Calvary," always capitalized, is the hill on which Jesus was crucified.
It means "hill of skulls." Soldiers mounted on horseback are cavalry.

CAN GOODS/CANNED GOODS

Is there a sign at your grocery store that says "can goods"? It should
say "canned goods."

CANADIAN GEESE/CANADA GEESE

"Canadian geese" would be any old geese that happen to be in Canada.
What people usually mean to refer to when they use this phrase is the
specific species properly called "Canada geese."

CANON/CANNON

"Canon" used to be such a rare word that there was no temptation to
confuse it with "cannon": a large piece of artillery. The debate over
the literary canon (a list of officially-approved works) and the
popularity of Pachelbel's Canon (an imitative musical form related to
the common "round") have changed all that--confusion is rampant. Just
remember that the big gun is a "cannon." All the rest are "canons." Note
that there are metaphorical uses of "cannon" for objects shaped like
large guns, such as a horse's "cannon bone."

CANNOT/CAN NOT

These two spellings are largely interchangeable, but by far the most
common is "cannot"; and you should probably use it except when you want
to be emphatic: "No, you can not wash the dog in the Maytag."

See also "may/might."
       
CAN悾 . . . TOO

In many contexts, "can't" followed by "too" can be confusing. "You can't
put too much garlic in this stew" could mean "be careful not to put too
much garlic in this soup" or "there's no limit to how much garlic you
could put in this soup--use lots!"

CANVAS/CANVASS

Heavy cloth, whether in the frame of a painting or on the floor of a
boxing ring, is canvas, with one S.

To survey ballots or voters is to canvass them, with two S's.

CAPITAL/CAPITOL

A "capitol" is almost always a building. Cities which serve as seats of
government are capitals spelled with an A in the last syllable, as
are most other uses of the word as a common noun. The only exceptions
are place names alluding to capitol buildings in some way or other, like
"Capitol Hill" in DC, Denver, or Seattle (the latter named either after
the hill in Denver or in hopes of attracting the Washington State
capitol building). Would it help to remember that Congress with an O
meets in the Capitol with another O?

CAPITALIZATION

Proper nouns (names of people and places: "Frederick," "Paris") and
proper adjectives ("French," "Biblical") must be capitalized. Many
people used to casual e-mail patterns have begun to omit capital letters
throughout their writing, even at the beginning of sentences when
writing in more formal contexts. Unless your correspondent is someone
that you know prefers the all-lower-case approach, to be taken seriously
you should take the trouble to hit that Shift key when necessary.

Particularly watch out for this sloppy habit in writing timed
examinations. A teacher who has devoted 20 years to the study of Chinese
art flinches when she sees her cherished subject demoted to "chinese."

CARAMEL/CARMEL

Take Highway 1 south from Monterey to reach the charming seaside town of
Carmel, of which Clint Eastwood was formerly mayor. Dissolve sugar in a
little water and cook it down until the sugar turns brown to create
caramel. A nationwide chain uses the illiterate spelling
"Karmelkorn(TM)," which helps to perpetuate the confusion between these
two words.

CARAT/CARET/CARROT/KARAT

"Carrots" are those crunchy orange vegetables Bugs Bunny is so fond of,
but this spelling gets misused for the less familiar words which are
pronounced the same but have very different meanings. Precious stones
like diamonds are weighed in carats. The same word is used to express
the proportion of pure gold in an alloy, though in this usage it is
sometimes spelled "karat" (hence the abbreviation "20K gold"). A caret
is a proofreader's mark showing where something needs to be inserted,
shaped like a tiny pitched roof. It looks rather like a French
circumflex, but is usually distinct from it on modern computer
keyboards. Carets are extensively used in computer programming. Just
remember, if you can't eat it, it's not a carrot.

CAREER/CAREEN

A truck careening down the road is swerving from side to side as it
races along, whereas a truck careering down the road may be simply
traveling very fast. But because it is not often clear which meaning a
person intends, confusing these two words is not likely to get you into
trouble.

CARING

Most people are comfortable referring to "caring parents," but speaking
of a "caring environment" is jargon, not acceptable in formal English.
The environment may contain caring people, but it does not itself do the
caring.

CAROUSAL/CAROUSEL

A carousal is a wild drunken party.

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If you掯e been invited to a 涄arousal party?don掐 head for the liquor
store until you捯e sure you haven掐 just been invited to ride on a
merry-go-round.

CAST IN STONE/CAST IN CONCRETE, CARVED IN STONE

People expressing flexibility say that their ideas or rules are "not
cast in concrete," meaning they have not hardened into rigidity. You
cast concrete in a mold by pouring it in and letting it set; so the
expression can also be "not set in concrete."

A similar expression is "not carved in stone" (like the Ten
Commandments).

People frequently mix these two expressions up and say things like "It's
not cast in stone." They may be influenced by the unrelated Christian
saying, "Don't cast [throw] the first stone."

CAST DISPERSIONS/CAST ASPERSIONS

"Aspersions" is an unusual word whose main meaning is "false or
misleading accusations," and its only common use is in the phrase "cast
aspersions." To disperse a crowd is to break it up and scatter it, which
perhaps leads some people to mistakenly associate "cast" ("throw") with
"disperse" but the expression is "cast aspersions."

CATCH-22/CATCH

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.

CATCHED/CAUGHT

The standard past tense form of "catch" in modern English is not
"catched," but "caught."

CAUCASIAN

"Caucasian" is an outdated term originally used to refer to some or all
of the people of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and Central
and South Asia. It was invented by in the early 19th century Johann
Friedrich Blumenbach, who felt the Caucasian "race" was best exemplified
by people from people living in the Caucasus mountains of Georgia. It is
widely misused today as a synonym for "white." Although the concept of
"race" is still widely popular, contemporary scientists have generally
rejected the concept as simplistic and misleading.

The term is better avoided except in reference to people actually from
the Caucasus.

CD-ROM disk/CD-ROM

"CD-ROM" stands for "compact disc, read-only memory," so adding another
"disc" or "disk" is redundant. The same goes for "DVD" (from Digital
Video Disc" or "Digital Versatile Disc"--there are non-video versions).
Don't say "give me that DVD disk," just "give me that DVD."

CEASAR/CAESAR

Did you know that German "Kaiser" is derived from the Latin "Caesar" and
is pronounced a lot more like it than the English version? We're stuck
with our illogical pronunciation, so we have to memorize the correct
spelling. (The Russians messed up the pronunciation as thoroughly as the
English, with their "Czar.") Thousands of menus are littered with
"Ceasar salads" throughout America which should be "Caesar
salads"--named after a restaurateur, not the Roman ruler (but they both
spelled their names the same way).


       
CEASE THE DAY/SEIZE THE DAY

The classical Latin phrase "carpe diem"--usually translated as "seize the
day"--means "act now," "there's no time like the present."

It has to do not with ceasing, but with acting.

CELIBATE/CHASTE

Believe it or not, you can be celibate without being chaste, and chaste
without being celibate. A celibate person is merely unmarried, usually
(but not always) because of a vow of celibacy. The traditional
assumption is that such a person is not having sex with anyone, which
leads many to confuse the word with "chaste," denoting someone who does
not have illicit sex. A woman could have wild sex twice a day with her
lawful husband and technically still be chaste, though the word is more
often used to imply a general abstemiousness from sex and sexuality. You
can always amuse your readers by misspelling the latter word as
"chased."

CELTIC

Because the Boston Celtics basketball team pronounces its name as if it
began with an S, Americans are prone to use this pronunciation of the
word as it applies to the Bretons, Cornish, Welsh, Irish and Scots; but
the dominant pronunciation among sophisticated US speakers is "keltik."
Just remember: "Celts in kilts."

Interestingly, the Scots themselves often use the "S" pronunciation,
notably in referring to the Glasgow soccer team, the "Celtic Football
Club."

CEMENT/CONCRETE

People in the building trades distinguish cement (the gray powder that
comes in bags) from concrete (the combination of cement, water, sand,
and gravel which becomes hard enough in your driveway to drive your car
on). In contexts where technical precision matters, it's probably better
to speak of a "concrete sidewalk" rather than of a "cement sidewalk."

CENSOR/CENSURE/SENSOR/CENSER

To censor somebody's speech or writing is to try to suppress it by
preventing it from reaching the public. When guests on network TV utter
obscenities, broadcasters practice censorship by bleeping them.

To censure someone, however, is to officially denounce an offender. You
can be censured as much for actions as for words. A lawyer who destroyed
evidence which would have been unfavorable to his client might be
censured by the bar association.

A device which senses any change like changes in light or electrical
output is a sensor. Your car and your digital camera contain sensors.

A censer is a church incense burner.

CENTER AROUND/CENTER ON, REVOLVE AROUND

Two perfectly good expressions--"center on" and "revolve around"--get
conflated in this nonsensical neologism. When a speaker says his address
will "center around the topic of" whatever, my interest level plummets.

CENTER OF ATTRACTION/CENTER OF ATTENTION

"Center of attraction" makes perfect sense, but the standard saying is
"center of attention."

CENTS

On a sign displaying a cost of twenty-nine cents for something the price
can be written as ".29," as "$.29," or as "29c," but don't combine the
two forms. ".29c" makes no sense, and "$.29c" is worse.

CEREMONIAL/CEREMONIOUS

"Ceremonial" and "ceremonious" are often considered synonyms, and can
indeed be used interchangeably in many contexts. But there are some
cases in which one is better than the other.

If you are talking about the performance of a ceremony, the word you
will usually want is "ceremonial" as in "ceremonial offering,"
"ceremonial garb," or "ceremonial dance." Sikhs traditionally wear
ceremonial daggers.

"Ceremonious" is mostly used to describe formal behavior which often has
little or no connection with a literal ceremony: "ceremonious manners,"
"ceremonious welcome," or "ceremonious speech."

CHAI TEA/CHAI

"Chai" is simply the word for "tea" in Hindi and several other Asian
languages. The spicy, milky variety known in India as "masala chai" is
called "chai" in the US Since Americans likely to be attracted by the
word "chai" already know it's a tea-based drink, it's both redundant and
pointless to call the product "chai tea."

CHAISE LONGUE

When English speakers want to be elegant they commonly resort to French,
often mangling it in the process. The entree [acute accent over the
second E], the dish served before the plat, usurped the latter's
position as main dish. And how in the world did French "lingerie"
(originally meaning linen goods of all sorts, later narrowed to
underwear only) pronounced--roughly--"lanzheree" come to be American
"lawnzheray"? Quelle horreur! "Chaise longue" (literally "long chair"),
pronounced--roughly--"shezz lohng" with a hard G on the end became in
English "shayz long." Many speakers, however, confuse French "chaise"
with English "chase" and French longue with English "lounge"
(understandable since the article in question is a sort of couch or
lounge), resulting in the mispronunciation "chase lounge." We may
imagine the French as chasing each other around their lounges, but a
chaise is just a chair.

CHALK-FULL/CHOCK-FULL, CHUCK-FULL

Originally a person or thing stuffed to the point of choking was
"choke-full." In modern speech this expression has become "chock-full,"
or in less formal American English, "chuck-full." Chalk has nothing to
do with it.

CHAMPAIGN/CHAMPAGNE

Champaign is the name of a city and county in Illinois.

Champagne is a region of France that produces the sparkling wine of this
name.

CHAUVINIST/MALE CHAUVINIST, SEXIST

Nicolas Chauvin of Rochefort became a laughingstock in Napoleon's army
for his exaggerated nationalism, and his name gave rise to the term
"chauvinism," which characterizes people who wildly overestimate the
excellence and importance of their own countries while denigrating
others. The word was then broadened to cover an exaggerated belief in
the superiority of one's own kind in other respects. Following this
pattern, feminists in the 1970s invented the term "male chauvinist" to
label people who considered women inferior to men. Unfortunately, this
was the context in which many people first encountered "chauvinism" and
not understanding that it had a broader meaning, dropped the "male,"
thinking that "chauvinist" was a synonym for "sexist." This
misunderstanding is so widespread that only occasionally will you
encounter someone who knows better, but in formal writing it is wise to
avoid the abbreviated form in this restricted meaning. However, if you
do intend the older meaning of the word, it's also a good idea to make
that clear from your context, for a great many of your readers will
assume you are talking about sexism.


CHECK/CZECH

Pronounce the name of the country which broke away from the former
Czechoslovakia to form the Czech Republic as "check," but don't spell it
that way. Its citizens are Czechs.

CHEMICALS

Markets offering "organic" produce claim it has been raised "without
chemicals." News stories fret about "chemicals in our water supply."
This common error in usage indicates quite clearly the lamentable level
of scientific literacy in our population. Everything on earth save a few
stray subatomic particles and various kinds of energy (and--if you
believe in it--pure spirit) is composed of chemicals. Pure water
consists of the chemical dihydrogen oxide. Vitamins and minerals are
chemicals. In the broadest sense, even simple elements like nitrogen can
be called chemicals. Writers who use this term sloppily contribute to
the obfuscation of public debate over such serious issues as pollution
and malnutrition.

CHICANO/LATINO/HISPANIC

"Chicano" means "Mexican-American," and not all the people denoted by
this term like it. When speaking of people living in the US from
various other Spanish-speaking countries, "Chicano" is an error for
"Latino" or "Hispanic." Only "Hispanic" can include people with a
Spanish as well as with a Latin American heritage; and some people of
Latin American heritage object to it as ignoring the Native American
element in that population. Only "Latino" could logically include
Portuguese-speaking Brazilians, though that is rarely done.

CHOOSE/CHOSE

You chose tequila last night; you choose aspirin this morning. "Chose"
is the past tense, "choose" the present.

CHRISPY/CRISPY

There are a lot of menus, signs, and recipes out there featuring
"chrispy chicken." Is this misspelling influenced by the "CH" in
"chicken" or the pattern in other common words like "Christmas"? At any
rate, the proper spelling is "crispy."

CHUNK/CHUCK

In casual conversation, you may get by with saying "Chuck [throw] me
that monkey wrench, will you?" But you will mark yourself as illiterate
beyond mere casualness by saying instead "Chunk me that wrench." This is
a fairly common substitution in some dialects of American English.

CHURCH

Catholics routinely refer to their church as the Church, with a capital
"C." This irritates the members of other churches, but is standard
usage. When "Church" stands by itself (that is, not as part of a name
like "First Methodist Church") you should normally capitalize it only to
mean "Roman Catholic Church." Note that protestant theologians and other
specialists in religion do refer to the whole body of Christians as "the
Church," but this professional usage is not common in ordinary writing.

CHUTE/SHOOT

It is not uncommon to see people writing "down the shoot" when they mean
"down the chute."

A chute is a sloping channel things move down along. It comes from the
French word for "to fall."

But if you are a shipper of Chinese grocieries you could shoot cans of
bamboo shoots down a chute to the loading dock.

"Chute" is also short for "parachute," but people rarely misspell it
that sense.

List of errors
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!).

CLASSIC/CLASSICAL

"Classical" usually describes things from ancient Greece or Rome, or
things from analogous ancient periods like classical Sanskrit poetry.
The exception is classical music, which in the narrow sense is late 18th-
and 19th-century music by the likes of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven, and
in the broader sense formal concert music of any period in the West or
traditional formal music from other cultures, like classical ragas.

"Classic" has a much looser meaning, describing things that are
outstanding examples of their kind, like a classic car or even a classic
blunder.

CLEANUP/CLEAN UP

"Cleanup" is usually a noun: "the cleanup of the toxic waste site will
cost billions of dollars." "Clean" is a verb in the phrase "clean up":
"You can go to the mall after you clean up your room."

CLENCH/CLINCH

"Clench" and "clinch" are related words, but they are not
interchangeable.

You clench a fist or teeth.

You clinch a deal or a victory. A reliable person comes through in the
clinch.

Bent-over nails are sometimes said to be clenched, but are more often
clinched.

CLICHE/CLICHED

One often hears young people say "That movie was so cliche!" "Cliche" is
a noun, meaning an overfamiliar phrase or image. A work containing
cliches is cliched.

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.

CLIMACTIC/CLIMATIC

"Climactic" and "anticlimactic" have to do with climaxes, "climatic"
with climate. There is no such word as "anticlimatic."

CLOSE/CLOTHES

Because the TH in "clothes" is seldom pronounced distinctly, it is often
misspelled "close." Just remember the TH in "clothing," where it is
obvious. Clothes are made of cloth. Rags can also be cloths (without an
E).

CLOSED-MINDED/CLOSE-MINDED

"Closed-minded" might seem logical, but the traditional spelling of this
expression is "close-minded." The same is true for "close-lipped" and
"close-mouthed."

COARSE/COURSE

"Coarse" is always an adjective meaning "rough, crude." Unfortunately,
this spelling is often mistakenly used for a quite different word,
"course," which can be either a verb or a noun (with several different
meanings).
       
COFFEE KLATSCH, COFFEE KLATCH

"Coffee klatsch" comes from German Kaffeeklatsch meaning "coffee chat."
This is a compound word of which only one element has been translated,
with the other being left in its original German spelling.

Many people anglicize the spelling further to "coffee klatch" or "coffee
clatch." Either one is less sophisticated than "coffee klatsch," but not
too likely to cause raised eyebrows.

"Coffee clutch" is just a mistake except when used as a deliberate pun
to label certain brands of coffee-cup sleeves or to name a cafe.

COIFFEUR/COIFFURE

The guy who does your hair is a "coiffeur," just as the person who
drives a car is a "chauffeur," and a restaurant owner is a
"restaurateur." The "-eur" suffix occurs regularly in occupation names
which we have borrowed from the French. In French all of these would be
male, though Americans often refer to female restaurateurs and
chauffeurs. But it less acceptable to refer to a female hairdresser as a
coiffeur.

When the coiffeur has finished, the end product--your hairdo--is your
"coiffure."

COLD SLAW/COLE SLAW

The popular salad made of shredded cabbage was originally "cole slaw,"
from the Dutch for "cabbage salad." Because it is served cold, Americans
have long supposed the correct spelling to be "cold slaw"; but if you
want to sound more sophisticated go with the original.

COLISEUM/COLOSSEUM

The standard spelling for an outdoor stadium is "coliseum"; but the one
in Rome is called the "Colosseum."

COLLAGE/COLLEGE

You can paste together bits of paper to make a collage, but the
institution of higher education is a college.

COLLECTIVE PLURAL

In UK English it is common to see statements like "Parliament have
raised many questions about the proposal" in which because Parliament is
made up of many individuals, several of whom are raising questions, the
word is treated as if it were plural in form and given a plural verb.
This is the proper-noun form of what is called the "collective plural."
Many UK authorities object when this pattern is applied to organization
names if the organization is being discussed as a whole and not as a
collection of individuals. According to them, "The BBC have been filming
in Papua New Guinea" should be "The BBC has been filming. . . ."

This sort of collective plural applied to the names of organizations is
almost unheard of in the US, and in fact strikes most Americans as
distinctly weird, with an exception being an occasional sports team with
a singular-form name like the Utah Jazz, the Miami Heat, the Orlando
Magic, or the Seattle Storm. There's a sarcastic saying, "The Utah Jazz
are to basketball what Utah is to jazz."

Another occasional exception is singular performing group names which
are sometimes treated as plural, like The Who and The Clash, though such
groups are also often referred to the singular. It's almost as common to
say "The Who rule" as "The Who rules."

COLOMBIA/COLUMBIA

Although both are named after Columbus, the US capital is the District
of Columbia, whereas the South American country is Colombia.

COMA/COMMA

Some people write of patients languishing in a comma, and others refer
to inserting a coma into a sentence. A long-term unconscious state is a
coma; the punctuation mark is a comma.

COMMAS

What follows is not a comprehensive guide to the many uses of commas,
but a quick tour of the most common errors involving them.

