Common_Errors_in_English_usage

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 left­hand 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
McIntire­Strasburg (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 left­hand 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 different­­and 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
throat­clearing 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