Common_Errors_in_English_usage

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people want to vomit, and it tempers their sympathy for your plight. Better to say you are "nauseated," or simply that you feel like throwing up. NAVAL/NAVEL Your belly button is your navel, and navel oranges look like they have one; all terms having to do with ships and sailing require "naval." NEAR/NEARLY Some dialects substitute "near" for standard "nearly" in statements like "There weren't nearly enough screws in the kit to finish assembling the cabinet." NECK IN NECK/NECK AND NECK When a race is very tight, it's described not as "neck in neck" but "neck and neck." NEICE/NIECE Many people have trouble believing that words with the "ee" sound in them should be spelled with an "IE." The problem is that in English (and only in English), the letter I sounds like "aye" rather than "ee," as it does in the several European languages from which we have borrowed a host of words. If you had studied French in high school you would have learned that this word is pronounced "kneeYES" in that language, and it would be easier to remember. Americans in particular misspell a host of GermanJewish names because they have trouble remembering that in that language IE is pronounced "ee" and EI is pronounced "aye." The possessors of such names are inconsistent about this matter in English. "Wein" changes from "vine" to "ween," but "Klein" remains "kline." NEVADA "NuhVAHduh" is a little closer to the original Spanish pronunciation than the way Nevadans pronounce the name of their home state, but the correct middle syllable is the same "A" sound as in "sad." When East Coast broadcasters use the first pronunciation, they mark themselves as outsiders. NEVER THE LESS, NOT WITHSTANDING\NEVERTHELESS, NOTWITHSTANDING For six centuries we have been spelling "nevertheless" and "notwithstanding" as single words, and today it is definitely not standard to break them up into hyphenated or nonhyphenated multiword phrases. NEVERMIND/NEVER MIND The standard spelling of this phrase is as two words: "never mind." The popularity of the alternative oneword form "nevermind" was certainly enhanced by its use in 1991 as the title of a bestselling Nirvana album. "Nevermind" can look immature or
slangy to some readers. You can still be cool by imitating the vocabulary choice in the title of another famous album: "Never Mind the Bollocks: Here's the Sex Pistols." In expressions like "pay him no nevermind" where the word means "attention" it's always one word, but those expressions are both slangy and oldfashioned. NEW LEASE OF LIFE/NEW LEASE ON LIFE Reinvigorated people are traditionally said to have been granted not a "new lease of life" but a "new lease on life." After all, you take out a lease on a house, right? Same thing. NEXT/THIS If I tell you that the company picnic is next Saturday it would be wise to ask whether I mean this coming Saturday or the Saturday after that. People differ in how they use "next" in this sort of context, and there's no standard pattern; so it's worth making an extra effort to be clear. In the UK the distinction is made clear by saying "Saturday next" or "Saturday week." NEXT STORE/NEXT DOOR You can adore the boy next door, but not "next store." NIEVE/NAIVE People who spell this Frenchderived word "nieve" make themselves look naive. In French there is also a masculine form: "naif"; and both words can be nouns meaning "naive person" as well as adjectives. "Nieve" is actually the Spanish word for "snow." "Naivete" is the French spelling of the related noun in English. If you prefer more nativized spelling, "naivety" is also acceptable. NIGGARD "Niggard" is a very old word in English meaning "miser" or "stingy person." Americans often mistakenly assume it is a variant on the most common insulting term for darkskinned people. You may embarrass yourself by attacking a writer for racism when you see it in print; but since so many people are confused about this it might be better to use "miser" and "stingy" instead of "niggard" and "niggardly." NINTY/NINETY "Nine" keeps its E when it changes to "ninety." NIP IT IN THE BUTT/NIP IT IN THE BUD To nip a process in the bud is to stop it from flowering completely. The
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Common Errors in English by Paul Br
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But you made a mistake yourself! We
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ABSORBTION/ABSORPTION Although it's
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ACCURATE/PRECISE In ordinary usage,
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ADVOCATE FOR/ADVOCATE When they are
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as believers do not need to be able
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captivity. There is no such word as
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(notice, no "N") and "auteur" (in f
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with each other. Your greatgrandm
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"This pizza is really expensive
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ARTIC/ARCTIC Although some brand na
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To "assure" a person of something i
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AVENGE/REVENGE When you try to get
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concealing. It seems more likely th
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long this had been the custom and w
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the last word to "pail." The area o
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past tense of "bear": "My brother's
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"Breech" however, refers to rear en
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Side note: Britons laughed themselv
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weather, so we shouldn't be surpris
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not cast in stone." They may be inf
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lounge), resulting in the mispronun
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You cite the author in an endnote;
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trouble with commas if they deal wi
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CONCENSUS/CONSENSUS You might suppo
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COME WITH In some American dialects
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More on COULD CARE LESS" People who
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There are several words with Latin
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it just a goofy typo? DAMP SQUID/DA
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with short deadlines but not da
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degree" and "doctor of philosophy d
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substituting "do" for "due" (owing)
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established, if unusual. However, t
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applied to plans and activities, no
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Latin phrase exempli gratia. When y
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"burned/burnt" and "kneeled/knelt."