The first thing to note is that the comma often marks a brief pause in
the flow of a sentence, and it helpfully marks off one phrase from
another. If you write "I plan to see Shirley and Fred will go shopping
while we visit" your readers are naturally going to think the announced
visit will be to both Shirley and Fred until the second half surprises
them into realizing that Fred is not involved in this visit at all. A
simple comma makes everything clear: "I plan to see Shirley, and Fred
will go shopping while we visit." People who read and write little have
trouble with commas if they deal with English primarily as a spoken
language, where emphasis and rhythm mark out phrases. It takes a
conscious effort to translate the rhythm of a sentence into writing
using punctuation.

Not many people other than creative writers have the occasion to write
dialogue, but it is surprising how few understand that introductory
words and phrases have to be separated from the main body of speech in
direct address: "Well, what did you think of that?" "Good evening, Mr.
Nightingale."

Commas often help set off interrupting matter within sentences. The
proper term for this sort of word or phrase is "parenthetical." There
are three ways to handle parenthetical matter. For asides sharply
interrupting the flow of the sentence (think of your own examples) use
parenthesis marks. For many other kinds of fairly strong interjections,
dashes--if you know how to type them properly--work best. Milder
interruptions, like this, are nicely set off with commas. Many writers
don't realize that they are setting off a phrase, so they begin with the
first comma but omit the second, which should conclude the parenthetical
matter. Check for this sort of thing in your proofreading.

A standard use for commas is to separate the items in a series: "cats,
dogs, and gerbils." Authorities differ as to whether that final comma
before the "and" is required. Follow the style recommended by your
teacher, editor, or boss when you have to please them; but if you are on
your own, I suggest you use the final comma. It often removes
ambiguities.

A different kind of series has to do with a string of adjectives
modifying a single noun: "He was a tall, strong, handsome, but stupid
man." But when the adjective becomes an adverb modifying another
adjective instead of the noun, then no comma is used: "He was wearing a
garish bright green tie." A simple test: if you could logically insert
"and" between the modifying words in a series like this, you need commas.

English teachers refer to sentences where clauses requiring some
stronger punctuation are instead lightly pasted together with a comma as
"comma splices." Here's an example: "He brought her a dozen roses, he
had forgotten she was allergic to them." In this sentence the reader
needs to be brought up sharply and reoriented mid-sentence with a
semicolon; a comma is too weak to do the trick. Here's a worse example
of a comma splice: "It was a beautiful day outside, she remembered just
in time to grab the coffee mug." There is no obvious logical connection
between the two parts of this sentence. They don't belong in the same
sentence at all. The comma should be a period, with the rest being
turned into a separate sentence.

Some writers insert commas seemingly at random: "The unabridged
dictionary, was used mainly to press flowers." When you're not certain a
comma is required, read your sentence aloud. If it doesn't seem natural
to insert a slight pause or hesitation at the point marked by the comma,
it should probably be omitted.

See also "colons/semicolons" and "hyphens & dashes."

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

Hey kids, here's a chance to catch your English teacher in a redundancy!
To compare two things is to note their similarities and their
differences. There's no need to add "and contrast."

COMPARE TO/COMPARE WITH

These are sometimes interchangeable, but when you are stressing
similarities between the items compared, the most common word is "to":
"She compared his home-made wine to toxic waste." If  you are examining
both similarities and differences, use "with": "The teacher compared
Steve's exam with Robert's to see whether they had cheated."

COMPLEMENT/COMPLIMENT

Originally these two spellings were used interchangeably, but they have
come to be distinguished from each other in modern times. Most of the
time the word people intend is "compliment": nice things said about
someone ("She paid me the compliment of admiring the way I shined my
shoes."). "Complement," much less common, has a number of meanings
associated with matching or completing. Complements supplement each
other, each adding something the others lack, so we can say that
"Alice's love for entertaining and Mike's love for washing dishes
complement each other." Remember, if you're not making nice to someone,
the word is "complement."

A complement can also be the full number of something needed to make it
complete: "my computer has a full complement of video-editing programs."
If it is preceded by "full" the word you want is almost certainly
"complement."

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 degrees, whereas
supplementary ones add up to 180 degrees.

COMPRISED OF/COMPOSED OF

Although "comprise" is used primarily to mean "to include," it is also
often stretched to mean "is made up of"--a meaning that some critics
object to. The most cautious route is to avoid using "of" after any form
of "comprise" and substitute "is composed of" in sentences like this:
"Jimmy's paper on Marxism was composed entirely of sentences copied off
the Marx Brothers Home Page."

COMPTROLLER

Although it is less and less often heard, the traditional pronunciation
of "comptroller" is identical with "controller." The Oxford English
Dictionary, indeed, considers "comptroller" to have begun as a
misspelling of "controller"--back in the 16th century.

CONCENSUS/CONSENSUS

You might suppose that this word had to do with taking a census of the
participants in a discussion, but it doesn't. It is a good old Latin
word that has to do with arriving at a common sense of the meeting, and
the fourth letter is an "S."

Speaking of a "general consensus" is extremely common, though strictly
speaking it's a redundant expression since a consensus is by definition
a general agreement.

CONCERTED EFFORT

One cannot make a "concerted effort" all by one's self. To work "in
concert" is to work together with others. The prefix "con-" means
"with."

CONFIDENT/CONFIDANT/CONFIDANTE

In modern English "confident' is almost always an adjective. Having
studied for a test you feel confident about passing it. You're in a
confident frame of mind. This spelling is often misused as a noun
meaning "person you confide in," especially in the misspelled phrase
"close confident."

The spelling "confidante" suggests that such a close friend might be a
female, and conservatives prefer to confine its use to refer to women.
But this spelling is also very common for males, and the spelling
"confidant" is also used of both males and females. Either one will do
in most contexts, but the person you trust with your deep secrets is not
your "confident."

CONFLICTED/CONFLICTING FEELINGS

Phrases like "conflicted feelings" or "I feel conflicted" are considered
jargon by many, and out of place in formal writing. Use "I have
conflicting feelings" instead, or write "I feel ambivalent."

CONFUSIONISM/CONFUCIANISM

Confucius is the founder of Confucianism. His name is not spelled
"Confucious," and his philosophy is not called "Confusionism." When you
spot the confusion in the latter term, change it quickly to
"Confucianism."

CONGRADULATIONS/CONGRATULATIONS

I fear that all too many people are being "congradulated" for graduating
from high school who don't know that this word should be spelled
"congratulations." Try a search for this misspelling on your favorite
Web search engine and be prepared to be astonished.

CONSERVATIVISM/CONSERVATISM

The conservative spelling of this word is "conservatism."

CONSIDERED AS/CONSIDERED

Although we say things like "Shakespeare is regarded as the finest
playwright in the English language," it is not standard to retain the
"as" when the wording is changed to "Shakespeare is considered the
finest playwright. . . ."

Of course there's nothing wrong with the phrase "considered as" in
contexts like this: "Salt is being considered as a melting agent for
snow on the city streets." Also fine is the standard idiom "considered
as a whole."

There is a specialized proper use of the phrase "considered as" in
formal writing which has to do with a thing being considered as an
example of some category, sometimes an unexpected one. " This pattern is
common in scholarly titles, such as "Heat Considered as a Mode of Motion"
and "Typhoid Fever Considered as a Problem of Scientific Medicine."

A couple of examples from literature which parody this scholarly usage:
"The Crucifixion Considered as an Uphill Bicycle Race" (Alfred Jarry)
and "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones" (Samuel R.
Delany).

Since there are so many exceptions to the rule against following
"considered" by "as," try applying one of these two tests: if
"considered as" means the same thing as " regarded as" in your sentence,
drop the "as"--or, more simply, if you can omit the "as" without making
the sentence sound weird, do so.

"Deem," which also means "regard," should also not be followed by "as."

CONTACT

Although some still object to "contact" as a verb, sentences like
"contact me when the budget is ready" are now standard English.

CONTAMINATES/CONTAMINANTS

When run-off from a chemical plant enters the river it contaminates the
water; but the goo itself consists of "contaminants."

CONTINUAL/CONTINUOUS

"Continuous" refers to actions which are uninterrupted: "My upstairs
neighbor played his stereo continuously from 6:00 PM to 3:30 AM."
Continual actions, however, need not be uninterrupted, only repeated:
"My father continually urges me to get a job."

CONVERSATE/CONVERSE

"Conversate" is what is called a "back-formation" based on the noun
"conversation." But the verb for this sort of thing is "converse."

CORE/CORPS/CORPSE

Apples have cores. A corps is an organization, like the Peace Corps. A
corpse is a dead body, a carcass.

COLLABORATE/CORROBORATE

People who work together on a project "collaborate" (share their labor);
people who support your testimony as a witness "corroborate" (strengthen
by confirming) it.

COLONS/SEMICOLONS

Colons have a host of uses, but they mostly have in common that the
colon acts to connect what precedes it with what follows. Think of the
two dots of a colon as if they were stretched out to form an equal sign,
so that you get cases like this: "he provided all the ingredients:
sugar, flour, butter, and vanilla."

There are a few exceptions to this pattern, however. One unusual use of
colons is in between the chapter and verses of a Biblical citation, for
instance, "Matthew 6:5." In bibliographic citation a colon separates the
city from the publisher: "New York: New Directions, 1979." It also
separates minutes from hours in times of day when given in figures:
"8:35." It is incorrect to substitute a semicolon in any of these cases.

Think of the semicolon as erecting a little barrier with that dug-in
comma under the dot; semicolons always imply separation rather than
connection. A sentence made up of two distinct parts whose separation
needs to be emphasized may do so with a semicolon: "Mary moved to
Seattle; she was sick of getting sunburned in Los Angeles." When a
compound sentence contains commas within one or more of its clauses, you
have to escalate to a semicolon to separate the clauses themselves: "It
was a mild, deliciously warm spring day; and Mary decided to walk to the
fair." The other main use of semicolons is to separate one series of
items from another--a series within a series, if you will: "The issues
discussed by the board of directors were many: the loud, acrimonious
complaints of the stockholders; the abrupt, devastating departure of the
director; and the startling, humiliating discovery that he had absconded
with half the company's assets." Any time the phrases which make up a
series contain commas, for whatever reason, they need to be separated by
semicolons.

Many people are so terrified of making the wrong choice that they try to
avoid colons and semicolons altogether, but I'm afraid this just can't
be done. Formal writing requires their use, and it's necessary to learn
the correct patterns.

COME WITH

In some American dialects it is common to use the phrase "come with"
without specifying with whom, as in "We're going to the bar. Want to
come with?" This sounds distinctly odd to the majority of people, who
would expect "come with us."

COMPANY NAMES WITH APOSTROPHES

Some company names which have a possessive form use an apostrophe before
the S and some don't: "Macy's" does and "Starbucks" doesn't. Logo
designers often feel omitting the apostrophe leads to a cleaner look,
and there's nothing you can do about it except to remember which is
standard for a particular company. But people sometimes informally add
an S to company names with which they are on familiar terms: "I work
down at the Safeway's now" (though in writing, the apostrophe is likely
to be omitted). This is not standard usage.

CONCERNING/WORRISOME, TROUBLING

People commonly say of things that are a cause for concern that they are
"concerning": "My boyfriend's affection for his pet rattlesnake is
concerning." This is not standard English. There are many better words
that mean the same thing including "worrisome," "troubling," and
"alarming."

CONNOTE/DENOTE

The literal meaning of a word is its denotation; the broader
associations we have with a word are its connotations. People who depend
on a thesaurus or a computer translation engine to find synonyms often
choose a word with the right denotation but the wrong connotations.

"Determined" and "pig-headed" both denote stubbornness; but the first
connotes a wise adherence to purpose and the second connotes foolish
rigidity.

"Boss" and "Chief Executive Officer" (CEO) can refer to the same office;
but the first is less admiring and likely to connote the view of
employees lower down in the company--nobody wants to be thought of as
"bossy." Higher executives would be more likely to speak admiringly of a
"CEO."

I often write "insufficiently complex" at the bottom of student papers
instead of "simple-minded." Although they denote essentially the same
quality, the connotations of the first are less insulting.

CONSCIENCE, CONSCIOUS, CONSCIOUSNESS

Your conscience makes you feel guilty when you do bad things, but your
consciousness is your awareness. If you are awake, you are conscious.
Although it is possible to speak of your "conscious mind," you can't use
"conscious" all by itself to mean "consciousness."

See unconscience.

CONTRARY/CONTRAST

The phrases "on the contrary" and "to the contrary" are used to reply to
an opposing point. Your friend tells you she is moving to New York and
you express surprise because you thought she hated big cities. She
replies, "On the contrary, I've always wanted to live in an urban area."

When a distinction is being made that does not involve opposition of
this sort, "in contrast" is appropriate. "In New York, you don't need a
car. In Los Angeles, in contrast, you can't really get along without
one, though you won't need a snow shovel."

Here's a simple test: if you could possibly substitute "that's wrong"
the phrase you want is "on the contrary" or "to the contrary." If not,
then use "in contrast."

CONTRASTS/CONTRASTS WITH

"With" must not be omitted in sentences like this: "Julia's enthusiasm
for rugby contrasts with Cheryl's devotion to chess."

COPE UP/COPE WITH

When you can't keep up with your work you may not be able to cope with
your job; but you never "cope up" with anything. In casual speech we say
"I can't cope," but in formal writing "cope" is normally followed by
"with."

COPYWRITE/COPYRIGHT

You can copyright writing, but you can also copyright a photograph or
song. The word has to do with securing rights. Thus, there is no such
word as "copywritten"; it's "copyrighted."

CORONATE/CROWN

A person is crowned, not coronated. "Coronate" is improperly derived
from "coronation," but "crown" is the original and still standard form
of the verb.

But don't be in too big a hurry to declare that there is "no such word":
"coronate" means "crown-shaped," and has various uses in biology.

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."

COULD CARE LESS/COULDN'T CARE LESS

Cliches are especially prone to scrambling because they become
meaningless through overuse. In this case an expression which originally
meant "it would be impossible for me to care less than I do because I do
not care at all" is rendered senseless by being transformed into the
now-common "I could care less." Think about it: if you could care less,
that means you care some. The original already drips sarcasm, so it's
pointless to argue that the newer version is "ironic." People who misuse
this phrase are just being careless.

More on "COULD CARE LESS"

People who use the shortened form are often convinced they are right
because they are being "ironic" and some even claim it's the original
form. But here's the entry in "The American Heritage Dictionary of
Idioms":

"This expression originated about 1940 in Britain and for a time
invariably used couldn't. About 1960 could was occasionally substituted,
and today both versions are used with approximately equal frequency,
despite their being antonyms."

"I could care less" just isn't logically ironic. The people speaking
feel irony, but their words don't convey it. "I'd buy those jeans" could
be ironic if you really meant the opposite: you wouldn't buy those jeans
if they were the last pair in the world. But "I could care less" isn't
used to imply its opposite: that you care more. Thus it is not ironic.

"Couldn't care less" is a strong statement because it says you don't
care at all, zero!

"Could care less," whatever meaning you take it to have, does not have
that crucial message of zero interest which gives the original saying
its sting. See http://incompetech.com/gallimaufry/care_less.html

See also Michael Quinion on this point:
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ico1.htm.

COULD GIVE A DAMN/COULDN悾 GIVE A DAMN

If you don't care at all about something, the standard popular
expression is "I couldn't give a damn." People often say instead "I
could give a damn," which should logically mean they care. Note that we
say "I don't give a damn," not "I give a damn" unless it's set in some
kind of negative context such as "do you really think I give a damn?" or
"do I look like I give a damn?'

The same goes for parallel expressions where the last word is "darn" or
some other expletive.

Just remember that in Gone with the Wind Clark Gable told Vivien Leigh,
"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

COULD OF, SHOULD OF, WOULD OF/COULD HAVE, SHOULD HAVE, WOULD HAVE

This is one of those errors typically made by a person more familiar
with the spoken than the written form of English. A sentence like "I
would have gone if anyone had given me free tickets" is normally spoken
in a slurred way so that the two words "would have" are not distinctly
separated, but blended together into what is properly rendered
"would've." Seeing that "V" tips you off right away that "would've" is a
contraction of "would have." But many people hear "would of" and that's
how they write it. Wrong.

Note that "must of" is similarly an error for "must have."

COUNCIL/COUNSEL/CONSUL

The first two words are pronounced the same but have distinct meanings.
An official group that deliberates, like the Council on Foreign
Relations, is a "council"; all the rest are "counsels": your lawyer,
advice, etc. A consul is a local representative of a foreign government.

COUPLE/COUPLE OF

Instead of "she went with a couple sleazy guys before she met me," write
"a couple of guys" if you are trying to sound a bit more formal. Leaving
the "of" out is a casual, slangy pattern.

CURSING THROUGH VEINS/COURSING THROUGH VEINS

To "course" is to run. The most familiar use of this meaning of the word
is in "racecourse": a place where races are run. When the blood runs
strongly through your veins, it courses through them. Metaphorically we
speak of strong emotions like fear, exhilaration, and passion as
coursing through our veins.

Some people mistakenly substitute "curse" and think these feelings are
cursing through their veins. This might make some sort of sense with
negative emotions, but note that the expression is also used of positive
ones. Stick with coursing.

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."

CRACKER JACKS/CRACKER JACK

"Crackerjack" is an old slang expression meaning "excellent," and the
official name of the popcorn confection is also singular: "Cracker
Jack." People don't pluralize its rival Poppycock as "Poppycocks," but
they seem to think of the individual popped kernels as the "jacks." A
similarly named candy is "Good and Plenty." All three have descriptive
names describing qualities and shouldn't be pluralized. A way to
remember this: in "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" "Cracker Jack" rhymes
with "back."

CRAPE/CREPE

In modern English "crape" refers to thin, crinkled paper or cloth. Black
crape was traditionally associated with mourning. A crepe is a thin flat
French pancake. Most Americans pronounce the two words the same, to
rhyme with "ape." If you want to spell it the French way, you'll need to
add a circumflex over the first "E": crepe, and pronounce it to rhyme
with "step." Even if you use the French form you're likely to sound the
final "S" in plural "crepes," though a real French speaker would leave
it silent.

CRAFTS

When referring to vehicles, "craft" is both singular and plural. Two
aircraft, many watercraft, etc. Do not add an "S."

But when referring to hobbies and skills such as "woodcrafts" or "arts
and crafts" adding an "S" in the plural form is standard.

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掐 very effective because a credulous person isn掐 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."

See also "incredible" and "begs belief."

CRESCENDO/CLIMAX

When something is growing louder or more intense, it is going through a
crescendo (from an Italian word meaning "growing"). Traditionalists
object to its use when you mean "climax." A crescendo of cheers by an
enthusiastic audience grows until it reaches a climax, or peak.
"Crescendo" as a verb is common, but also disapproved of by many
authorities. Instead of "the orchestra crescendos," write "the orchestra
plays a crescendo."

CREVICE/CREVASSE

Crevices are by definition tiny, like that little crevice between your
teeth where the popcorn hulls always get caught. A huge crack in a
glacier is given the French spelling: crevasse.

CRICK/CREEK

The dialectical pronunciation and spelling of "creek" as "crick" is very
popular in some parts of the US, but the standard pronunciation of the
word is the same as that of "creak."

CRITERIA/CRITERION

There are several words with Latin or Greek roots whose plural forms
ending in A are constantly mistaken for singular ones. See, for
instance, data and media. You can have one criterion or many criteria.
Don't confuse them.

CRITICISM

Beginning literature or art history students are often surprised to
learn that in such contexts "criticism" can be a neutral term meaning
simply "evaluating a work of literature or art." A critical article
about The Color Purple can be entirely positive about Alice Walker's
novel. Movie critics write about films they like as well as about films
they dislike: writing of both kinds is called "criticism."

