Common_Errors_in_English_usage

or "It feels like spring." In expressions where the verb is implied
rather than expressed, "like" is standard rather than "as": "she took to
gymnastics like a duck to water."
So nervous do some people get about "like" that they try to avoid it
even in its core meaning of "such as": "ice cream flavors like vanilla
and strawberry always sell well" (they prefer "such as vanilla . . .").
The most fanatical even avoid "like" where it is definitely standard, in
such phrases as "behaved like a slob" ("behaved as a slob" is their odd
preference).
Like you care.
"as": "she took to gymnastics like a duck to water."
LIP­SING/LIP­SYNCH
When you pretend you are singing by synchronizing your lip movements to
a recording, you lip­synch­­the vocal equivalent of playing "air
guitar." Some people mistakenly think the expression is "lip­sing," and
they often omit the required hyphen as well. Note that you can lip­synch
to speech as well singing.
LIQUOR
Although it may be pronounced "likker," you shouldn't spell it that way,
and it's important to remember to include the "U" when writing the word.
LISTSERV
"LISTSERV" is the brand name of one kind of electronic mail­handling
software for distributing messages to a list of subscribers. Other
common brand names are "Majordomo" and "Listproc". You can subscribe to
the poodle­fluffing list, but not the LISTSERV. People at my university,
where only Listproc is used, often (and erroneously) refer to themselves
as managers of "listservs." English teachers are frequently tripped up
when typing "listserv" as part of a computer command; they naturally
want to append an E on the end of the word. According to L­Soft, the
manufacturer of LISTSERV, the name of their software should always be
capitalized. See their Web site for the details:
http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8d/user/user.html#1.1
"LITE" SPELLING
Attempts to "reform" English spelling to render it more phonetic have
mostly been doomed to failure­­luckily for us. These proposed changes,
if widely adopted, would make old books difficult to read and obscure
etymological roots which are often a useful guide to meaning. A few,
like "lite" for "light," "nite" for "night," and "thru" for "through"
have attained a degree of popular acceptance, but none of these should
be used in formal writing. "Catalog" has become an accepted substitute
for "catalogue," but I don't like it and refuse to use it. "Analog" has
triumphed in technical contexts, but humanists are still more likely to
write "analogue."