Common_Errors_in_English_usage

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A truthful person has "veracity." "Voracity," meaning "extreme appetite" is a rare word you are unlikely to have a use for; "voraciousness" is more common. VERSE/PLAY AGAINST Some young people use "verse" as a verb meaning "to play against," as in "I'll verse you at basketball after school." Computer gamers are particularly fond of virtual opponents versing each other. Presumably this bit of slang derives from the word "versus," but it's not standard English and is likely to confuse outsiders. VERSES/VERSUS The "vs." in a law case like "Brown vs. The Board of Education" stands for Latin versus (meaning "against"). Don't confuse it with the word for lines of poetry"verses"when describing other conflicts, like the upcoming football game featuring Oakesdale versus Pinewood. Note that in formal legal contexts the usual abbreviation is usually just "v.", as in "Brown v. The Board of Education." VERY UNIQUE/UNIQUE "Unique" singles out one of a kind. That "un" at the beginning is a form of "one." A thing is unique (the only one of its kind) or it is not. Something may be almost unique (there are very few like it), but nothing is "very unique." VICIOUS/VISCOUS CIRCLE/CYCLE The term "vicious circle" was invented by logicians to describe a form of fallacious circular argument in which each term of the argument draws on the other: "Democracy is the best form of government because democratic elections produce the best governments." The phrase has been extended in popular usage to all kinds of selfexacerbating processes such as this: poor people often find themselves borrowing money to pay off their debts, but in the process create even more onerous debts which in their turn will need to be financed by further borrowing. Sensing vaguely that such destructive spirals are not closed loops, people have transmuted "vicious circle" into "vicious cycle." The problem with this perfectly logical change is that a lot of people know what the original "correct" phrase was and are likely to scorn users of the new one. They go beyond scorn to contempt however toward those poor souls who render the phrase as "viscous cycle." Don't use this expression unless you are discussing a HarleyDavidson in dire need of an oil change. VIDEO/FILM Many of us can remember when portable transistorized radios were ignorantly called "transistors." We have a tendency to abbreviate the names of various sorts of electronic technology (see "stereo" and "satellite"), often in the process confusing the medium with the content. Video is the electronic reproduction of images, and applies to
oadcast and cable television, prerecorded videocassette recordings (made on a videocassette recorder, or VCR), and related technologies. MTV appropriated this broad term for a very narrow meaning: "videotaped productions of visual material meant to accompany popular music recordings." This is now what most people mean when they speak of "a video," unless they are "renting a video," in which case they mean a videocassette or DVD recording of a film. One also hears people referring to theatrical films that they happened to have viewed in videotaped reproduction as "videos." This is simply wrong. A film is a film (or movie), whether it is projected on a screen from 35 or 70 mm film or broadcast via the NTSC, SECAM or PAL standard. Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" is not now and never will be a "video." VINEGARETTE/VINAIGRETTE Naive diners and restaurant workers alike commonly mispronounce the classic French dressing called "vinaigrette" as if it were "vinegarette." To be more sophisticated, say "vinuhGRETT" (the first syllable rhymes with "seen"). VINTAGE POINT/VANTAGE POINT The spot from which you have a good view is a vantage point. VIRII/VIRUSES Hackers like to use "virii" as the plural form of "virus," but Latin scholars object that this invented term does not follow standard patterns in that language, and that there is already a perfectly good plural in English: "viruses." VITAE/VITA Unless you are going to claim credit for accomplishments in previous incarnations, you should refer to your "vita," not your "vitae." All kidding aside, the "ae" in "vitae" supposedly indicates the genitive rather than the plural; but the derivation of "vita" from "curriculum vitae" is purely speculative (see the Oxford English Dictionary), and "vitae" on its own makes no sense grammatically. "Resume," by the way, is a French word with both "Es" accented, and literally means "summary." In English one often sees it without the accents, or with only the second accent, neither of which is a serious error. But if you're trying to show how multilingual you are, remember the first accent. VIOLA/VOILA A viola is a flower or a musical instrument. The expression which means "behold!" is "voila." It comes from a French expression literally meaning "look there!" In French it is spelled with a grave accent over the A, but when it was adopted into English, it lost its accent. Such barbarous misspellings as "vwala" are even worse, caused by the reluctance of English speakers to believe that "OI" can represent 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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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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to "you peoples" indicated illitera
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PHANTOM/FATHOM Brianna exclaims con
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PLAYS A FACTOR/PLAYS A ROLE Some pe
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US from Hawaii. POPULACE/POPULOUS T
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part of a team. Don't write "preM
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Page 210 and 211: Although in baseball a homerun hi
Page 212 and 213: The adjective "undue" is the opposi
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Page 232 and 233: they mean to say they're healthy. F
Page 234 and 235: For most Americans, the natural thi
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Page 244 and 245: end justifies the meaning enervate
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Page 256 and 257: as to which one prefers. My goal is
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