CRITIQUE/CRITICIZE

A critique is a detailed evaluation of something. The formal way to
request one is "give me your critique," though people often say
informally "critique this"--meaning "evaluate it thoroughly." But
"critique" as a verb is not synonymous with "criticize" and should not
be routinely substituted for it. "Josh critiqued my backhand" means Josh
evaluated your tennis technique but not necessarily that he found it
lacking. "Josh criticized my backhand" means that he had a low opinion
of it.

You can write criticism on a subject, but you don't criticize on
something, you just criticize it.

CROCHET/CROTCHET/CROTCHETY

Although all of these words derive from a common ancestor meaning "hook"
and are related to "crook," they have taken on different meanings in
modern English. Those who do needlework with a crochet hook crochet.
Your peculiar notions are your crotchets. And a crabby old person like
Bob Cratchit's boss is crotchety. There are various other technical uses
for "crotchet," but people who use them usually know the correct
spelling. Just remember that "crochet" goes only with goods made with a
crochet hook.

CROISSANT

The fanciful legend which attributes the creation of the croissant to
Christian bakers celebrating a 17th-century victory over the Turks is
widely recounted but almost certainly untrue, since there is no trace of
the pastry until a century later. Although its form was probably not
influenced by the Islamic crescent, the word croissant most definitely
is French for "crescent." Pastries formed from the same dough into
different shapes should not be called "croissants." If a customer in
your bakery asks for a pain au chocolat (PAN oh-show-co-LA), reach for
that rectangular pastry usually mislabeled in the US a "chocolate
croissant."

CROWBAR/WRECKING BAR

A crowbar is a straight bar with one end only slightly bent and
sharpened into a beak. Often the beak is split, giving the tool its name
from its resemblance to a crow's foot.

The tool with the much more pronounced hook on the end--designed for
prying loose boards and drawing nails-- may be considered a type of
crowbar, but in among people in construction and the hardware trade it
is called a "wrecking bar."

CRUCIFICTION/CRUCIFIXION

One might suppose that this common misspelling was a product of
skepticism were it not for the fact that it most often occurs in the
writings of believers. The word should make clear that Jesus was affixed
to the cross, not imply that his killing is regarded as a fiction.

CRUCIFIX/CROSS

A crucifix is a cross with an image of the crucified Christ affixed to
it. Reporters often mistakenly refer to someone wearing a "crucifix"
when the object involved is an empty cross. Crucifixes are most often
associated with Catholics, empty crosses with Protestants.

CUE/QUEUE

"Cue" has a variety of meanings, but all uses of "queue" relate to its
original French meaning of "tail," which becomes a metaphor for a line
(beware, however: in French "queue" is also rude slang for the male sex
organ). Although a few dictionaries accept "cue" as an alternative
spelling for the braided tail some people make of their hair or a
waiting line, traditionally both are queues: "Sun Yat Sen ordered that
all Chinese men should cut off their queues," "I have over 300 movies in
my Netflix queue."

CURRANT/CURRENT

"Current" is an adjective having to do with the present time, and can
also be a noun naming a thing that, like time, flows: electrical
current, currents of public opinion. "Currant" refers only to little
fruits.

CURVE YOUR APPETITE/CURB YOUR APPETITE

A "curb" was originally a device used to control an unruly horse.
Already in the 18th century people were speaking by analogy of
controlling their appetites as "curbing" them. You do not "curve" your
hunger, appetite, desires, etc. You curb them.

CUT AND DRY/CUT AND DRIED

Many people mishear the standard expression meaning "set," "not open to
change," as "cut and dry."  Although this form is listed in the Oxford
English Dictionary, it is definitely less common in sophisticated
writing. The dominant modern usage is "cut and dried." When used to
modify a noun, it must be hyphenated: "cut-and-dried plan."

CUT AND PASTE/COPY AND PASTE

Because "cut and paste" is a familiar phrase, many people say it when
they mean "copy and paste" in a computer context. This can lead to
disastrous results if followed literally by an inexpert person. If you
mean to tell someone to duplicate something rather than move it, say
"copy." And when you are moving bits of computer information from one
place to another the safest sequence is often to copy the original,
paste the copy elsewhere, and only then delete (cut) the original.

CUT OF TEA/CUP OF TEA

An astounding number of people write "cut of tea" when they mean "cup of
tea," especially in phrases like "not my cut of tea" instead of "not my
cup of tea." This saying is not about fine distinctions between
different ways the tea's been harvested; it just refers to the ordinary
vessel from which you drink the stuff.

Is this mistake influenced by the expression "the cut of his jib" or is
it just a goofy typo?

DAIRY/DIARY

A common typo that won't be caught by your spelling checker is swapping
"dairy" and "diary." Butter and cream are dairy products; your journal
is your diary.

DAMP SQUID/DAMP SQUIB

Squid are indeed usually damp in their natural environment; but the
popular British expression describing a less than spectacular explosion
is a "damp squib" (soggy firecracker).

DAMPED/DAMPENED

When the vibration of a wheel is reduced it is damped, but when you
drive through a puddle your tire is dampened. "Dampened" always has to
do with wetting, if only metaphorically: "The announcement that Bob's
parents were staying home after all dampened the spirits of the
party-goers." The parents are being a wet blanket.

A device to slow or control some movement--the spinning of a wheel, the
vibration of an airplane part, or the movement of smoke up a chimney--is
not a "dampner" but a "damper."

DANGLING AND MISPLACED MODIFIERS

Dangling and misplaced modifiers are discussed at length in usage guides
partly because they are very common and partly because there are many
different kinds of them. But it is not necessary to understand the
grammatical details involved to grasp the basic principle: words or
phrases which modify some other word or phrase in a sentence should be
clearly, firmly joined to them and not dangle off forlornly on their
own.

Sometimes the dangling phrase is simply too far removed from the word it
modifies, as in "Sizzling on the grill, Theo smelled the Copper River
salmon." This makes it sound like Theo is being barbecued, because his
name is the nearest noun to "sizzling on the grill." We need to move the
dangling modifier closer to the word it really modifies: "salmon." "Theo
smelled the Copper River salmon sizzling on the grill."

Sometimes it's not clear which of two possible words a modifier
modifies: "Felicia is allergic to raw apples and almonds." Is she
allergic only to raw almonds, or all almonds--even roasted ones? This
could be matter of life and death. Here's a much clearer version:
"Felicia is allergic to almonds and raw apples." "Raw" now clearly
modifies only "apples."

Dangling modifiers involving verbs are especially common and sometimes
difficult to spot. For instance, consider this sentence: "Having bought
the harpsichord, it now needed tuning." There is no one mentioned in the
sentence who did the buying. One way to fix this is to insert the name
of someone and make the two halves of the sentence parallel in form:
"Wei Chi, having bought the harpsichord, now needed to tune it." If you
have a person in mind, it is easy to forget the reader needs to be told
about that person; but he or she can't be just "understood."

Here's another sentence with a dangling modifier, in this case at the
end of a sentence: "The retirement party was a disaster, not having
realized that Arthur had been jailed the previous week." There is nobody
here doing the realizing. One fix: "The retirement party was a disaster
because we had not realized that Arthur had been jailed the previous
week."

Using passive verbs will often trip you up: "In reviewing Gareth's
computer records, hundreds of hours spent playing online games were
identified." This sort of thing looks fine to a lot of people and in
fact is common in professional writing, but technically somebody
specific needs to be mentioned in the sentence as doing the identifying.
Inserting a doer and shifting to the active voice will fix the problem.
While we're at it, let's make clear that Gareth was doing the playing:
"The auditor, in checking Gareth's computer records, identified hundreds
of hours that he had spent playing online games."

Adverbs like "almost," "even," "hardly," "just," "only," and "nearly"
are especially likely to get stuck in the wrong spot in a sentence.
"Romeo almost kissed Juliet as soon as he met her" means he didn't kiss
her--he only held her hand. True, but you might want to say something
quite different: "Romeo kissed Juliet almost as soon as he met her." The
placement of the modifier is crucial.

DARING-DO/DERRING-DO

The expression logically should be "feats of daring-do" because that's
just what it means: deeds of extreme daring. But through a chain of
misunderstandings explained in the Oxford English Dictionary, the
standard form evolved with the unusual spelling "derring-do," and
"daring-do" is an error.

DATA/DATUM

There are several words with Latin or Greek roots whose plural forms
ending in A are constantly mistaken for singular ones. See, for
instance, "criteria" and "media." "Datum" is so rare now in English that
people may assume "data" has no singular form. Many American usage
communities, however, use "data" as a singular and some have even gone
so far as to invent "datums" as a new plural. This is a case where you
need to know the patterns of your context. An engineer or scientist used
to writing "the data is" may well find that the editors of a journal or
publishing house insist on changing this phrase to "the data are." Usage
is so evenly split in this case that there is no automatic way of
determining which is right; but writers addressing an international
audience of nonspecialists would probably be safer treating "data" as
plural.

DATELINE/DEADLINE

The word "dateline" is used today mainly to label the bit of text at the
top of a printed news story that indicates where and--often, but not
always--when it was written. For instance, after a headline about events
in Kenya, the dateline might read "NAIROBI, Kenya, June 2, 2010."

Probably because this rather obscure word has been popularized by its
use for the name of an NBC television news show, some people confuse it
with "deadline," which is most often the date by which something must be
accomplished. You can miss deadlines, meet deadlines, or have to deal
with short deadlines-- but not datelines.

DAY IN AGE/DAY AND AGE

The expression is "in this day and age; but it's a worn-out expression,
so you'd be better off writing "these days."

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME/DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME

The official term is "daylight saving time," not "savings time."
       
DE RIGUEUR

The French phrase "de rigueur" means "required," "mandatory" (usually
according to custom, etiquette, or fashion). It's one of those tricky
words like "liqueur" with a U before the E and another one after it. It
is misspelled in a host of ways ("de rigeur," "de rigor," "derigor,"
etc.) It is pronounced duh-ree-GUHR. Like other incompletely adopted
foreign phrases, it is usually italicized in print.

DEAL

Popular expressions like "not that big a deal" and "what's the deal?" in
which "deal" stands vaguely for something like "situation" are fine in
casual spoken English, but inappropriate in formal writing.

Even in casual speech, it's better to leave out the "of" in "not that
big of a deal."

DEALED/DEALT

The standard past tense of "deal" is not "dealed" but "dealt." The only
exception is the rhyming expression "wheeled and dealed," which is not
formal English.

DEBRIEF

"Debrief" has leaked out of the military and national security realms
into the business world, where people seem pretty confused about it.
When you send people out on missions, you brief them--give them
information they'll need. You give them a briefing. When they come back,
you debrief them by asking them what they did and found out. Note that
in both cases it's not the person doing the actual work but the boss or
audience that does the briefing and debriefing. But people commonly use
"debrief" when they mean "report."

The verb "brief" comes originally from law, where someone being given a
legal brief (instructions on handling a case) can be said to have been
briefed. Debriefing has nothing to do with underwear.

DECEPTIVELY

If you say of a soldier that he is "deceptively brave" you might be
understood to mean that although he appears cowardly he is actually
brave, or that although he appears brave he is actually cowardly. This
ambiguity should cause you to be very careful about using "deceptive"
and "deceptively" to make clear which meaning you intend.

DECIMATE/ANNIHILATE, SLAUGHTER, ETC.

This comes under the heading of the truly picky. Despite the fact that
most dictionaries have caved in, some of us still remember that when the
Romans killed one out of every ten (decem) soldiers in a rebellious
group as an example to the others, they decimated them. People sensitive
to the roots of words are uncomfortably reminded of that ten percent
figure when they see the word used instead to mean "annihilate,"
"obliterate," etc. You can usually get away with using "decimate" to
mean "drastically reduce in numbers," but you're taking a bigger risk
when you use it to mean "utterly wipe out."

DEEP-SEEDED/DEEP-SEATED

Those who pine for the oral cultures of Ye Olden Dayes can rejoice as we
enter an era where many people are unfamiliar with common expressions in
print and know them only by hearsay.* The result is mistakes like "deep
seeded." The expression has nothing to do with a feeling being planted
deep within one, but instead refers to its being seated firmly within
one's breast: "My aversion to anchovies is deep-seated." Compounding
their error, most people who misuse this phrase leave the hyphen out.
Tennis players may be seeded, but not feelings.

*The notion that English should be spelled as it is pronounced is
widespread, but history is against the reformers in most cases.
Pronunciation is often a poor guide to spelling. The veneration of
certain political movements for the teaching of reading through phonics
is nicely caricatured by a t-shirt slogan I've seen: "Hukt awn fonix."

DEFENCE/DEFENSE

If you are writing for a British publication, use "defence," but the
American "defense" has the advantages of greater antiquity, similarity
to the words from which it was derived, and consistency with words like
"defensible." The pronunciation used in sports which accents the first
syllable ("DEE-fense") should not be used when discussing military,
legal, or other sorts of defense.

People in sports use "defense" as a verb meaning "defend against," as in
"the team couldn't defense that strategy." Outside of sports talk,
"defense" is never a verb.

See also offence/offense.


DEFINATE/DEFINITE

Any vowel in an unstressed position can sometimes have the sound
linguists call a "schwa:" "uh." The result is that many people tend to
guess when they hear this sound, but "definite" is definitely the right
spelling. Also common are various misspellings of "definitely,"
including the bizarre "defiantly."

DEFAMATION/DEFORMATION

Someone who defames you, seeking to destroy your reputation (making you
ill-famed), is engaging in defamation of character. Only if someone
succeeded in actually making you a worse person could you claim that
they had deformed your character.

DEFUSE/DIFFUSE

You defuse a dangerous situation by treating it like a bomb and removing
its fuse; to diffuse, in contrast, is to spread something out: "Bob's
cheap cologne diffused throughout the room, wrecking the wine-tasting."

DEGRADE/DENIGRATE/DOWNGRADE

Many people use "downgrade" instead of "denigrate" to mean "defame,
slander." "Downgrade" is entirely different in meaning. When something
is downgraded, it is lowered in grade (usually made worse), not just
considered worse. "When the president of the company fled to Rio with
fifteen million dollars, its bonds were downgraded to junk bond status."
"Degrade" is much more flexible in meaning. It can mean to lower in
status or rank (like "downgrade") or to corrupt or make contemptible;
but it always has to do with actual reduction in value rather than mere
insult, like "denigrate." Most of the time when people use "downgrade"
they would be better off instead using "insult," "belittle," or "sneer
at."

DEGREE TITLES

When you are writing phrases like "bachelor's degree," "master of arts
degree" and "doctor of philosophy degree" use all lower-case spelling.
Less formally, these are often abbreviated to "bachelor's," "master's,"
and "doctorate": "I earned my master's at Washington State University."

The only time to capitalize the spelled-out forms of degree names is
when you are specifying a particular degree's name: "Master of English
Composition." However the abbreviations BA, MA, and PhD are all
capitalized. In modern usage periods are not usually added.

Be careful not to omit the apostrophes where needed. Some schools have
adopted a spelling of "Masters" without an apostrophe, and if you work
for one of them you may have to adopt this non-standard form for
institutional work; but usage guides uniformly recommend the apostrophe.


DEJA VU

In French "deja 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 for a
fact 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).

"It seems like it's deja vu all over again," is a redundantly mangled
saying usually attributed to baseball player Yogi Berra. 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!

DEMOCRAT PARTY/DEMOCRATIC PARTY

Certain Republican members of Congress have played the childish game in
recent years of referring to the opposition as the "Democrat Party,"
hoping to imply that Democrats are not truly democratic. They succeed
only in making themselves sound ignorant, and so will you if you imitate
them. The name is "Democratic Party." After all, we don't say "Republic
Party."

DEMURE/DEMUR

A quiet, reserved person is demure. Its second syllable begins with a
kittenish "mew": "de-MYURE."

The verb demur has several meanings, but is now used in a sense derived
from law to describe the action of someone who resists acting as
requested or answering a question. Its second syllable sounds like the
"mur" in "murmur": "duh-MURR." Note that it is not spelled with a final
E. It is used mainly in legal contexts and in journalism, and is
unfamiliar enough to many people that they mix it up with the adjective
demure. An example of correct use: "If they ask me to make Danish
pastries again, I'm going to demur." Demurs are usually mild, not loud,
vehement refusals.

DENIED OF/DENIED

If you are deprived of your rights you are denied them; but that's no
reason to confuse these two expressions with each other. You can't be
"denied of" anything.

DEPENDS/DEPENDS ON

In casual speech, we say "it depends who plays the best defense"; but in
writing follow "depends" with "on."

DEPRAVATION/DEPRIVATION

There is a rare word spelled "depravation" which has to do with
something being depraved, corrupted, perverted.

But the spelling you're more likely to need is "deprivation," which has
to do with being deprived of desirable things like sleep or chocolate.

DEPRECIATE/DEPRECATE

To depreciate something is to actually make it worse, whereas to
deprecate something is simply to speak or think of it in a manner that
demonstrates your low opinion of it. People who make unflattering jokes
or comments about themselves are self-deprecating.

DERISORY/DERISIVE

Although "derisory" and "derisive" can both mean "laughable," there are
sometimes subtle distinctions made between them. "Derisory" is most
often used to mean "worthy of being laughed at": "Ethan" made a derisory
effort to clean the cat box while talking on his cell phone." Sneering
laughter is usually described as "derisive."

You might more unusually speak of an effort as "derisive," but most
people would think it odd to use "derisory" to describe the tone of
someone's laughter.

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."

DESIRABLE/DESIROUS

When you desire something, you are desirous of it. The thing you desire
is desirable.

DEVIANT/DEVIATE

The technical term used by professionals to label someone whose behavior
deviates from the norm is "deviate," but if you want to tease a perv
friend you may as well call him a "deviant"--that's what almost
everybody else says. In your sociology class, however, you might want to
stick with "deviate."

DEVICE/DEVISE

"Device" is a noun. A can-opener is a device. "Devise" is a verb. You
can devise a plan for opening a can with a sharp rock instead. Only in
law is "devise" properly used as a noun, meaning something deeded in a
will.

DEW/DO/DOO/DUE

The original pronunciation of "dew" and "due" rhymed with "pew", but
American pronunciation has shifted toward sounding 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."

DIALOGUE/DISCUSS

"Dialogue" as a verb in sentences like "the Math Department will
dialogue with the Dean about funding" is commonly used jargon in
business and education settings, but abhorred by traditionalists. Say
"have a dialogue" or "discuss" instead.

DIETIES/DEITIES

This one is always good for a laugh.  The gods are deities, after the
Latin "deus," meaning "god."

DIFFERENT THAN/DIFFERENT FROM/TO

Americans say "Scuba-diving is different from snorkeling," the British
often say "different to" (though most UK style guides disapprove), and
those who don't know any better say "different than." However, though
conservatives object, you can usually get away with "different than" if
a full clause follows: "Your pashmina shawl looks different than it used
to since the cat slept on it."

DIFFERENTLY ABLED, PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED/DISABLED

These rather awkward euphemisms for "disabled" have attracted widespread
scorn and mockery. They have achieved some limited currency, but it's
generally safer to use "disabled."

DIFFER/VARY

"Vary" can mean "differ," but saying "our opinions vary" makes it sound
as if they were changing all the time when what you really mean is "our
opinions differ." Pay attention to context when choosing one of these
words.

DIKE/DYKE

In the US the barrier preventing a flood is called a "dike." "Dyke" is a
term for a type of lesbian, generally considered insulting but adopted
as a label for themselves by some lesbians.

DILEMMA/DIFFICULTY

A dilemma is a difficult choice, not just any difficulty or problem.
Whether to invite your son's mother to his high school graduation when
your current wife hates her is a dilemma. Cleaning up after a hurricane
is just a problem, though a difficult one.

