Common_Errors_in_English_usage

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Although most other translations use more accurate phrasing ("as in a mirror," "a blurred image in a mirror," etc.), the King James is so influential that its misleading rendering of the verse is overwhelmingly more popular than the more accurate ones. It's not really an error to quote the KJV, but if you use the image, don't make the mistake of suggesting it has to do with a dirty window rather than a dim mirror. THROWS OF PASSION/THROES OF PASSION A dying person's final agony can be called "death throes." The only other common use for this word is "throes of passion." Throws are wrestling moves or those little blankets you drape on the furniture. THUSFAR/THUS FAR Some common phrases get fused in people's minds into single words. The phrase "thus far" is frequently misspelled "thusfar." Hardly anybody writes "sofar" instead of "so far"just treat "thus far" in the same way. THUSLY/THUS "Thusly" has been around for a long time, but it is widely viewed as nonstandard. It's safer to go with plain old "thus." TIC/TICK The word for a spasmodic twitch or habitual quirk of speech or behavior is spelled the French way: "tic." You may have to worry about Lyme disease if you get a bite from a tick on your face, but that spasm in your left cheek whenever the teacher calls on you is a facial tic. TIMBER/TIMBRE You can build a house out of timber, but that quality which distinguishes the sound produced by one instrument or voice from others is timbre, usually pronounced "TAMbruh," so the common expression is "vocal timbre." TIME PERIOD The only kinds of periods meant by people who use this phrase are periods of time, so it's a redundancy. Simply say "time" or "period." TIMES SMALLER Mathematically literate folks object to expressions like "my paycheck is three times smaller than it used to be" because "times" indicates multiplication and should logically apply only to increases in size. Say "one third as large" instead. TIRIMISU/TIRAMISU Tiramisu is Italian for "pick me up", and is the name of a popular
modern Italian dessert, commonly mispelled as tirimisu, which gives it a slightly Japanese air. The Japanese love tiramisu; but although they sometimes make it with green tea rather than coffee this misspelling isn't their fault. TO/TOO/TWO People seldom mix "two" up with the other two; it obviously belongs with words that also begin with TW, like "twice" and "twenty" that involve the number 2. But the other two are confused all the time. Just remember that the only meanings of "too" are "also" ("I want some ice cream too") and "in excess" ("Your walkman is playing too loudly.") Note that extra O. It should remind you that this word has to do with adding more on to something. "To" is the proper spelling for all the other uses. TO HOME/AT HOME In some dialects people say "I stayed to home to wait for the mail," but in standard English the expression is "stayed at home." TO THE MANOR BORN/TO THE MANNER BORN Hamlet complains of the drunken carousing at Elsinore to his friend Horatio, who asks "Is it a custom?" Hamlet replies that it is and adds, "but to my mind,though I am native here and to the manner born,it is a custom more honour'd in the breach than the observance." "As if to the manner born" is used to praise someone's skill: "Reginald drives the Maserati as if to the manner born" (as if he were born with that skill). "To the Manor Born" was the punning title of a popular BBC comedy, which greatly increased the number of people who mistakenly supposed the original expression had something to do with being born on a manor. Perhaps because of the poetically inverted word order in "manner born" the expression tends to occur in rather snooty contexts. Nevertheless, the correct expression is "to the manner born." TO WHERE/SO MUCH THAT, TO THE POINT THAT Complains Fred, "Mac kept borrowing my tools to where I couldn't finish fixing the front porch." This sort of use of "to where" to mean "so much that" or "to the point that" is not standard English. The meaning is more about when than where. TODAY'S DAY AND AGE/THIS DAY AND AGE The traditional expression is "in this day and age," meaning "right at this moment and during a considerable stretch of time around this moment." "Today's day" is redundant: "today" already has "day" in it. TODAY'S MODERN SOCIETY/TODAY People seeking to be uptotheminute often indulge in such redundancies
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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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FORBIDDING/FOREBODING/FORMIDABLE "F
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popularly as "Frankenstein's monste
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FUSHIA/FUCHSIA The flowers known as
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When "God" is the name of a god, as
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There are just two syllables in "gr
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safer using "disability" than "hand
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Heal is what you do when you get be
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A simple test is to substitute "us"
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HONE IN/HOME IN You home in on a ta
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(theoretically the width of a lette
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are expressing their own ignorance.
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of vague ways, often clumsily. Here
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"infamy." Humorists have for a coup
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INTERCESSION/INTERSESSION In theolo
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down to earth. Similarly in standar
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In electronics, a jack is a female
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JUDGEMENT/JUDGMENT In Great Britain
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might lead people to think of relax
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the standard spelling for those lit
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or "It feels like spring." In expre
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are less common now. LOGON/VISIT Yo
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spell his title with a double "L."
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MEDIOCRE Although some dictionaries
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AB "minus" 231. In the model name "
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"motherload" is a mistake which is
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people want to vomit, and it temper
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hilariously mistaken "nip it in the
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is singular, is the subject. If you
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OLDTIMER'S DISEASE/ALZHEIMER'S DI
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lose a shirt. Strictly speaking, "I
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ORIENTATE/ORIENT Although it is sta
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Some people derive the noun "paraly
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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 200 and 201: called "suspicious." But "suspect"
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Page 210 and 211: Although in baseball a homerun hi
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Page 224 and 225: There is another sort of question i
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Page 232 and 233: they mean to say they're healthy. F
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Page 244 and 245: end justifies the meaning enervate
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as to which one prefers. My goal is
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Common_Errors_in_English_usage

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