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You can pronounce the last two syll
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Originally these two words were syn
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An epigraph is a brief quotation us
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But when something happens only occ
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Something grows exponentially when
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Unfortunately, Star Trek has confus
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FIRSTABLE/FIRST OF ALL The odd word
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fortunate chance event. It is nonst
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Page 92 and 93: popularly as "Frankenstein's monste
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Page 96 and 97: When "God" is the name of a god, as
Page 98 and 99: There are just two syllables in "gr
Page 100 and 101: safer using "disability" than "hand
Page 102 and 103: Heal is what you do when you get be
Page 104 and 105: A simple test is to substitute "us"
Page 106 and 107: HONE IN/HOME IN You home in on a ta
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Page 110 and 111: are expressing their own ignorance.
Page 112 and 113: of vague ways, often clumsily. Here
Page 114 and 115: "infamy." Humorists have for a coup
Page 116 and 117: INTERCESSION/INTERSESSION In theolo
Page 118 and 119: down to earth. Similarly in standar
Page 120 and 121: In electronics, a jack is a female
Page 122 and 123: JUDGEMENT/JUDGMENT In Great Britain
Page 124 and 125: might lead people to think of relax
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Page 128 and 129: or "It feels like spring." In expre
Page 130 and 131: are less common now. LOGON/VISIT Yo
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Page 134 and 135: MEDIOCRE Although some dictionaries
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Page 144 and 145: is singular, is the subject. If you
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Page 148 and 149: lose a shirt. Strictly speaking, "I
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Page 152 and 153: Some people derive the noun "paraly
Page 154 and 155: in the apartment." PAST TIME/PASTIM
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Page 164 and 165: part of a team. Don't write "preM
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Page 168 and 169: PUNDINT/PUNDIT "Pundit" is one of t
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Page 172 and 173: wrecked. If things are wrecked, the
Page 174 and 175: come, she's ravenous. REACTIONARY/R
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Page 178 and 179: the quality of being truly religiou
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Page 184 and 185: "Salsa" is Spanish for "sauce," so
Page 186 and 187: Those are pearls that were his eyes
Page 188 and 189: these two up it will not sit well w
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SILICON/SILICONE Silicon is a chemi
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centuries, but has become widely us
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SPECIALLY/ESPECIALLY In most contex
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militant. A golfer wanting to impro
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expression has nothing to do with t
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called "suspicious." But "suspect"
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THAN/THEN When comparing one thing
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them," the traditionally correct ph
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Although most other translations us
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as "in today's modern society" or "
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Although in baseball a homerun hi
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The adjective "undue" is the opposi
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When you have vanity you are concei
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A truthful person has "veracity." "
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sound "wah," as it usually does in
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etter" or "very much better." In fo
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date or time known, use "when." WHE
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There is another sort of question i
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The standard way to talk about some
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point is that if you eat your cake
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http://www.bartleby.com/64/C001/050
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they mean to say they're healthy. F
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For most Americans, the natural thi
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different. "You've got mail" should
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This saying belongs to the same gen
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secretary, seize, sentence, separat
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y in large or enlarge by and large
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end justifies the meaning enervate
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if I don't say so imbedded impaling
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new leash on life neck in neck nitc
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ebel rouser recreate the wheel repe
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two sense worth turpentime tyrannic
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language. Try one of them instead.
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as to which one prefers. My goal is
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