"Dilemna" is a common misspelling of "dilemma."

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."

See also "straightjacket/straitjacket."
       
DIRECTIONS

Compass points like "north," "east," "south," and "west" are not
capitalized when they are mere directions: the geese fly south for the
winter and the sun sets in the west.

Capitalize these words only in the names of specific places identifiable
on a map: Alabama is in the Deep South (the region which includes the
Southern States) and Santa Claus lives at the North Pole.

The same pattern holds for the adjectival forms. It's a southern
exposure, but Southern hospitality. Note that "The Westward Movement"
(now often called the "Westward Expansion") refers to a specific series
of migrations toward a specific region in the western part of the US.

DISASTEROUS/DISASTROUS

"Disastrous" has only three syllables, and is pronounced "diz-ASS-truss."
Because of its relationship to the word "disaster" many people insert an
extra second syllable when speaking the word aloud, or even when writing
it, resulting in "disasterous." Not a disastrous error, but it can be an
embarrassing one.

DISBURSE/DISPERSE

You disburse money by taking it out of your purse (French "bourse") and
distributing it. If you refuse to hand out any money, the eager mob of
beggars before you may disperse (scatter).

DISC/DISK

"Compact disc" is spelled with a "C" because that's how its inventors
decided it should be rendered; but a computer hard disk is spelled with
a "K" (unless it's a CD-ROM, of course). In modern technological
contexts, "disks" usually reproduce data magnetically, while "discs"
(CD-ROMs, DVDs, etc.) reproduce it "optically," with lasers.

DISCONCERNING/CONCERNING, DISCERNING

This odd word looks like it might be an error for "disconcerting," but
people who use it seem mostly to mean something like "discerning"
(perceiving) or "concerning" (in the sense "of concern," itself widely
considered an error).

DISCREET/DISCRETE

The more common word is "discreet," meaning "prudent, circumspect":
"When arranging the party for Agnes, be sure to be discreet; we want her
to be surprised." "Discrete" means "separate, distinct": "He arranged
the guest list into two discrete groups: meat-eaters and vegetarians."
Note how the T separates the two Es in "discrete."
       
DISCRETION IS THE BETTER PART OF VALOR

In Shakespeare's "Henry IV, Part I" when Prince Hal finds the cowardly
Falstaff pretending to be dead on the battlefield, the prince assumes he
has been killed. After the prince leaves the stage, Falstaff
rationalizes "The better part of Valour, is Discretion; in the which
better part, I haue saued my life" (spelling and punctuation from the
"First Folio," Act 5, Scene 3, lines 3085-3086).

Falstaff is saying that the best part of courage is caution, which we
are to take as a joke. Truly courageous people may be cautious, but
caution is not the most important characteristic of courage.

This passage is loosely alluded to in the saying "discretion is the
better part of valor," which is usually taken to mean that caution is
better than rash courage or that discretion is the best kind of courage.
Only Shakespeare scholars are likely to be annoyed by this usage.

However, those who take "discretion" in this context to mean the quality
of being discreet--cautiously quiet--are more likely to annoy their
readers.

Much more of a problem are misspellings like "descretion,"
"disgression," "digression," and "desecration." Unless you are
deliberately punning, stick with "discretion."

DISCUSSED/DISGUST

"Discussed" is the past tense of the verb "discuss." Don't substitute
for it the noun "disgust" in such sentences as "The couple's wedding
plans were thoroughly discussed."

DISEASE NAMES

The medical profession has urged since the 1970s the dropping of the
possessive S at the end of disease names which were originally named
after their discoverers ("eponymous disease names"). The possessive is
thought to confuse people by implying that the persons named actually
had the disease. Thus "Meniere's syndrome" became "Meniere syndrome,"
Bright's disease" became "Bright disease" and "Asperger's syndrome"
became "Asperger syndrome."

But the public has not always followed this rule. "Alzheimer disease" is
still widely called "Alzheimer's disease" or just "Alzheimer's." Only
among professionals is this really considered a mistake.

"Down syndrome," named after John Langdon Down--originally written
"Down's syndrome"--has been so often mistakenly written without its
apostrophe as "Downs syndrome" that many people conclude that the
syndrome's discoverer must have been named "Downs."

Although some professionals write "Huntington disease"--originally
"Huntington's chorea"--many still write "Huntington's." But another
popular name for this illness is "Woody Guthrie's disease" because the
folksinger actually had it, though one also occasionally sees "Woody
Guthrie disease."

Lou Gehrig's disease, named after its most famous sufferer, always bears
an apostrophe-S because professionals prefer the rather more cumbersome
but nonpossessive "amyotrophic lateral sclerosis" (ALS).

The best practice is to follow the pattern prevalent in your social
context. If you are a medical professional, you'll probably want to
avoid the possessive forms.

"Legionnaires' disease" has its apostrophe at the end of the first word
because it was first recognized among a group of American Legion members
celebrating the American Bicentennial. Specialists consider it a severe
form of Legionellosis, caused by the bacterium Legionella pneumophila.

Lyme disease should never be written "Lyme's disease" because it is not
named after a person at all, but after the village of Lyme, Connecticut.

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."

DISINTERESTED/UNINTERESTED

A bored person is uninterested. Do not confuse this word with the much
rarer "disinterested," which means "objective, neutral".

DISPOSE/DISPOSE OF

If you want to get rid of your stuff you may dispose of it on Freecyle
or Craigslist. A great many people mistakenly dispose of the "of" in
this phrase, writing sentences like "Dispose your unwanted mail in the
recycling bin." You can also use "dispose of" to mean "deal with" ("you
can dispose of your royalties as you see fit") or "demolish an opposing
argument" ("the defense attorney disposed of the prosecutor's case in
less than five minutes").

"Dispose" without "of" works differently, depending on the meaning.
Whereas to dispose of your toy soldiers you might take them to a
pawnshop, to dispose your toy soldiers you would arrange them for
battle. Most politicians are disposed to talk at length.

DISREMEMBER/FORGET

"Disremember" is an old synonym for "forget," but it is often considered
dialectical today, not standard English.
DISRESPECT

The hip-hop subculture has revived the use of "disrespect" as a verb. In
the meaning to have or show disrespect, this usage has been long
established, if unusual. However, the new street meaning of the term,
ordinarily abbreviated to "dis," is slightly but significantly
different: to act disrespectfully, or--more frequently--insultingly
toward someone. In some neighborhoods "dissing" is defined as merely
failing to show sufficient terror in the face of intimidation. In those
neighborhoods, it is wise to know how the term is used; but an applicant
for a job who complains about having been "disrespected" elsewhere is
likely to incur further disrespect . . . and no job. Street slang has
its uses, but this is one instance that has not become generally
accepted.

DISSEMBLE/DISASSEMBLE

People who dissemble are being dishonest, trying to hide what they are
really up to. This is an uncommon word, often misused when "disassemble"
is meant. People who disassemble something take it apart--they are doing
the opposite of assembling it.

DO RESPECT/DUE RESPECT

When you preface your critical comments by telling people "with all due
respect" you are claiming to give them the respect they are due--that
which is owed them. Many folks misunderstand this phrase and misspell it
"all do respect" or even "all-do respect." You shouldn't use this
expression unless you really do intend to be as polite as possible; all
too often it's used merely to preface a deliberate insult.

DOCTORIAL/DOCTORAL

"Doctoral" is occasionally misspelled--and often mispronounced--
"doctorial."

DOESN'T SUPPOSED TO/ISN'T SUPPOSED TO

You aren't supposed to say "doesn't supposed to." The expression is
"isn't supposed to."

DOLLY/HANDCART

A dolly is a flat platform with wheels on it, often used to make heavy
objects mobile, or by an auto mechanic lying on one under a car body.
Many people mistakenly use this word to designate the vertically
oriented two-wheeled device with upright handles and horizontal lip.
This latter device is more properly called a "handcart" or "hand truck."

DOMINATE/DOMINANT

The verb is "dominate"; the adjective is "dominant." The dominant
chimpanzee tends to dominate the others.

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." Using "done" itself as a helping
verb is also a nonstandard dialectical pattern: "he done give us
Christmas tree" in standard English would be "he gave us a Christmas
tree."

DO'S AND DON'TS/DOS AND DON'TS

One unusual use of apostrophes is to mark plurals of words when they are
being treated as words, as in "pro's and con's," although plain old
"pros and cons" without apostrophes is fine. But "don't" already has one
apostrophe in it, and adding another looks awkward in the phrase "do's
and don't's," so people wind up being inconsistent and writing "do's and
don'ts." This makes no logical sense. You can also skip the extra
apostrophes and write "dos and don'ts," unless you're afraid that "dos"
will remind your readers of MS-DOS (but that unlamented operating system
is fast becoming a distant memory).

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."

DOUBLE POSSESSIVE

In "that dog of Bob's is ugly," there are two indicators of possession:
"of" and "Bob's." Although this sort of expression is common in casual
speech, in formal writing it's better to stick with just one: "Bob's dog
is ugly."

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."

DOUBTLESSLY/DOUBTLESS

Leave off the unnecessary "-ly" in "doubtless."

DONUT/DOUGHNUT

"Donut" is popular in advertising, but for most purposes spell it
"doughnut."

DOVE/DIVED

Although "dove" is a common form of the past tense of "dive," a few
authorities consider "dived" preferable in formal writing.

DOUSE/DOWSE

You douse a fire with water; you dowse for water with a dowsing rod.
Unless you are discussing the latter practice, the word you want is
"douse."

DOWNFALL/DRAWBACK

A downfall is something that causes a person's destruction, either
literal or figurative: "expensive cars were Fred's downfall: he spent
his entire inheritance on them and went bankrupt." A drawback is not
nearly so drastic, just a flaw or problem of some kind, and is normally
applied to plans and activities, not to people: "Gloria's plan to camp
on Mosquito Island had just one drawback: she had forgotten to bring her
insect repellent." Also, "downfall" should not be used when the more
moderate "decline" is meant; reserve it for ruin, not to designate
simple deterioration.

DOWNLOAD/UPLOAD

Most people do far more downloading (transferring files to their
computers) than uploading (transferring files from their computers), so
it's not surprising that they often use the first word for the second
word's meaning. You don't download the video of your birthday party to
YouTube--you upload it.

DOZEN OF/DOZEN

Why isn掐 it "a dozen of eggs" when it掇 standard to say "a couple of
eggs"? The answer is that "dozen" is a precise number word, like "two"
or "hundred"; we say "two eggs," "a hundred eggs," and "a dozen eggs."

"Couple" is often used less precisely, to mean "a few," so it isn掐
treated grammatically as an exact number. "A couple eggs" is less
standard than "a couple of eggs."

"Dozens of eggs" is standard because you捯e not specifying how many
dozens you捯e talking about.

DRANK/DRUNK

Many common verbs in English change form when their past tense is
preceded by an auxiliary ("helping") verb: "I ran, I have run." The same
is true of "drink." Don't say "I've drank the beer" unless you want
people to think you are drunk. An even more common error is "I drunk all
the milk." it's "I've drunk the beer" and "I drank all the milk."

DRASTIC

"Drastic" means "severe" and generally has negative or frightening
associations. Drastic measures are not just extreme, they are likely to
have harmful side-effects. Don't use this word or "drastically" in a
positive or neutral sense. A drastic rise in temperature should be seen
as downright dangerous, not just surprisingly large. Often when people
use phrases like "drastic improvement," they mean "dramatic" instead.

DREDGE/DRUDGE/TRUDGE

You use machinery to scoop stuff up from underwater--called a dredge--to
dredge up gunk or debris from the bottom of a river or lake.
Metaphorically, you also dredge up old memories, the past, or objects
buried in the mess in your room.

To drudge is to do hard, annoying work; and a person who does such work
can also be called a "drudge." If you find yourself saying "drudge up"
about anything you're trying to uncover you almost certainly should be
using "dredge up" instead.

When you slog laboriously up a hill, you trudge up it. Trudging may be
drudgery; but the act of walking a difficult path is not drudging, but
trudging.

And you cooks wondering whether dredging a chicken breast with flour has
anything to do with river-bottom dredging will be relieved to know it
does not. The two words have completely different origins ("sprinkling"
vs. "scooping").

DRIER/DRYER

A clothes dryer makes the clothes drier.

DRIBBLE/DRIVEL

"Dribble" and "drivel" originally meant the same thing: drool. But the
two words have become differentiated. When you mean to criticize someone
else's speech as stupid or pointless, the word you want is "drivel."

DRIPS AND DRABS/DRIBS AND DRABS

Something doled out in miserly amounts is provided in "dribs and drabs."
A drib is a smaller relative of a dribble. Nobody seems to be sure what
a drab is in this sense, except that it's a tiny bit larger than a drib.

Since the origin of the phrase is obscure, people try to substitute a
more familiar word for the unusual word "drib" by writing "drips and
drabs." But that's not the traditional formula.

DRIVE/DISK

A hard drive and a hard disk are much the same thing; but when it comes
to removable computer media, the drive is the machinery that turns and
reads the disk. Be sure not to ask for a drive when all you need is a
disk.

DRUG/DRAGGED

"Well, look what the cat drug in!" Unless you are trying to render
dialectical speech to convey a sense of down-home rusticity, use
"dragged" as the past tense of "drag."

DUAL/DUEL

"Dual" is an adjective describing the two-ness of something--dual
carburetors, for instance. A "duel" is a formal battle intended to
settle a dispute.

DUCK TAPE/DUCT TAPE

A commercial firm has named its product "Duck Tape," harking back to
the original name for this adhesive tape (which was green), developed by
Johnson & Johnson during World War II to waterproof ammunition cases. It
is now usually called "duct tape," for its common use in connecting
ventilation and other ducts (which match its current silver color). Note
that modern building codes consider duct tape unsafe for sealing ducts,
particularly those that convey hot air.

DUE TO THE FACT THAT/BECAUSE

Although "due to" is now a generally acceptable synonym for "because,"
"due to the fact that" is a clumsy and wordy substitute that should be
avoided in formal writing. "Due to" is often misspelled "do to."

DULY/DULLY

To do something "dully" is to do it in a dull manner. Too often people
use this word when they mean "duly," which means "properly." Something
duly done is done properly; something done dully is just a bore.

DYEING/DYING

If you are using dye to change your favorite t-shirt from white to blue
you are dyeing it; but if you don't breathe for so long that your face
turns blue, you may be dying.

E.G./I.E.

When you mean "for example," use e.g. It is an abbreviation for the
Latin phrase exempli gratia. When you mean "that is," use "i.e." It is
an abbreviation for the Latin phrase "id est." Either can be used to
clarify a preceding statement, the first by example, the second by
restating the idea more clearly or expanding upon it. Because these uses
are so similar, the two abbreviations are easily confused. If you just
stick with good old English "for example" and "that is" you won't give
anyone a chance to sneer at you.  If you insist on using the
abbreviation, perhaps "example given" will remind you to use "e.g.,"
while "in effect" suggests "I.E."

Since e.g. indicates a partial list, it is redundant to add "etc." at
the end of a list introduced by this abbreviation.

EACH

"Each" as a subject is always singular: think of it as equivalent to
"every one." The verb whose subject it is must also be singular. Some
uses, like "to keep them from fighting, each dog has been given its own
bowl," cause no problem. No one is tempted to say "have been given." But
when a prepositional phrase with a plural object intervenes between
subject and verb, we are likely to be misled into saying things like
"Each of the children have to memorize their own locker combinations."
The subject is "each," not "children." The tendency to avoid specifying
gender by using "their" adds to pressure toward plurality; but the
correct version of this sentence is "Each of the children has to
memorize his or her own locker combination." One can avoid the entire
problem by pluralizing throughout: "All the children have to memorize
their own locker combinations" (but see the entry on singular "they").
In many uses, however, "each" is not the subject, as in "We each have
our own favorite flavor of ice cream" which is correct because "we" and
not "each" is the subject of the verb "have".

"Each other" cannot be a subject, so the question of verb number does
not arise; but the number of the possessive creates a problem for some
writers. "They gazed into each other's eyes" is correct and "each
others'" is incorrect because "each other" is singular. Reword to "each
gazed into the other's eyes" to see the logic behind this rule. "Each
other" is always two distinct words separated by a space although it
functions grammatically as a sort of compound word.

EARLY ADAPTER/EARLY ADOPTER

An "early adopter" is a person who quickly adopts something new
quickly--usually a technological innovation. If you just have to rush
out and buy the latest and coolest gadget, you're an early adopter. If
it meant anything, an "early adapter" would be someone who reworked
something first for his or her own purposes; but most of the time this
version of the phrase is just a mistake.

EARMARKS/HALLMARK

The distinguishing cuts made into an animal's ear are its earmarks. They
work like brands to mark ownership. Originally gold and silver articles
assayed at Goldsmith's Hall in London received a "Hall-Mark" to certify
them as genuine. In modern usage "earmarks" and "hallmark" are used in
many other contexts and mean pretty much the same thing, except that we
say "it has all the earmarks" of someone or something, and a certain
characteristic is "the hallmark" of someone or something. Although a
great many people pluralize this expression too, traditionally an item
can have only one hallmark.

We speak today of parts of bills being earmarked when legislators set
aside certain expenditures in them for particular purposes which benefit
the legislators' own constituency. They lay claim to public resources
just as a shepherd would earmark a sheep to lay claim to it. Note that
no one hallmarks a bill. If we said a bill bore Senator Blowhard's
hallmark, we would mean that it bore some characteristic pattern by
which we could recognize his influence on it.

EARTH, MOON

Soil is lower-case "earth." And in most uses even the planet itself
remains humbly in lower-case letters: "peace on earth." But in
astronomical contexts, the Earth comes into its own with a proud initial
capital, and in science fiction it drops the introductory article and
becomes "Earth," just like Mars and Venus. A similar pattern applies to
Earth's satellite: "shine on, harvest moon," but "from the Earth to the
Moon." Because other planets also have moons, it never loses its
article.

EASEDROP/EAVESDROP

The area under the eaves right next to the front of a building used to
be called the "eavesdrop," and somebody listening in secretively from
such a position came to be called an "eavesdropper." Unfortunately, so
few people distinctly pronounce the V in "eavesdrop" that many are
misled into misspelling it "easedrop."

ECOLOGY/ENVIRONMENT

"Ecology" is the study of living things in relationship to their
environment. The word can also be used to describe the totality of such
relationships; but it should not be substituted for "environment" in
statements like "improperly discarded lead batteries harm the ecology."
it's not the relationships that are being harmed, but nature itself: the
batteries are harming the environment.

ECONOMIC/ECONOMICAL

Something is economical if it saves you money; but if you're talking
about the effect of some measure on the world's economy, it's an
economic effect.

ECSTATIC

Pronounced "eck-sta-tic," not "ess-ta-tic."

ECT./ETC.

"Etc." is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase et cetera, meaning "and
the rest." ("Et" means "and" in French too.) Just say "et cetera" out
loud to yourself to remind yourself of the correct order of the "T" and
"C." Also to be avoided is the common mispronunciation "excetera." "And
etc." is a redundancy.

NEEDS -ED/-ING

In some dialects it is common to say "my shoes need shined" instead of
the standard "my shoes need shining" or "my shoes need to be shined."

-ED/-T

You have learnt your lessons only in UK-influenced countries, you've
learned them in the US There are several common verbs which often have
"T" endings in Britain which seem a little quaint and poetic in American
English, where we prefer "-ED." Other examples: "dreamt/dreamed,"
"dwelt/dwelled," "leant/leaned," "leapt/leaped," and "spelt/spelled."
However, the following alternatives are both common in the US:
"burned/burnt" and "kneeled/knelt."
       
EEK/EKE

If you're startled by a snake that sneaks past you in a creek, you might
squeak "eek!" "Eek" is just a noise you make when frightened.

But if you are barely squeaking by on a slim salary, you're trying to
eke out a living. The original meaning of "eke" was "increase," but
today it is used mainly in phrases having to do with supplementing or
stretching resources or otherwise obtaining with difficulty: lost
campers eke out their food until they are found, in a down market a few
stocks eke out gains, and struggling athletic teams eke out narrow
victories.

EFFORTING/TRYING

Among the new verbs created out of nouns, "efforting" is one of the most
bizarre and unnecessary, and has been met with a chorus of objections.
You are not "efforting" to get your report in on time; you are trying to
do so. Instead of saying "we are efforting a new vendor," say "we are
trying to find a new vendor."

I/IE

The familiar rule is that English words are spelled with the "I" before
the "E" unless they follow a "C," as in "receive." But it is important
to add that words in which the vowel sound is an "A" like "neighbor" and
"weigh" are also spelled with the "E" first. And there are a few
exceptions like "counterfeit," "either," "neither," "forfeit," "height,"
"leisure," "seize," "seizure," and "weird."

See also "neice/niece."

EITHER/OR, NEITHER/NOR

When making comparisons, "either" goes with "or" and "neither" with
"nor": "I want to buy either a new desktop computer or a laptop, but I
have neither the cash nor the credit I need."

"Either" often gets misplaced in a sentence: "He either wanted to build
a gambling casino or a convent" should be "He wanted to build either a
gambling casino or a convent." In this example, both things are wanted,
so "either" comes after the verb.

But if the action is different in regard to the things compared, the
"either" has to come before the verb: "He wanted either to build a
casino or remodel a convent." Here two different actions are being
compared, so the "either" has to precede both actions.

EITHER ARE/EITHER IS

As a subject, "either" is singular. It's the opposite of "both," and
refers to one at a time: "Either ketchup or mustard is good on a hot
dog." But if "either" is modifying a subject in an "either . . . or"
phrase, then the number of the verb is determined by the number of the
second noun: "Either the puppy or the twins seem to need my attention
every other minute."

ELAPSE/LAPSE

Both these words come from a Latin root meaning "to slip." "Elapse"
almost always refers to the passage of time. "Lapse" usually refers to a
change of state, as in lapsing from consciousness into unconsciousness.
Here are examples of the correct uses of these words you might get in
the mail: "Six months have elapsed since your last dental appointment"
and "You have allowed your subscription to Bride Magazine to lapse."
Occasionally "lapse" can be used as a synonym of "elapse" in the sense
"to slip away." Substituting one for the other is dangerous, however, if
you are a lawyer. Insurance policies and collective bargaining
agreements do not elapse when they expire, they lapse.

ELECTROCUTE/SHOCK

To electrocute is to kill using electricity. If you live to tell the
tale, you've been shocked, but not electrocuted. For the same reason,
the phrase "electrocuted to death" is a redundancy.

ELEGY/EULOGY

A speech praising the deceased person at a funeral is a eulogy. An elegy
is a poetic form, usually with a sad or thoughtful subject. It can also
be a poem on any subject written in the form called "elegaic couplets."
Unless it's in verse, the speech at a funeral isn't an elegy.


ELICIT/ILLICIT

The lawyer tries to elicit a description of the attacker from the
witness. "Elicit" is always a verb. "Illicit," in contrast, is always an
adjective describing something illegal or naughty.

ELLIPSES

Those dots that come in the middle of a quotation to indicate something
omitted are called an "ellipsis" (plural "ellipses"): "Tex told Sam to
get the .  .  . cow out of the bunk house." Here Tex's language has been
censored, but you are more likely to have a use for ellipses when
quoting some source in a paper: "Ishmael remarks at the beginning of
"Moby Dick," 'some years ago . . . I thought I would sail about a
little' --a very understated way to begin a novel of high adventure."
The three dots stand for a considerable stretch of prose that has been
omitted. If the ellipsis ends your sentence, some editorial styles
require four dots, the first of which is a period: From the same
paragraph in Moby Dick: "almost all men . . . cherish very nearly the
same feelings. . . ." Note that the period in the second ellipsis has to
be snug up against the last word quoted, with spaces between the other
dots.

Some modern styles do not call for ellipses at the beginning and ending
of quoted matter unless not doing so would be genuinely misleading, so
check with your teacher or editor if you're uncertain whether to use one
in those positions. It is never correct to surround a quoted single word
or short phrase with ellipses: "Romeo tells Juliet that by kissing her
again his 'sin is purged'" (note, by the way, that I began the quotation
after the first word in the phrase "my sin is purged" in order to make
it work grammatically in the context of the sentence).

When text is typeset, the spaces are often but not always omitted
between the dots in an ellipsis. Since modern computer printer output
looks much more like typeset writing than old-fashioned typewriting, you
may be tempted to omit the spaces; but it is better to include them and
let the publisher decide whether they should be eliminated.

An ellipsis that works perfectly well on your computer may "break" when
your text is transferred to another if it comes at the end of a line,
with one or more of the dots wrapping around to the next line. To avoid
this, learn how to type "non-breaking spaces" between the dots of
ellipses: in Word for Windows it's Control-Shift-Spacebar; on a Mac,
it's Option-Spacebar. When writing HTML code to create a Web page, make
a nonbreaking space with this code:

EMAIL/E-MAIL

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

EMBARESS/EMBARRASS

You can pronounce the last two syllables as two distinct words as a jog
to memory, except that then the word may be misspelled "embareass,"
which isn't right either. You also have to remember the double R:
"embarrass."

EMERGENT/EMERGENCY

The error of considering "emergent" to be the adjectival form of
"emergency" is common only in medical writing, but it is becoming
widespread. "Emergent" properly means "emerging" and normally refers to
events that are just beginning--barely noticeable rather than
catastrophic. "Emergency" is an adjective as well as a noun, so rather
than writing "emergent care," use the homely "emergency care."

EMIGRATE/IMMIGRATE

To "emigrate" is to leave a country. The E at the beginning of the word
is related to the E in other words having to do with going out, such as
"exit." "Immigrate," in contrast, looks as if it might have something to
do with going in, and indeed it does: it means to move into a new
country. The same distinction applies to "emigration" and "immigration."
Note the double M in the second form. A migrant is someone who
continually moves about.

EMINENT/IMMINENT/IMMANENT

By far the most common of these words is "eminent," meaning "prominent,
famous." "Imminent," in phrases like "facing imminent disaster," means
"threatening." It comes from Latin minere, meaning "to project or
overhang." Think of a mine threatening to cave in. Positive events can
also be imminent: they just need to be coming soon. The rarest of the
three is "immanent," used by philosophers to mean "inherent" and by
theologians to mean "present throughout the universe" when referring to
God. It comes from Latin "manere," "remain." Think of God creating "man"
in his own image.

When a government exercises its power over private property it is
drawing on its eminent status in society, so the proper legal phrase is
"eminent domain."

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.


EMPHASIZE ON/EMPHASIZE

You can place emphasis on something, or you can emphasize it, but you
can't emphasize on it or stress on it, though you can place stress on
it.

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.

ENAMORED BY/ENAMORED OF

If you're crazy about ferrets, you're enamored of them. It is less
common but still acceptable to say "enamored with"; but if you say you
are enamored by ferrets, you're saying that ferrets are crazy about you.

ENDEMIC/EPIDEMIC

"Endemic" is in danger of losing its core meaning through confusion with
"epidemic." An endemic condition is one characteristic of a particular
region, population, or environment: "sore thumbs are endemic among teen
text-messagers." A condition need not affect a majority or even a very
large number of people in a population to be endemic. In biology, an
endemic disease is one that is maintained locally without the need for
outside influence: "Cholera is endemic in Kolkata." It keeps recurring
there, but still only a small minority of the population gets cholera.

An epidemic condition is widespread, rampant: " Overindulgence in fatty
foods is epidemic throughout the world." The dominance of the noun
"epidemic" ("the threat of a flu epidemic") may make people reluctant to
use it as an adjective ("flu may become epidemic") but both uses are
legitimate. It's best to stick with "epidemic" unless you have a
specific need for the technical term "endemic."

ENGINE/MOTOR

People who work on them distinguish between the electrically powered
unit called the "motor" and the engine which it starts; but even
in auto-parts stores the stuff which by that logic should be called
"engine oil" is marketed as "motor oil." Similarly, the English go
motoring on motorways. In everyday American discourse, the terms are
often interchangeable (you can buy a powerful engine for your
motorboat), but you'll embarrass yourself if you don't make the
distinction when talking to your mechanic.

ENJOY TO/ENJOY -ING

The expression "enjoy to" (or "enjoyed to") is nonstandard, influenced
by "like to." You don't enjoy to jog; you either enjoy jogging or like
to jog.

ENORMITY/ENORMOUSNESS

Originally these two words were synonymous, but "enormity"  got whittled
down to meaning something monstrous or outrageous.  Don't wonder at the
"enormity" of the Palace of Versailles unless you wish to express horror
at this embodiment of Louis XIV's ego. "Enormity" can also be used as a
noun meaning "monstrosity."

END RESULT/END

Usually a redundancy. Most of the time plain "result" will do fine.

ENQUIRE/INQUIRE

These are alternative spellings of the same word. "Enquire" is perhaps
slightly more common in the UK, but either is acceptable in the US

IN ROUTE/EN ROUTE

"En route" is a French phrase meaning "on the way," as in "En route to
the gallows, Lucky was struck by lightning." Don't anglicize this
expression as "in route."

ENSUITE

Americans who have wandered chilly London hallways in the middle of the
night in search of a toilet will appreciate learning the peculiar
British meaning of the word "ensuite."

In French, a set of two rooms or more forming a single accommodation can
be advertised as rooms "en suite" (forming a suite). But the single word
French word "ensuite" means something entirely different: "then, later."
Around the middle of the 20th century English landlords and hoteliers
began to anglicize the phrase, placing it before the noun, so that
traditional "rooms en suite" became "en suite rooms," Ads read "bath
ensuite" or "toilet ensuite" as if the phrase meant "in the suite." The
phrase "en suite" came to be used solely to designate bathrooms attached
to a bedroom.

Following standard English patterns, they hyphenated the phrase as
"en-suite bath" and often made the phrase into a single word: "ensuite
bath." These have become standard British usage; but hoteliers often go
a step further by writing "all rooms ensuite" (Americans would write
"all rooms with bath").

It is clearly nonstandard to use "ensuite" as if it were a noun
synonymous with "toilet" or "bathroom": "I went to the ensuite to take a
shower." You may puke on your suit, but not into "the ensuite."

ENTHUSE

"Enthuse" is a handy word and "state enthusiastically" is not nearly so
striking; but unfortunately "enthuse" is not acceptable in the most
formal contexts.

ENTOMOLOGY/ETYMOLOGY

Entomology is the study of insects, like ants ("ant" looks like "ent-")
but etymology is the study of the history of words (from Greek,
originally meaning "the true meaning of words").

ENVELOP/ENVELOPE

To wrap something up in a covering is to envelop it (pronounced
"enVELLup"). The specific wrapping you put around a letter is an
envelope (pronounced variously, but with the accent on the first
syllable).

ENVIOUS/JEALOUS

Although these are often treated as synonyms, there is a difference. You
are envious of what others have that you lack. Jealousy, on the other
hand, involves wanting to hold on to what you do have. You can be
jealous of your boyfriend's attraction to other women, but you're
envious of your boyfriend's CD collection.

ENVIROMENT/ENVIRONMENT

The second N in "environment" is seldom pronounced distinctly, so it's
not surprising that is often omitted in writing. If you know the related
word "environs" it may help remind you.

EPIC/EPOCH

An "epoch" is a long period of time, like the Pleistocene Epoch. It
often gets mixed up with "epic" in the sense of "large-scale." Something
really big has "epic proportions," not "epoch proportions."

EPICENTER

The precise location where the earth slips beneath the surface in an
earthquake is its hypocenter (or focus) and the spot up on the surface
where people feel the quake is its epicenter. Geologists get upset when
people use the latter word, designating a point rather removed from the
main action, as if it were a synonym of "epitome" and meant something
like "most important center." The British spell it "epicentre."

EPIGRAM/EPIGRAPH/EPITAPH/EPITHET

An epigram is a pithy saying, usually humorous. Mark Twain was
responsible for many striking, mostly cynical epigrams, such as "Always
do right. That will gratify some of the people, and astonish the rest."
Unfortunately, he was also responsible for an even more famous one that
has been confusing people ever since: "Everyone is a moon, and has a
dark side which he never shows to anybody." it's true that the moon
keeps one side away from the earth, but--if you don't count the faint
glow reflected from the earth--it is not any darker than the side that
faces us.  In fact, over time, the side facing us is darkened slightly
more often because it is occasionally eclipsed by the shadow of the
earth.

An epigraph is a brief quotation used to introduce a piece of writing or
the inscription on a statue or building.

An epitaph is the inscription on a tombstone or some other tribute to a
dead person.

In literature, an epithet is a term that replaces or is added to the
name of a person, like "clear-eyed Athena," in which "clear-eyed" is the
epithet. You are more likely to encounter the term in its negative
sense, as a term of insult or abuse: "the shoplifter hurled epithets at
the guard who had arrested her."

EPITOMY/EPITOME

Nothing makes you look quite so foolish as spelling a sophisticated word
incorrectly. Taken directly from Greek, where it means "abridgement,"
"epitome" is now most often used to designate an extremely
representative example of the general class: "Snow White is the epitome
of a Disney cartoon feature." Those who don't misspell this word often
mispronounce it, misled by its spelling, as "EP-i-tohm," but the proper
pronunciation is "ee-PIT-o-mee." The word means "essence," not "climax,"
so instead of writing "the market had reached the epitome of frenzied
selling at noon," use "peak" or a similar word.

EPONYMOUS/SELF-TITLED

It has become popular among certain critics to call recordings named
after their performing artists "eponymous." Thus the album by the
Beatles titled "The Beatles" would be an eponymous album. (Don't
remember it? It's the one most people call "The White Album;" the title
was embossed on the cover rather than printed on it.) This pretentious
term is not only so obscure as to be almost useless, these writers are
not using it in its original sense; it was the person who was eponymous,
not the thing named after the person. I prefer the usage of critics who
call such recordings "self-titled." It's an awkward phrase, but at least
it's easy for the reader to figure out what is meant.

EQUALLY AS/EQUALLY, AS

It is redundant to follow "equally" with "as." If you have written
"using a tanning bed is equally as harmful as sunbathing" you should
drop the "equally": "using a tanning bed is as harmful as sunbathing."
If you've written "equally as delicious is their dulce de leche ice
cream," drop the "as": "equally delicious is their dulce de leche ice
cream."

ERROR/ERR

When you commit an error you err. The expression is "to err is human."

-ES

Latin-derived terms whose singular form ends in "-is" and whose plurals
are made by changing the "-is" to "-es" such as "thesis" (plural:
"theses") have their final syllables pronounced "eez." This pattern
causes some people to do the same in other words without a Latin
singular "-is" form, like "processes" whose last syllable should sound
like "says."

ESPOUSE/EXPOUND/EXPAND

The core meaning of "espouse" is "marry." When you espouse an idea or
cause in public you are proclaiming that you are wed to it, you are
promoting it as yours.

When you expound an idea you are explaining it. Theoretically you could
expound an idea that you don't personally espouse. "Expound" was
traditionally used mainly to refer to detailed examinations of complex
or obscure systems of thought, but it is most often used today to mean
"to speak at length about" and frequently occurs in the phrase "expound
on": "the senator expounded on his love for the traditional family
farm."

Sometimes in such contexts it would be more appropriate to use "expand
on," which means "to speak at further length about." "Expand" in this
sense lacks the systematic analytical connotations of "expound."

You never "espouse on" an idea; you just espouse it.

ET AL.

"Et al.' is a scholarly abbreviation of the Latin phrase "et alia,"
which means "and others." It is commonly used when you don't want to
name all the people or things in a list, and works in roughly the same
way as "etc." "The reorganization plan was designed by Alfred E. Newman,
General Halftrack, Zippy the Pinhead, et al.; and it was pretty
useless." The "al." in this phrase needs a period after it to indicate
it is an abbreviation of "alia"; but it is incorrect to put a period
after "et."

-ETH

In older English ?eth?performed the same function as "S" in the third
person singular present of verbs, as in 烝y cup runneth over.?People
jokingly trying to make speech sound antique often add ?eth?randomly
to plurals, tenses, and person with which it never belonged. Unless you
are trying to make your characters sound stupid, don掐 have them say
things like 烝y cookies crumbleth,?烠he window broketh,?or 烇ou
charmeth me.?
ETHICS/MORALS/MORALE

Strictly speaking, ethics are beliefs: if you have poor ethics, you have
lax standards; but your morals are your behavior: if you have poor
morals, you behave badly. You can have high standards but still fail to
follow them: strong ethics and weak morals. "Morale" formerly had both
these meanings and you will find them attached to the word in some
dictionaries, but you would be wise to avoid it in either of these
senses in modern writing. By far the most common current use of "morale"
is to label your state of mind, particularly how contented you are with
life. A person with low morals is bad; but a person with low morale may
be merely depressed.

ETHNIC

it's misleading to refer to minority groups as "ethnics" since everyone
has ethnicity, even a dominant majority.

EVERY

"Every," "everybody" and "everyone" and related expressions are normally
treated as singular in American English: "Every woman I ask out tells me
she already has plans for Saturday night." However, constructions like
"everyone brought their own lunch" are widely accepted now because of a
desire to avoid specifying "his" or "her." See "they/their (singular)."

EVERYONE/EVERY ONE

"Everyone" means "everybody" and is used when you want to refer to all
the people in a group: "Everyone in my family likes spaghetti
carbonara."

But if you're referring to the individuals who make up a group, then the
phrase is "every one." Examples: "God bless us, every one" (may each
individual in the group be blessed). "We wish each and every one of you
a Merry Christmas" (every single one of you). In the phrase "each and
every one" you should never substitute "everyone").

For "everyone" as singular or plural, see "every."


EVER SO OFTEN/EVERY SO OFTEN

In UK English people sometimes speak of something that happens
frequently as happening "ever so often."

But when something happens only occasionally, it happens "every" so
often.

EVERY SINCE/EVER SINCE

The expression is not "every since" but "ever since."

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."

EVERYTIME/EVERY TIME

"Every time" is always two separate words.

EVIDENCE TO/EVIDENCE OF

You can provide evidence to a court, even enough evidence to convict
someone; but the standard expression "is evidence of" requires "of"
rather than "to" in sentences like this: "Driving through the front
entrance of the Burger King is evidence of Todd's inexperience in
driving." You can also omit the pronoun altogether by using "evidences"
or "evidenced": "his driving evidences (or evidenced) his inexperience."

EVOKE/INVOKE


"Evoke" and "invoke" are close together in meaning, and are often
confused with each other.

The action of "invoking" is usually more direct and active. It
originally involved calling upon or summoning up a god or spirit. An
invocation calls upon whatever is invoked to do something or serve a
function. "Invoke" now can also be used to mean "to appeal to, to cite":
"in his closing argument, the lawyer invoked the principle of
self-defense."

"Evoke" is usually less purposefully active, more indirect, often used
to mean "suggest." If you invoke the spirit of Picasso, you're trying to
summon his soul up from the grave; but if your paintings evoke the
spirit of Picasso, it means their style reminds viewers of that artist's
work.

EXACT SAME/EXACTLY THE SAME

In casual speech we often say things like, "The fruitcake he gave me was
the exact same one I'd given him last Christmas," but in formal English
the phrase is "exactly the same."

EXALT/EXULT

When you celebrate joyfully, you exult. When you raise something high
(even if only in your opinion), you exalt it. Neither word has an "H" in
it.

EXCAPE/ESCAPE

The proper spelling is "escape." Say it that way too.

EXASPERATE/EXACERBATE

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

PAR EXCELLANCE/PAR EXCELLENCE

Photoshop is the picture-editing software par excellence. We often
italicize this phrase--meaning roughly "finest or most characteristic of
its type," "exemplary"--to indicate it is French. The French pronounce
the final syllable "-ahnss" (with a nasalized N which is hard for
English-speakers to master), but that is no justification for
misspelling the word as "excellance." Although they pronounce it
differently, they spell "excellence" the same way we do.

EXCRABLE/EXECRABLE

When you execrate (detest) something, you find it execrable. The second
syllable is not often clearly pronounced, but that's no excuse for
leaving it out when you spell the word.

EXCEPTIONAL/EXCEPTIONABLE

If you take exception (object) to something, you find it
"exceptionable." The more common word is "exceptional," applied to
things that are out of the ordinary, usually in a positive way: "these
are exceptional Buffalo wings."

EXORCISE/EXERCISE

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

EXHILERATION/EXHILARATION

"Exhilaration" is closely related to "hilarious," whose strongly
accented A should help remind you of the correct spelling.

EXITED/EXCITED

A lot of people get so excited when they're typing that they mistakenly
write they are "exited," and their spelling checkers don't tell them
they've made an error because "exited" is actually a word, meaning "went
out of an exit." Excitement makes you excited.

EXPATRIOT/EXPATRIATE

An expatriot would be somebody who used to be a patriot; but that's not
how people use the term. Instead, it is a common misspelling of
"expatriate," meaning someone who chooses to live abroad.

EXPONENTIAL

Something grows exponentially when it repeatedly grows by multiples of
some factor in a rapidly accelerating fashion. Don't use the word
loosely to refer to ordinary rapid, but steady, growth.

See also "orders of magnitude."

EXPRESSED/EXPRESS

One of the meanings of "express" is "explicit": "Izaak claimed that his
old boss had given him express permission to shop on eBay for fishing
rods during work hours." Some people feel the word should be
"expressed," and that form is not likely to get anyone into trouble; but
if you use it you should not presume to correct others who stick with
the traditional form: "express permission" (or orders, or mandate, or
whatever).

EXPRESSES THAT/SAYS THAT

"In her letter Jane expresses that she is getting irritated with me for
not writing" should be corrected to "In her letter Jane says that. . . "
You can express an idea or a thought, but you can't ever express that.
In technical terms, "express" is a transitive verb and requires an
object.

EXPRESSO/ESPRESSO

I've read several explanations of the origin of this word: the coffee is
made expressly for you upon your order, or the steam is expressed
through the grounds, or (as most people suppose--and certainly wrongly)
the coffee is made at express speed. One thing is certain: the word is
"espresso," not "expresso."

While you're at an American espresso stand, you might muse on the fact
that both "biscotti" and "panini" are plural forms, but you're likely to
baffle the barista if you ask in correct Italian for a biscotto or a
panino.

EXTEND/EXTENT

People often write "to a great extend" or "to a lesser extend." "Extend"
is a verb only, and should not be used as a noun. It's "to a great
extent," and "to a lesser extent."

EXTRACT REVENGE/EXACT REVENGE

The use of a rare sense of "exact" confuses people, but the traditional
phrase is "exact revenge", not the seemingly more logical "extract
revenge" or "enact revenge."

IN THE FACT THAT/BY THE FACT THAT

The correct phrase is "by the fact that," not "in the fact that." While
we're at it, "infact" is not a word; "in fact" is always a two-word
phrase.

FACTOID

The "-oid" ending in English is normally added to a word to indicate
that an item is not the real thing. A humanoid is not quite human.
Originally "factoid" was an ironic term indicating that the "fact" being
offered was not actually factual. However, CNN and other sources have
taken to treating the "-oid" as if it were a mere diminutive, and using
the term to mean "trivial but true fact." As a result, the definition of
"factoid" is hopelessly confused and it's probably better to avoid using
the term altogether.

FAIR/FARE

When you send your daughter off to camp, you hope she'll fare well.
That's why you bid her a fond farewell. When you want to see how
something will work out, you want to see how it fares. "Fair" as a verb
is a rare word meaning "to smooth a surface to prepare it for being
joined to another."

FAITHFUL/FATEFUL

That decisive, highly significant day is not "faithful" but "fateful."
Although the phrase "fateful day" can refer to a day significant in a
positive way ("the fateful day that I first met the my lovely wife"),
"fatal" is always negative ("the fatal day that I first tried to ride my
bike 'no hands'").

FAR BE IT FOR ME/FAR BE IT FROM ME

The mangled expression "far be it for me" is probably influenced by a
similar saying: "it's not for me to say." The standard expression is
"far be it from me" (may this possibility be far away from me).

FARTHER/FURTHER

Some authorities (like the Associated Press) insist on "farther" to
refer to physical distance and on "further" to refer to an extent of
time or degree, but others treat the two words as interchangeable except
for insisting on "further" for "in addition," and "moreover." You'll
always be safe in making the distinction; some people get really testy
about this.

FASTLY/FAST

"Fastly" is an old form that has died out in English. Interest in soccer
is growing fast, not "fastly."

FATAL/FATEFUL

A "fatal" event is a deadly one; a "fateful" one is determined by fate.
If there are no casualties left lying at the scene--whether mangled
corpses or failed negotiations--the word you are seeking is "fateful."
The latter word also has many positive uses, such as "George fondly
remembered that fateful night in which he first met the woman he was to
love to his dying day."

FAZE/PHASE

"Faze" means to embarrass or disturb, but is almost always used in the
negative sense, as in "the fact that the overhead projector bulb was
burned out didn't faze her." "Phase" is a noun or verb having to do with
an aspect of something. "He's just going through a temperamental phase."
"They're going to phase in the new accounting procedures gradually."
Unfortunately, Star Trek has confused matters by calling its ray pistols
phasers. Too bad they aren't fazers instead.

FEARFUL/FEARSOME

To be "fearful" is to be afraid.  To be "fearsome" is to cause fear in
others. Remember that someone who is fierce is fearsome rather than
fearful.

FEBUARY/FEBRUARY

Few people pronounce the first R in "February" distinctly, so it is not
surprising that it is often omitted in spelling. This poor month is
short on days; don't further impoverish it by robbing it of one of its
letters.
       
FEDERAL (capitalization)

Some governmental style guidelines call for "federal" to be capitalized
whenever it refers to a function or part of the federal government of
the United States. However, in most contexts it is capitalized only in
the titles of agencies like the "Federal Bureau of Investigation" and
the "Federal Reserve." If you are not required to follow governmental
guidelines it's "the federal budget," "federal courts," and "federal
employees." Of course, in the titles of publications the word is
capitalized like any other noun; and if the source you are quoting
capitalizes it, you should preserve the capitalization.

FEELINGS FOR/FEELINGS ABOUT

When someone says "I'm developing feelings for you," the message is "I'm
falling in love with you." Feelings for are always positive feelings. In
contrast, feelings about something or someone can be either positive or
negative: "I've got a bad feeling about this."

FEINT/FAINT

A feint, whether in chess or on the battlefield, is a maneuver designed
to divert the opponent's attention from the real center of attack. A
feint is a daring move. Do not use this very specialized word in the
expression "faint of heart" (or "faint at heart"), which implies
timidity.

FELLOW CLASSMATE/CLASSMATE

Some redundancies are so common that few people notice them, but it's
worthwhile to be aware of them. A good example is "fellow classmate."
"Fellow" and "-mate" perform the same function. It's better to say
simply "classmate."

The same is true of the equally redundant "fellow shipmate," " fellow
roommate" "fellow co-worker," "fellow comrade," and "fellow colleague."

FEMALE/WOMAN

When referring to an adult female of the human species it sounds weird
and may even be considered insulting to use the noun "female" instead of
"woman." "The female pointed the gun at the cop" should be "the woman
pointed the gun at the cop."

In the case of the related adjectives some people argue that since we
say--for instance--"male doctor" we should always say "female doctor"
rather than "woman doctor." It may be inconsistent, but the pattern of
referring to females as women performers, professionals, etc. is very
traditional, dating back at least to the 14th century. People who do
this cannot be accused of committing an error.

Technical adjectival uses defining gender like "female genes" are fine
(but don't confuse them with "women's jeans").

FIANCE/FIANCEE

Your fiance is the man you plan to marry; your fiancee is the woman you
plan to marry.

FINE TOOTHCOMB/FINE-TOOTH COMB

Brush your teeth, but don't comb them. Although the spelling "fine
toothcomb" is common enough to be listed as a variant in dictionaries,
it looks pretty silly to people who prefer the traditional expression
used to describe examining a territory or subject minutely: going over
it with a "fine-tooth comb"--a comb with fine teeth. Some people prefer
"fine-toothed comb."

FIREY/FIERY

it's "fire," so why isn't it "firey"? If you listen closely, you hear
that "fire" has two distinct vowel sounds in it: "fi-er." Spelling the
adjective "fiery" helps to preserve that double sound.

50s

There's no requirement for the apostrophe before the "S" in decade names
like 50s and 60s, since there are no omitted letters, though it's also
acceptable to include one. The term may be written '50s since "19" is
being omitted, but 50s is fine too. Writers who wish to have their
references to decades clearly understood in the twenty-first century
would be well advised not to omit the first two digits.

Note that you may have to turn off "smart quotes" in your word processor
to get a leading apostrophe like the one in "'50s" to curl correctly
unless you know how to type the character directly.  Or you can just
type two and delete the first one.

FINALIZE/FINISH, PUT INTO FINAL FORM

"Finalize" is very popular among bureaucrats, but many people hate it.
Avoid it unless you know that everyone in your environment uses it too.

FIRST ANNUAL

Some people get upset when the "first annual" occurrence of some event
is announced, arguing that it doesn't become annual until it's been
repeated. But "first annual" simply means "the first of what is planned
to be an annual series of events"--it's a fine expression.

FIRST PERSON

Some teachers frown on the first-person voice in student writing,
striking out "I," "me," and "myself" whenever they encounter them; but
although there are times when it is inappropriate to call attention to
yourself, writing something like "public displays of affection are
disgusting" is not more modest than "public displays of affection
disgust me." The impersonal form arrogantly implies that you are the
final authority and that all right-minded people must agree with you.
The phrase "the author" substituted for "I" is no longer generally used
even in the most formal writing. When you are arguing for a theory or
opinion, it is often best to stand squarely behind it by using the
first-person voice.

FIRSTABLE/FIRST OF ALL

The odd word "firstable" seems to be based on a mishearing of the
expression "first of all."

FISCAL/PHYSICAL

The middle syllable of "physical" is often omitted in pronunciation,
making it sound like the unrelated word "fiscal." Sound that unaccented
"I" distinctly.

FIT THE BILL/FILL THE BILL

Originally a "bill" was any piece of writing, especially a legal
document (we still speak of bills being introduced into Congress in this
sense). More narrowly, it also came to mean a list such as a restaurant
"bill of fare" (menu) or an advertisement listing attractions in a
theatrical variety show such as might be posted on a "billboard." In
nineteenth-century America, when producers found short acts to
supplement the main attractions, nicely filling out an evening's
entertainment, they were said in a rhyming phrase to "fill the bill."
People who associate bills principally with shipping invoices frequently
transform this expression, meaning "to meet requirements or desires,"
into "fit the bill." They are thinking of bills as if they were orders,
lists of requirements. It is both more logical and more traditional to
say "fill the bill."

FITTEST

In evolutionary terms, "the survival of the fittest" refers not to
physical fitness in the sense of vigor and strength, but to the ability
to reproduce successfully. Rabbits and ants are fitter to survive in
most environments than lions: that's why there are so many more of them.
If you use the phrase "survival of the fittest" as if it referred to a
contest of brute strength, you will annoy biologists and some editors,
who will judge your usage as unfit to survive.

FIXING/PREPARING

"Fixing" as a synonym of "getting ready" is a feature of several
dialects of US English, especially rural and Southern ones: "I'm
fixin' to take this pie over to the parsonage." Using it outside of
these dialects risks making you sound unsophisticated.

FLAIR/FLARE

"Flair" is conspicuous talent: "She has a flair for organization."
"Flare" is either a noun meaning "flame" or a verb meaning to blaze with
light or to burst into anger.

FLAK/FLACK

"Flak" is WW II airman's slang for shells being fired at you in the air,
so to catch a lot of flak is to feel in danger of being shot down.
However, most civilians these days have never heard of "flak," so they
use "flack" instead, which originally meant "salesman" or "huckster."
You need to worry about this only if you're among old-time veterans.

You're more likely to embarrass yourself if you mix up the expression
"catch a lot of flak" with "give a lot of slack," which has almost the
opposite meaning. You can't catch slack.

FLAMMABLE/INFLAMMABLE

The prefix "in-" does not indicate negation here; it comes from the word
"inflame." "Flammable" and "inflammable" both mean "easy to catch on
fire"; but so many people misunderstand the latter term that it's better
to stick with "flammable" in safety warnings.

FLAUNT/FLOUT

To flaunt is to show off: you flaunt your new necklace by wearing it to
work. "Flout" has a more negative connotation; it means to treat with
contempt some rule or standard. The cliche is "to flout convention."
Flaunting may be in bad taste because it's ostentatious, but it is not a
violation of standards.

FLESH OUT/FLUSH OUT

To "flesh out" an idea is to give it substance, as a sculptor adds clay
flesh to a skeletal armature. To "flush out" a criminal is to drive him
or her out into the open. The latter term is derived from bird-hunting,
in which one flushes out a covey of quail. If you are trying to develop
something further, use "flesh"; but if you are trying to reveal
something hitherto concealed, use "flush."

FLOE/FLOW


Only ice floating on water produces a floe. Volcanoes produce lava flows.

FLOPPY DISK/HARD DISK

Floppy disks are fast disappearing from the computer world, but it's
been many years since they were literally floppy. The fact that a 3 1/2"
diskette is enclosed in a hard plastic case should not lead you to call
it a "hard disk." That's a high-capacity storage medium like the main
disk inside your computer on which your programs, operating system, and
data are stored.

FLOUNDER/FOUNDER

As a verb, "founder" means "to fill with water and sink." It is also
used metaphorically of various kinds of equally catastrophic failures.
In contrast, to flounder is to thrash about in the water (like a
flounder), struggling to stay alive. "Flounder" is also often used
metaphorically to indicate various sorts of desperate struggle. If
you're sunk, you've foundered. If you're still struggling, you're
floundering.

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.
       
FLUSTRATED, FUSTRATED/FRUSTRATED

People often get flustered and mispronounce (and sometimes misspell)
"frustrated" as "flustrated." Another common mispronunciation is
"fustrated."

FLYS/FLIES

"Flys" is a misspelling of "flies" except when the word is being
deliberately changed from its traditional spelling as in the name of the
popular music group, "The Flys."

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.

FOLLOWUP/FOLLOW UP, FOLLOW-UP

A doctor can follow up with a patient during a follow-up visit (note
that the adjectival form requires a hyphen). Neither phrase should be
turned into a single hyphenless word.

FONT/TYPEFACE

Although "font" has largely replaced "typeface" in common usage,
professionals who deal with type prefer to distinguish between the two.
"Typeface" refers to letter design; Times, Helvetica, and Garamond are
all typefaces. Typefaces are usually made up of a number of fonts:
complete sets of characters in that style, like Times Roman, Times
Italic, and Times Bold. The distinction is important only when dealing
with such professionals.

FOOT/FEET

You can use eight-foot boards to side a house, but "foot" is correct
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.

FOOTNOTES/ENDNOTES

About the time that computers began to make the creation and printing of
footnotes extremely simple and cheap, style manuals began to urge a
shift away from them to endnotes printed at the ends of chapters or at
the end of a book or paper rather than at the foot of the page. I happen
to think this was a big mistake; but in any case, if you are using
endnotes, don't call them "footnotes."

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."

FOR ALL INTENSIVE PURPOSES/FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES

Another example of the oral transformation of language by people who
don't read much. "For all intents and purposes" is an old cliche which
won't thrill anyone, but using the mistaken alternative is likely to
elicit guffaws.

FOR FREE/FREE

Some people object to "for free" because any sentence containing the
phrase will read just as well without the "for," but it is standard
English.

FOR GOODNESS' SAKES/FOR GOODNESS' SAKE

Picky folks point out that since the mild expletive "for goodness' sake"
is a euphemism for "for God's sake" the second word should not be
pluralized to "sakes"; but heavens to Betsy, if little things like that
are going to bother you, you'll have your dander up all the time.

FOR ONE/FOR ONE THING

People often say "for one" when they mean "for one thing": "I really
want to go to the movie. For one, Kevin Spacey is my favorite actor."
(One what?) The only time you should use "for one" by itself to give an
example of something is when you have earlier mentioned a class to which
the example belongs: "There are a lot of reasons I don't want your old
car. For one, there are squirrels living in the upholstery." (One
reason.)

FOR SALE/ON SALE

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

FOR SELL/FOR SALE

If you have things to sell, they are for sale. Nothing is ever "for
sell."

FOR SURE/SURE

In casual speech, when you agree with somebody's statement, you may say
"for sure." Your date says "That was outstanding tiramisu," and you,
wanting to show how in tune you are, reply "For sure!" You can also
use the phrase to mean "for certain," as in "I couldn't tell for sure
that the bench was wet until I sat on it."

But people often substitute this phrase when they should use plain old
"sure," as in "I couldn't be for sure." That should be "I couldn't be
sure."

FORBIDDING/FOREBODING/FORMIDABLE

"Foreboding" means "ominous," as in "The sky was a foreboding shade of
gray" (i.e. predictive of a storm). The prefix "fore-" with an E, often
indicates futurity, e. g. "forecast," "foreshadowing" and "foreword" (a
prefatory bit of writing at the beginning of a book, often misspelled
"forword"). A forbidding person or task is hostile or dangerous: "The
trek across the desert to the nearest latte stand was forbidding." The
two are easily confused because some things, like storms, can be both
foreboding and forbidding.

"Formidable," which originally meant "fear-inducing" ("Mike Tyson is a
formidable opponent") has come to be used primarily as a compliment
meaning "awe-inducing" ("Gary Kasparov's formidable skills as a chess
player were of no avail against Deep Blue").

See also "fearful/fearsome."

FORCEFUL, FORCIBLE, FORCED

These words sometimes overlap, but generally "forceful" means "powerful"
("he imposed his forceful personality on the lions") while "forcible"
must be used instead to describe the use of force ("the burglar made a
forcible entry into the apartment"). "Forced" is often used for the
latter purpose, but some prefer to reserve this word to describe
something that is done or decided upon as a result of outside causes
without necessarily being violent: "a forced landing," "a forced smile,"
"forced labor."

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."

FOREVER/FOR EVER

UK writers most often use the two-word phrase "for ever," whereas
Americans strongly prefer the one-word form "forever." Each nationality
is liable to think the other is making a mistake.

FORMALLY/FORMERLY

These two are often mixed up in speech. If you are doing something in a
formal manner, you are behaving formally; but if you previously behaved
differently, you did so formerly.

FORESEE/FORSEE

"Foresee" means "to see into the future." There are lots of words with
the prefix "fore-" which are future-oriented, including "foresight,"
"foretell," "forethought," and "foreword," all of which are often
misspelled by people who omit the E. Just remember: what golfers shout
when they are warning people ahead of them about the shot they are about
to make is "fore!"

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."

FORWARD/FORWARDS/FOREWORD

Although some style books prefer "forward" and "toward" to "forwards"
and "towards," none of these forms is really incorrect, though the forms
without the final S are perhaps a smidgen more formal. The same
generally applies to "backward" and "backwards." There are a few
expressions in which only one of the two forms works: step forward,
forward motion, a backward child. The spelling "foreword" applies
exclusively to the introductory matter in a book.

FOUL/FOWL

A chicken is a fowl. A poke in the eye is a foul.

FOURTY/FORTY

"Four" loses its U when it changes to "forty."

FOWL SWOOP/FELL SWOOP

Poor Macduff, learning that Macbeth has had his wife and children
murdered, cries "What, all my pretty chickens and their dam/At one fell
swoop?" Thus enters the language a popular phrase meaning "terrible
blow" (the image is of a ruthless hawk swooping down to slaughter
helpless chicks).

The old meaning of "fell" to mean "savage," "cruel," or "ruthless" has
otherwise pretty much died out, so that many people mistakenly
substitute "foul" or "fowl" for "fell." "Fell" in this sense is related
to words like "felon" and "felony."

The mangled form "swell foop" is a popular bit of humor which should at
least remind you that the first word in the phrase has to rhyme with
"swell."

FRAMEWORK/GROUNDWORK

You lay groundwork; you erect, build, or construct a framework.

FRANKENSTEIN

"Frankenstein" is the name of the scientist who creates the monster in
Mary Shelley's novel. The monster itself has no name, but is referred to
popularly as "Frankenstein's monster."

FRANKLY

Sentences beginning with this word are properly admissions of something
shocking or unflattering to the speaker; but when a public spokesperson
for a business or government is speaking, it almost always precedes a
self-serving statement. "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" is
correct; but "Frankly, I think the American people can make their own
decisions about health care" is an abuse of language. The same
contortion of meaning is common in related phrases. When you hear a
public figure say, "to be completely honest with you," expect a lie.

FRENCH DIP WITH AU JUS

This diner classic consists of sliced roast beef on a more or less firm
bun, with a side dish of broth in which to dip it. "Au jus" means "with
broth"; so adding "with" to "au jus" is redundant. In fancier
restaurants, items are listed entirely in French with the English
translation underneath:

Tete de cochon avec ses tripes farcies Pig's head stuffed with tripe

Mixing the languages is hazardous if you don't know what the original
means. "With au jus broth" is also seen from time to time. People
generally know what a French dip sandwich is, and they'll see the broth
when it comes. Why not just call it a "French dip?"

FRESHMAN/FRESHMEN

"Freshman" is the singular noun: "Birgitta is a freshman at Yale."
"Freshmen" is the plural: "Patricia and Patrick are freshmen at
Stanford." But the adjective is always singular: "Megan had an
interesting freshman seminar on Romanesque architecture at Sarah
Lawrence."

FROM . . . TO

"From soup to nuts" makes sense because soup was the traditional first
course in a formal meal, nuts the last. Similarly "from A to Z" makes
sense because these are the first and last letters of the alphabet. But
this construction, which identifies the extremes of a spectrum or range
is often improperly used when no such extremes are being identified, as
in "She tried everything from "penicillin to sulfa drugs." These are not
extremes, just examples of different sorts of drugs. Even worse is "He
gave his daughter everything from a bicycle to lawn darts to a teddy
bear." A range can't have more than two extremes. "He gave his daughter
everything from paper dolls to a Cadillac" conveys the notion of a
spectrum from very cheap to very expensive, and is fine. Often when
people are tempted to use "from . . . to" they would be better off using
a different expression, as, for example, in this sentence: "She tried
all sorts of medicines, including penicillin and sulfa drugs."

MOUNT FUJIYAMA/FUJIYAMA

"Yama" means "mountain" in Japanese, so when you say "Mount Fujiyama"
you are saying "Mount Fuji Mountain." The Japanese usually say
"Fujisan"; but "Fujiyama," or "Mount Fuji" is standard in English--just
be aware that both sound "foreign" to Japanese native speakers.

-FUL/-FULS

it's one cupful, but two cupfuls, not "two cupsful." The same goes for
"spoonfuls" and "glassfuls."

FULL PROOF/FOOLPROOF

If you want to get credit for solving a complicated mathematical
problem, you will have to provide a full proof. But if you're trying to
make something as easy as possible, you want to make it foolproof--so
simple even a fool couldn't screw it up.

FULLY WELL/FULL WELL

Back in the Middle Ages and Renaissance it was common for "full" to
modify adverbs. The only instance in which this continues today is the
traditional phrase "full well," mostly in "knowing full well." People
who "correct" this to "knowing fully well" may have modern grammar on
their side, but they sound as if they aren't acquainted with the
standard idiom.

FULSOME

In modern usage, "fulsome" has two inconsistent meanings. To some people
it means "offensive, overdone," so "fulsome praise" to them would be
disgustingly exaggerated praise.

To other people it means "abundant," and for them "fulsome praise" is
glowingly warm praise.

The first group tends to look down on the second group, and the second
group tends to be baffled by the first. Best to just avoid the word
altogether.

FUNCTIONALITY

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

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.

FUSHIA/FUCHSIA

The flowers known as "fuchsias" are named after German Renaissance
botanist Leonhard Fuchs. Although the word is pronounced "FYOO-sha" in
English, it should not be misspelled "fushia."

G/Q

Lower-case "q" strongly resembles lower-case "g" in many typefaces,
and the two are often confused with each other and the resulting
misspelling missed in proofreading, for instance "quilt" when "guilt" is
intended.

GP PRACTICE/GENERAL PRACTICE

"GP" stands for "general practitioner," so a "GP practice is a "general
practitioner practice," which isn't exactly redundant, but strikes some
people as awkward. However, if you don't want to spell the phrase out,
there doesn't seem to be a good substitute for "GP practice"--it won't
bother many people.

GAFF/GAFFE

"Gaffe" is a French word meaning "embarrassing mistake," and should not
be mixed up with "gaff": a large hook.

GAMUT/GAUNTLET

To "run a gamut" is to go through the whole scale or spectrum of
something. To "run the gauntlet" (also gantlet) is to run between two
lines of people who are trying to beat you. And don't confuse "gamut"
with "gambit," a play in chess, and by extension, a tricky maneuver of
any kind.

GANDER/DANDER

When you get really angry you "get your dander up." The derivation of
"dander" in this expression is uncertain, but you can't replace it with
"dandruff" or "gander." The only way to get a gander up is to awaken a
male goose.

GAURD/GUARD

Too bad the Elizabethan "guard" won out over the earlier, French-derived
spelling "garde"; but the word was never spelled "gaurd." The standard
spelling is related to Italian and Spanish "guarda," pronounced
"gwarda."

GENIUS/BRILLIANT

In standard English "genius" is a noun, but not an adjective. In slang,
people often say things like "Telling Mom your English teacher is
requiring the class to get HBO was genius!" The standard way to say this
is "was brilliant."

GENUINE

The pronunciation of "genuine" with the last syllable rhyming with
"wine" is generally considered less classy than the more common
pronunciation in which the last syllable rhymes with "won."

GERUNDS AND PRONOUNS

This is a subtle point, and hard to explain without using the sort of
technical language I usually try to avoid; but if you can learn how to
precede gerunds with possessive pronouns, your writing will definitely
improve in the eyes of many readers. Verb forms ending in "-ing" can
function as nouns and sometimes preceded by pronouns. Such verb/noun
forms are called "gerunds." You'll often see sentences like this: "I
didn't appreciate him returning the car with the gas tank empty." But
"returning" is a gerund, so it should be preceded by a possessive
pronoun: "I didn't appreciate his returning the car. . . ." Other
examples of standard usage: "Their coming to my birthday party was a
nice surprise." "I didn't like his being rude to his teacher." "They
weeded the garden without our having to tell them to." "Coming,"
"being," and "having" are all gerunds, and require preceding possessive
pronouns ("their," "his," and "our"). If a person's name appears just
before the gerund, that too needs to be in the possessive form: "We're
excited about Bob's winning the tournament."

Not all verb forms ending in "-ing" are gerunds. Some are present
participles, and function as adjectives: "a sailing ship," "a running
joke," "aching back." These can be preceded by possessive pronouns ("my
aching back"), but few people are tempted to use a non-possessive
pronoun in this context except in certain dialects ("me aching back").

Confused? Try this simple rule of thumb: if you have to put a pronoun or
noun in front of an "-ing" word, try a possessive one first. If the
"-ing" word seems like a thing or an action that could be possessed,
it's probably a gerund. If using a possessive form makes sense, go with
it.

GET ME/GET MYSELF

"I gotta get me a new carburetor," says Joe-Bob. Translated into
standard English, this would be "I have to get myself a new carburetor."
Even better: leave out the "myself."

GHANDI/GANDHI

Mohandas K. Gandhi's name has an H after the D, not after the G. Note
that "Mahatma" ("great soul") is an honorific title, not actually part
of his birth name. The proper pronunciation of the first syllable should
rhyme more with "gone" than "can." Among Indians, his name is usually
given a respectful suffix and rendered as Gandhiji, but adding Mahatma
to that form would be honorific overkill.

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 which 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").

GIFT/GIVE

Conservatives are annoyed by the use of "gift" as a verb. If the ad says
"gift her with jewelry this Valentine's Day," she might prefer that you
give it to her.

GIG/JIG

"The jig is up" is an old slang expression meaning "the game is
over--we're caught." A musician's job is a gig.

GILD/GUILD

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

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.

GOD

When "God" is the name of a god, as in Judaism, Christianity and Islam
("Allah" is just Arabic for "God," and many modern Muslims translate the
name when writing in English), it needs to be capitalized like any other
name. When it is used as a generic term, as in "He looks like a Greek
god," it is not capitalized.

If you see the word rendered "G*d" or "G-d" it's not an error, but a
Jewish writer reverently following the Orthodox prohibition against
spelling out the name of the deity in full.

GOES

"So he goes" I thought your birthday was tomorrow,"  and I'm--like--"
well, duh!" Perhaps this bizarre pattern developed in analogy to
childish phrases such as "the cow goes "moo" and "the piggy goes "oink,
oink." Is there any young person unaware that the use of "go" to mean
"say" drives most adults crazy? Granted, it's deliberate slang rather
than an involuntary error; but if you get into the habit of using it all
the time, you may embarrass yourself in front of a class by saying
something witless like "So then Juliet goes "A rose by any other name
would smell as sweet."

GONE/WENT

This is one of those cases in which a common word has a past participle
which is not formed by the simple addition of -ED and which often trip
people up. "I should have went to the business meeting, but the game was
tied in the ninth" should be "I should have gone. . . ." The same
problem crops up with the two forms of the verb "to do." Say "I should
have done my taxes before the IRS called" rather than "I should have
did. . . ."

See "drank/drunk."

      
GONNA/GOING TO

How do you pronounce "going to" in phrases like "going to walk the dog"?
"Gonna," right? Almost everyone uses this slurred pronunciation, but
it's not acceptable in formal writing except when you're deliberately
trying to convey the popular pronunciation. In very formal spoken
contexts you might want to (not "wanna") pronounce the phrase distinctly.

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 nigglers, 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.

GOT/GOTTEN

In the UK, the old word "gotten" dropped out of use except in such
stock phrases as "ill-gotten" and "gotten up," but in the US it is
frequently used as the past participle of "get." Sometimes the two are
interchangeable, However, "got" implies current possession, as in "I've
got just five dollars to buy my dinner with." "Gotten," in contrast,
often implies the process of getting hold of something: "I've gotten
five dollars for cleaning out Mrs. Quimby's shed" emphasizing the
earning of the money rather than its possession. Phrases that involve
some sort of process usually involve "gotten": "My grades have gotten
better since I moved out of the fraternity." When you have to leave,
you've got to go. If you say you've "gotten to go" you're implying
someone gave you permission to go.

GOT TO/HAVE GOT TO

"Gotta go now. Bye!" This is a common casual way to end a phone
conversation. But it's good to remember that it's a slangy abbreviation
of the more formal "I have got to go now." In writing, at least,
remember the "have" before the "got" in this phrase meaning "have to."
In fact, you can omit the "got" altogether and say simply "I have to
go." For a slightly less formal effect, contract "have" thus: "I've got
to go."

GOVERNMENT

Be careful to pronounce the first "N" in "government."

GRADUATE/GRADUATE FROM

In certain dialects (notably that of New York City) it is common to say
"he is going to graduate school in June" rather than the more standard
"graduate from." When writing for a national or international audience,
use the "from."

GRAMMER/GRAMMAR

it's amazing how many people write to thank me for helping them with
their "grammer." It's "grammar." The word is often incorrectly used to
label patterns of spelling and usage that have nothing to do with the
structure of language, the proper subject of grammar in the most
conservative sense. Not all bad writing is due to bad grammar.

GRASPING FOR STRAWS/GRASPING AT STRAWS

To grasp at straws is to make desperate but futile attempts to escape
from a problem. The image is of a drowning person wildly thrashing about
trying to find something to keep afloat with, madly grasping even a wisp
of straw which is plainly incapable of doing the job. "Grasping for
straws" suggests that the person is deliberately trying to find straws
rather than blindly grabbing them.

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."

GRAY/GREY

"Gray" is the American spelling, "grey" the British spelling of this
color/colour. When it's part of a British name--like Tarzan's title,
"Lord Greystoke"--or part of a place name--like "Greyfriars"--it should
retain its original spelling even if an American is doing the writing.

GREATFUL/GRATEFUL

Your appreciation may be great, but you express gratitude by being
grateful.

GRIEVIOUS/GRIEVOUS

There are just two syllables in "grievous," and it's pronounced
"grieve-us."

GRILL/GRILLE



You cook on a grill (perhaps in a 涀ar and grill?, but the word for a
metal framework over the front of an opening is most often grille. When
speaking of intensive questioning 浽rill?is used because the process is
being compared to roasting somebody over hot coals: 烅henever I came in
late, my parents would grill me about where I惍 been.?
GRILL CHEESE/GRILLED CHEESE

The popular fried sandwich is properly called "grilled cheese."

GRISLY/GRIZZLY

"Grisly" means "horrible"; a "grizzly" is a bear. "The grizzly left
behind the grisly remains of his victim." "Grizzled," means "having gray
hairs," not to be confused with "gristly," full of gristle.

GROUND ZERO

"Ground zero" refers to the point at the center of the impact of a
nuclear bomb, so it is improper to talk about "building from ground
zero" as if it were a place of new beginnings. You can start from
scratch, or begin at zero, but if you're at ground zero, you're at the
end.

The metaphorical extension of this term to the site of the destruction
of the World Trade Center towers is, however, perfectly legitimate; but
because in this case it is a place name it needs to be capitalized:
"Ground Zero."

GROUP (PLURAL VS. SINGULAR)

When the group is being considered as a whole, it can be treated as a
single entity: "the group was ready to go on stage." But when the
individuality of its members is being emphasized, "group" is plural:
"the group were in disagreement about where to go for dinner."

GROW

We used to grow our hair long or grow tomatoes in the yard, but now we
are being urged to "grow the economy" or "grow your investments."
Business and government speakers have extended this usage widely, but it
irritates traditionalists. Use "build," "increase," "expand," "develop,"
or "cause to grow" instead in formal writing.

GUESS WHO?/GUESS WHO!

Since "Guess who" is a command rather than a real question, technically
it should not be followed by a question mark. A period or exclamation
point will do fine. Similarly, there should be no question mark after
the simple command "Guess!"

GULL/GALL

"How could you have the nerve, the chutzpah, the effrontery, the
unmitigated gall to claim you didn't cheat because it was your
girlfriend who copied from the Web when she wrote your paper for you?"

This sense of "gall" has nothing to do with seabirds, so don't say "How
could you have the gull?"

GUT-RENDING, HEART-WRENCHING/GUT-WRENCHING, HEART-RENDING

To wrench is to twist, to rend is to tear. Upsetting events can be
stomach- or gut-wrenching (agonizing) or heart-rending (heartbreaking,
making you feel terribly sad); but many people confuse the two and come
up with "heart-wrenching." "Gut-rending" is also occasionally seen.

GYP/CHEAT

Gypsies complain that "gyp" ("cheat") reflects bias; but the word is so
well entrenched and its origin so obscure to most users that there is
little hope of eliminating it from standard use any time soon.

Note that the people commonly called "Gypsies" strongly prefer the name
Rom (plural form Roma or Romanies).

HIV VIRUS

"HIV" stands for "human immunodeficiency virus," so adding the word
"virus" to the acronym creates a redundancy. "HIV" is the name of the
organism that is the cause of AIDS, not a name for the disease itself. A
person may be HIV-positive (a test shows the person to be infected with
the virus) without having yet developed AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency
syndrome). HIV is the cause, AIDS the result.

       
HADN'T HAVE/HADN'T

Many people throw in an extra "have" when they talk about things that
might have happened otherwise: "If he hadn't have checked inside the
truck first he wouldn't have realized that the floorboards were rusted
out." This is often rendered "hadn't of" and pronounced "hadn'ta." In
standard English, omit the second word: "If he hadn't checked inside the
truck. . . ."

HAIL/HALE

One old meaning of the word "hale" is "to drag," especially by force. In
modern usage it has been replaced with "haul" except in the standard
phrase "hale into court." People who can't make sense of this form often
misspell the phrase as "hail into court." To be hailed is to be greeted
enthusiastically, with praise. People haled into court normally go
reluctantly, not expecting any such warm reception.

HAIRBRAINED/HAREBRAINED

Although "hairbrained" is common, the original word "harebrained" means
"silly as a hare" (the little rabbit-like creature) and is preferred in
writing.

HAND AND HAND/HAND IN HAND

"Poverty goes hand in hand with malnutrition." The image here is of the
two subjects holding hands, one hand in the other. The phrase is very
frequently misspelled "hand and hand," which does not convey the same
sort of intimate connection.

HANDICAP/DISABILITY

In normal usage, a handicap is a drawback you can easily remedy, but a
disability is much worse: you're just unable to do something. But many
people with disabilities and those who work with them strongly prefer
"disability" to "handicap," which they consider an insulting term. Their
argument is that a disability can be compensated for by--for instance--a
wheelchair, so that the disabled person is not handicapped. Only the
person truly unable by any means to accomplish tasks because of a
disability is handicapped. The fact that this goes directly counter to
ordinary English usage may help to explain why the general public has
been slow to adopt it; but if you want to avoid offending anyone, you're
safer using "disability" than "handicap."

Many of the people involved also resent being called "disabled people";
they prefer "people with disabilities."

HANGED/HUNG

Originally these words were pretty much interchangeable, but "hanged"
eventually came to be used pretty exclusively to mean "executed by
hanging." Does nervousness about the existence of an indelicate
adjectival form of the word prompt people to avoid the correct word in
such sentences as "Lady Wrothley saw to it that her ancestors' portraits
were properly hung"? Nevertheless, "hung" is correct except when capital
punishment is being imposed or someone commits suicide.

HANGING INDENTS

Bibliographies are normally written using hanging indents, where the
first line extends out to the left-hand margin, but the rest of the
entry is indented.

Twain, Mark. Mark Twain at the Buffalo Express: Articles and Sketches by
America's Favorite Humorist, edited by Joseph B. McCullough and Janice
McIntire-Strasburg (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2000).

These are extremely easy to create on a word processor, but many people
have never mastered the technique. Normally the left-hand margin marker
at the top of the page consists of two small arrows. Drag the top one to
the right to make a normal indent, the bottom one to create a hanging
indent. In most programs, you have to hold down the Shift key while
dragging the bottom marker to leave the top part behind. Don't get into
the habit of substituting a carriage return and a tab or spaces to
create hanging indents because when your work is transferred to a
different computer the result may look quite different--and wrong.

HANUKKAH, CHANUKAH

This Jewish holiday is misspelled in a host of ways, but the two
standard spellings are "Hanukkah" (most common) and "Chanukah" (for
those who want to remind people that the word begins with a guttural
throat-clearing sound).

HARD/HARDLY

Everybody knows "hard" as an adjective: "Starfleet requires a hard
entrance exam." The problem arises when people needing an adverb try to
use the familiar pattern of adding -ly to create one, writing things
like "we worked hardly at completing the test." The adverbial form of
this word is in fact the same as the adjectival form: "hard." So it
should be "we worked hard at completing the test."

In American English "hardly" always means something like "scarcely," as
in "we hardly worked on the test." In British English the word "hardly"
is sometimes used to mean "severely, harshly," as in "Trevor felt
himself to have been used hardly [badly treated] by the executive
committee"; but this pattern is unfamiliar to most American readers.

HARDLY

When Bill says "I can't hardly bend over with this backache," he means
he can hardly bend over, and that's what he should say. Similarly, when
Jane says "you can feed the cat without hardly bending over" she means
"almost without bending over."

HARDLY NEVER/HARDLY EVER

The expression is "hardly ever" or "almost never."

HARDY/HEARTY

These two words overlap somewhat, but usually the word you want is
"hearty." The standard expressions are "a hearty appetite," "a hearty
meal," a "hearty handshake," "a hearty welcome," and "hearty applause."
Something difficult to kill is described as a "hardy perennial," but
should not be substituted for "hearty" in the other expressions. "Party
hearty" and "party hardy" are both common renderings of a common youth
saying, but the first makes more sense.

HARK/HEARKEN

One old use of the word "hark" was in hunting with hounds, meaning to
turn the dogs back on their course, reverse direction. It was this use
that gave rise to the expression "hark back." It refers to returning in
thought to an earlier time or returning to an earlier discussion: "That
tie-died shirt harks back to the days we used to go to rock festivals
together."

The expression is not "hearkens back." Although "hark" and "hearken" can
both mean "listen," only "hark" can mean "go back."

HE DON'T/HE DOESN'T

In formal English, "don't" is not used in the third person singular. "I
don't like avocado ice cream" is correct, and so is "they don't have
their passports yet" and "they don't have the sense to come in out of
the rain"; but "he don't have no money," though common in certain
dialects, is nonstandard on two counts: it should be "he doesn't" and
"any money." The same is true of other forms: "she don't" and "it don't"
should be "she doesn't" and "it doesn't."

HEADING/BOUND

If you're reporting on traffic conditions, it's redundant to say
"heading northbound on I-5." it's either "heading north" or
"northbound."

HEAL/HEEL

Heal is what you do when you get better. Your heel is the back part of
your foot. Achilles' heel was the only place the great warrior could be
wounded in such a way that the injury wouldn't heal. Thus any striking
weakness can be called an "Achilles' heel." To remember the meaning of
"heal," note that it is the beginning of the word "health."

HEAR/HERE

If you find yourself writing sentences like "I know I left my wallet
hear!" you should note that "hear" has the word "ear" buried in it and
let that remind you that it refers only to hearing and is always a verb
(except when you are giving the British cheer "Hear! Hear!" ). "I left
my wallet here" is the correct expression. "Here" is where you are,
never something you do.

HEARING-IMPAIRED/DEAF

"Hearing-impaired" is not an all-purpose substitute for "deaf" since it
strongly implies some residual ability to hear.

HEAVILY/STRONGLY

"Heavily" is not an all-purpose synonym for "strongly." It should be
reserved for expressions in which literal or metaphorical weight or
density is implied, like "heavily underlined," "heavily influenced,"
"heavily armed," or "heavily traveled." Not standard are expressions
like "heavily admired" or "heavily characteristic of." People sometimes
use "heavily" when they mean "heartily," as in "heavily praised."

HEIGHTH/HEIGHT

"Width" has a "TH" at the end, so why doesn't "height"? In fact it used
to, but the standard pronunciation today ends in a plain "T" sound.
People who use the obsolete form  misspell it as well, so pronunciation
is no guide. By the way, this is one of those pesky exceptions to the
rule, "I before E except after C," but the vowels are seldom switched,
perhaps because we see it printed on so many forms along with "age" and
"weight."

HELP THE PROBLEM

People say they want to help the problem of poverty when what they
really mean is that they want to help solve the problem of poverty.
Poverty flourishes without any extra help, thank you. I guess I know
what a "suicide help line" is, but I'd rather it were a "suicide
prevention help line." I suppose it's too late to ask people to rename
alcoholism support groups as sobriety support groups, but it's a shoddy
use of language.

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."

HERBS/SPICES

People not seriously into cooking often mix up herbs and spices.
Generally, flavorings made up of stems, leaves, and flowers are herbs;
and those made of bark, roots, and seeds and dried buds are spices.
However saffron, made of flower stamens, is a spice. The British
pronounce the H in "herb" but Americans follow the French in dropping
it.

HERO/PROTAGONIST

In ordinary usage "hero" has two meanings: "leading character in a
story" and "brave, admirable person." In simple tales the two meanings
may work together, but in modern literature and film the leading
character or "protagonist" (a technical term common in literary
criticism) may behave in a very unheroic fashion. Students who express
shock that the "hero" of a play or novel behaves despicably reveal their
inexperience. In literature classes avoid the word unless you mean to
stress a character's heroic qualities. However, if you are discussing
the main character in a traditional opera, where values are often
simple, you may get by with referring to the male lead as the
"hero"--but is Don Giovanni really a hero?

See also "heroin/heroine."

HEROIN/HEROINE

Heroin is a highly addictive opium derivative; the main female character
in a narrative is a heroine.

       
HEW AND CRY/HUE AND CRY

If you were to accidently whack your leg with a hatchet you might be
said to hew it, and you would certainly be justified in crying.

But in the expression "hue and cry" "hue" means "shout" and is derived
from an Old French verb huer, designating the shouts that soldiers or
hunters make when they are on the assault. It's a bit redundant, like
"screaming and shouting"; but the spelling in this expression is
definitely the same as that of the word meaning "color": hue.

HIGHLY LOOKED UPON/HIGHLY REGARDED

Many people, struggling to remember the phrase "highly regarded," come
up with the awkward "highly looked upon" instead; which suggests that
the looker is placed in a high position, looking down, when what is
meant is that the looker is looking up to someone or something
admirable.

HIM, HER/HE, SHE

There is a group of personal pronouns to be used as subjects in a
sentence, including "he," "she," "I," and "we." Then there is a separate
group of object pronouns, including "him," "her," "me," and "us." The
problem is that the folks who tend to mix up the two sets often don't
find the subject/object distinction clear or helpful, and say things
like "Her and me went to the movies."

A simple test is to substitute "us" for "her and me." Would you say "us
went to the movies"? Obviously not. You'd normally say "we went to the
movies," so when "we" is broken into the two persons involved it becomes
"she and I went to the movies."

But you would say "the murder scene scared us," so it's correct to say
"the murder scene scared her and me."

If you aren't involved, use "they" and "them" as test words instead of
"we" and "us." "They won the lottery" becomes "he and she won the
lottery," and "the check was mailed to them" becomes "the check was
mailed to him and her."

See also "I/me/myself"

HINDI/HINDU

Hindi is a language. Hinduism is a religion, and its believers are
called "Hindus." Not all Hindus speak Hindi, and many Hindi-speakers are
not Hindus.

HIPPIE/HIPPY

A long-haired 60s flower child was a "hippie." "Hippy" is an adjective
describing someone with wide hips. The IE is not caused by a Y changing
to IE in the plural as in "puppy" and "puppies." It is rather a
dismissive diminutive, invented by older, more sophisticated hipsters
looking down on the new kids as mere "hippies." Confusing these two is
definitely unhip.

HIS AND HER悆/HIS AND HERS

Possessive pronouns don't take apostrophes. It's not "hi's" (but you
knew that), and it's not "her's," even in the popular phrase "his and
hers."

HISSELF/HIMSELF

In some dialects people say "hisself" for "himself," but this is
nonstandard.

AN HISTORIC/A HISTORIC

You should use "an" before a word beginning with an "H" only if the "H"
is not pronounced: "an honest effort"; it's properly "a historic event"
though many sophisticated speakers somehow prefer the sound of "an
historic," so that version is not likely to get you into any real
trouble.

HOARD/HORDE

A greedily hoarded treasure is a hoard. A herd of wildebeests or a mob
of people is a horde.

HOCK/HAWK

People who pawn goods at a pawnshop hock them. That's why such places
are sometimes called "hock shops."

Vendors who proclaim aloud the availability of their goods on the street
hawk them. Such people are called "hawkers."

The latter word is used metaphorically of people or businesses
aggressively promoting anything for sale. They are not "hocking their
wares" (or worse, "hocking their wears"), but "hawking their wares."

HOI POLLOI

Hoi polloi is Greek for "the common people," but it is often misused to
mean "the upper class" (does "hoi" make speakers think of "high" or
"hoity-toity"?). Some urge that since "hoi" is the article "the hoi
polloi" is redundant; but the general rule is that articles such as
"the" and "a" in foreign language phrases cease to function as such in
place names, brands, and catch phrases except for some of the most
familiar ones in French and Spanish, where everyone recognizes "la"--for
instance--as meaning "the." "The El Nino" is redundant, but "the hoi
polloi" is standard English.

HOLD YOUR PEACE/SAY YOUR PIECE

Some folks imagine that since these expressions are opposites, the last
word in each should be the same; but in fact they are unrelated
expressions. The first means "maintain your silence," and the other
means literally "speak aloud a piece of writing" but is used to express
the idea of making a statement.

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."

HOLOCAUST

"Holocaust" is a Greek-derived translation of the Hebrew term "olah,"
which denotes a sort of ritual sacrifice in which the food offered is
completely burnt up rather than being merely dedicated to God and then
eaten. It was applied with bitter irony by Jews to the destruction of
millions of their number in the Nazi death camps. Although phrases like
"nuclear holocaust" and "Cambodian holocaust" have become common, you
risk giving serious offense by using the word in less severe
circumstances, such as calling a precipitous decline in stock prices a
"sell-off holocaust."

HOME PAGE

On the World Wide Web, a "home page" is normally the first page a person
entering a site encounters, often functioning as a sort of table of
contents for the other pages. People sometimes create special pages
within their sites introducing a particular topic, and these are also
informally called "home pages" (as in "The Emily Dickinson Home Page");
but it is a sure sign of a Web novice to refer to all Web pages as home
pages.

HOMOPHOBIC

Some object to this word--arguing that it literally means "man-fearing,"
but the "homo" in "homosexual" and in this word does not refer to the
Latin word for "man," but is derived from a Greek root meaning "same"
while the "-phobic" means literally "having a fear of," but in English
has come to mean "hating." "Homophobic" is now an established term for
"prejudiced against homosexuals."

HONE IN/HOME IN

You home in on a target (the center of the target is "home"). "Honing"
has to do with sharpening knives, not aim.

HORS D'OEUVRES

If you knew only a little French, you might interpret this phrase as
meaning "out of work," but in fact it means little snack foods served
before or outside of ("hors") the main dishes of a meal (the "oeuvres").
English speakers have trouble mastering the sounds in this phrase, but
it is normally rendered "or-DERVES," in a rough approximation of the
original. Mangled spellings like "hors' dourves" are not uncommon.
Actually, many modern food writers have decided we needn't try to wrap
our tongues around this peculiar foreign phrase and now prefer
"starters." They are also commonly called "appetizers."

HOW COME/WHY

"How come?" is a common question in casual speech, but in formal
contexts use "why?"

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.

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.

HUNDREDS/CENTURY

"Eighteen hundreds," "sixteen hundreds" and so forth are not exactly
errors; the problem is that they are used almost exclusively by people
who are nervous about saying "nineteenth century" when, after all, the
years in that century begin with the number eighteen. This should be
simple: few people are unclear about the fact that this is the
twenty-first century even though our dates begin with twenty. For most
dates you can just add one to the second digit in a year and you've got
the number of its century. It took a hundred years to get to the year
100, so the next hundred years, which are named "101," "102," etc. were
in the second century. This also works BC. The four hundreds BC are the
fifth century BC. Using phrases like "eighteen hundreds" is a signal to
your readers that you are weak in math and history alike.

HYPERDERMIC/HYPODERMIC

Do you get a little hyper when you have to go to the doctor for a shot?
The injection is made with a hypodermic needle. The prefix "hypo-" means
"under," and the needle slides under your skin (your epidermis).

HYPHENATION

The Chicago Manual of Style contains a huge chart listing various sorts
of phrases that are or are not to be hyphenated. Consult such a
reference source for a thorough-going account of this matter, but you
may be able to get by with a few basic rules. An adverb/adjective
combination in which the adverb ends in "-LY" is never hyphenated: "His
necktie reflected his generally grotesque taste." Other sorts of adverbs
are followed by a hyphen when combined with an adjective: "His
long-suffering wife finally snapped and fed it through the office
shredder." The point here is that "long" modifies "suffering," not
"wife." When both words modify the same noun, they are not hyphenated. A
"light-green suitcase" is pale in color, but a "light green suitcase" is
not heavy. In the latter example "light" and "green" both modify
"suitcase," so no hyphen is used.

Adjectives combined with nouns having an "-ED" suffix are hyphenated:
"Frank was a hot-headed cop."

Hyphenate ages when they are adjective phrases involving a unit of
measurement: "Her ten-year-old  car is beginning to give her trouble." A
girl can be a "ten-year-old" ("child" is implied). But there are no
hyphens in such an adjectival phrase as "Her car is ten years old." In
fact, hyphens are generally omitted when such phrases follow the noun
they modify except in phrases involving "all" or "self" such as
"all-knowing" or "self-confident." Fractions are almost always
hyphenated when they are adjectives: "He is one-quarter Irish and
three-quarters Nigerian." But when the numerator is already hyphenated,
the fraction itself is not, as in "ninety-nine and forty-four one
hundredths." Fractions treated as nouns are not hyphenated: "He ate one
quarter of the turkey."

A phrase composed of a noun and a present participle ("-ing" word) must
be hyphenated: "The antenna had been climbed by thrill-seeking teenagers
who didn't realize the top of it was electrified."

These are the main cases in which people are prone to misuse hyphens. If
you can master them, you will have eliminated the vast majority of such
mistakes in your writing. Some styles call for space around dashes (a
practice of which I strongly disapprove), but it is never proper to
surround hyphens with spaces, though in the following sort of pattern
you may need to follow a hyphen with a space: "Stacy's pre- and post-
haircut moods."

HYPHENS & DASHES

Dashes are longer than hyphens, but since older browsers do not reliably
interpret the code for dashes, they are usually rendered on the Web as
they were on old-fashioned typewriters, as double hyphens--like that.
Dashes tend to separate elements and hyphens to link them. Few people
would substitute a dash for a hyphen in an expression like "a
quick-witted scoundrel," but the opposite is common. In a sentence like
"Astrud--unlike Inger--enjoyed vacations in Spain rather than England,"
one often sees hyphens incorrectly substituted for dashes.

When you are typing for photocopying or direct printing, it is a good
idea to learn how to type a true dash instead of the double hyphen
(computers differ). In old-fashioned styles, dashes (but never hyphens)
are surrounded by spaces -- like this. With modern computer output which
emulates professional printing, this makes little sense. Skip the spaces
unless your editor or teacher insists on them.

There are actually two kinds of dashes. The most common is the "em-dash"
(theoretically the width of a letter "M"--but this is often not the
case). To connect numbers, it is traditional to use an "en-dash" which
is somewhat shorter, but not as short as a hyphen: "cocktails 5-7 pm."
All modern computers can produce en-dashes, but few people know how to
type them. For most purposes you don't have to worry about them, but if
you are preparing material for print, you should learn how to use them.

HYPOCRITICAL

"Hypocritical" has a narrow, very specific meaning. It describes
behavior or speech that is intended to make one look better or more
pious than one really is. It is often wrongly used to label people who
are merely narrow-minded or genuinely pious. Do not confuse this word
with "hypercritical," which describes people who are picky.

HYSTERICAL/HILARIOUS

People say of a bit of humor or a comical situation that it was
"hysterical"--shorthand for "hysterically funny"--meaning "hilarious."
But when you speak of a man being "hysterical" it means he  is having a
fit of hysteria, and that may not be funny at all.
       
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 is
likely to startle the questioner into confusion.

-IC

In the Cold War era, anti-socialists often accused their enemies of
being "socialistic" by which they meant that although they were not
actually socialists, some of their beliefs were like those of
socialists. But the "-ic" suffix is recklessly used in all kinds of
settings, often without understanding its implications. Karl Marx was
not "socialistic," he was actually socialist.

IDEA/IDEAL

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

Something or someone inactive is idle. The word can also mean "lazy"
("the idle rich"). Unemployed workers are said to be idle, fired ones to
have been idled. A car engine can idle.

Someone you admire or something you worship is an idol. But no matter
how much you admire the former "Monty Python" actor, Eric Idle's name
should not be misspelled "Eric Idol."

IF I WAS/IF I WERE

The subjunctive mood, always weak in English, has been dwindling away
for centuries until it has almost vanished. According to traditional
thought, statements about the conditional future such as "If I were a
carpenter . . ." require the subjunctive "were"; but "was" is certainly
much more common. Still, if you want to impress those in the know with
your usage, use "were" when writing of something hypothetical, unlikely,
or contrary to fact.

The same goes for other pronouns: "you," "she," "he," and "it." In the
case of the plural pronouns "we" and "they" the form "was" is definitely
nonstandard, of course, because it is a singular form.

IF NOT

"He was smart if not exactly brilliant." In this sort of expression, "if
not" links a weaker with a stronger word with a related meaning. Other
examples: "unattractive if not downright ugly," "reasonably priced if
not exactly cheap," "interested if not actually excited."

But this sort of "if not" is often misused to link words that don't form
a weaker/stronger pair: "obscure if not boring," "happy if not
entertained," "anxious if not afraid." The linked terms in these
examples do have some logical relationship, but they do not form a
weaker/stronger pair.

IGNORANT/STUPID

A person can be ignorant (not knowing some fact or idea) without being
stupid (incapable of learning because of a basic mental deficiency). And
those who say, "That's an ignorant idea" when they mean "stupid idea"
are expressing their own ignorance.

ILLINOIS

It annoys people from this state when people pronounce the final
syllable in "Illinois" to rhyme with "noise." The final "S" in
"Illinois" is silent.

ILLUDE/ELUDE

"Illude" is a very rare word, most of whose former meanings are
obsolete, but which can mean "to deceive, lead astray." But in modern
usage this word is almost always used as an error for "elude," meaning
"escape, evade." Similarly, you would be better off avoiding the word
"illusive" and using the much more common word "illusory" to mean
"deceptive." "Illusive" is almost always an error for "elusive."

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION/VIRGIN BIRTH

The doctrine of "immaculate conception" (the belief that Mary was
conceived without inheriting original sin) is often confused with the
doctrine of the "virgin birth" (the belief that Mary gave birth to Jesus
while remaining a virgin).

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."

IMPACTFUL/INFLUENTIAL

Many people in business and education like to speak of things that have
an impact as being "impactful," but this term does not appear in most
dictionaries and is not well thought of by traditionalists. Use
"influential" or "effective" instead.

IMPASSIBLE/IMPASSABLE

"Impassible" is an unusual word meaning "incapable of suffering" or
"unfeeling." The normal word for the latter meaning is "impassive." But
"impassible" is most often a spelling error for "impassable" referring
to mountain ranges, blocked roads, etc.

IMPEACH

To impeach a public official is to bring formal charges against him or
her. It is not, as many people suppose, to remove the charged official
from office. Impeachment must be f