Common_Errors_in_English_usage

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The standard way to talk about something in the past that's different from what really happened is to use "had," as in "The robber wished he had given the bank clerk a fake when she asked for his ID card." People often say instead "wished he would have," but this pattern is not acceptable in standard written English. WOULD HAVE LIKED TO HAVE/WOULD HAVE LIKED "She would liked to have had another glass of champagne" should be "she would have liked to have another glass. . . ." WRANGLE/WANGLE If you deviously manage to obtain something you wangle it: "I wangled an invitation to Jessica's party by hinting that I would be inviting her to our house on the lake this summer." But if you argue with someone, you wrangle with them: "Once I got to the party, Jessica's attitude irritated me so much that we wound up wrangling constantly during it." Of course cowboys wrangle cattle, and specialists wrangle other animal species in films. WRAPPED/RAPT When you get deeply involved in a project, you may say you're wrapped up in it; but if you are entranced or enraptured by something you are "rapt," not "wrapped." The word means "carried away" and is used in expressions like "listening with rapt attention," "rapt expression," and "rapt in conversation." WRECKLESS/RECKLESS This word has nothing to do with creating the potential for a wreck. Rather it involves not reckoning carefully all the hazards involved in an action. The correct spelling is therefore "reckless." WRITE ME Many UK English speakers and some American authorities object strongly to the common American expression "write me," insisting that the correct expression is "write to me." But "write me" is so common in US English that I think few Americans will judge you harshly for using it. After all, we say "call me"why not "write me"? But if you're an American trying to please foreigners or particularly picky readers, you might keep the "write me" phobia in mind. If you disagree, please don't write me. WRITTING/WRITING One of the comments English teachers dread to see on their evaluations is "The professor really helped me improve my writting." When "ing" is added to a word which ends in a short vowel followed only by a single consonant, that consonant is normally doubled, but "write" has a silent E on the end to ensure the long I sound in the word. Doubling the T in
this case would make the word rhyme with "flitting." WONDERKIND/WUNDERKIND We borrowed the term "wunderkind," meaning "child prodigy," from the Germans. We don't capitalize it the way they do, but we use the same spelling. When writing in English, don't halftranslate it as "wonderkind." YA'LL/Y'ALL "How y'all doin'?" If you are rendering this common Southernism in print, be careful where you place the apostrophe, which stands for the second and third letters in "you." Note that "y'all" stands for "you all" and is properly a plural form, though many southern speakers treat it as a singular form and resort to "all y'all" for the plural. YE/THE Those who study the history of English know that the word often misread as "ye" in Middle English is good old "the" spelled with an unfamiliar character called a "thorn" which looks vaguely like a "Y" but which is pronounced "TH." So all those quaint shop names beginning "Ye Olde" are based on a confusion: people never said "ye" to mean "the." However, if you'd rather be cute than historically accurate, go ahead. Very few people will know any better. YEA/YEAH/YAY "Yea" is a very oldfashioned formal way of saying "yes," used mainly in voting. It's the opposite ofand rhymes with"nay." When you want to write the common casual version of "yes," the correct spelling is "yeah" (sounds like "yeh"). When the third grade teacher announced a class trip to the zoo, we all yelled "yay!" (the opposite of "boo"!). That was back when I was only yay big. YING AND YANG/YIN AND YANG The pair of female and male terms in Chinese thought consists of "yin and yang," not "ying and yang." YOKE/YOLK The yellow center of an egg is its yolk. The link that holds two oxen together is a yoke; they are yoked. YOU CAN'T HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO/YOU CAN'T EAT YOUR CAKE AND HAVE IT TOO The most popular form of this saying"You can't have your cake and eat it too" confuses many people because they mistakenly suppose the word "have" means "eat," as in "Have a piece of cake for dessert." A more logical version of this saying is "You can't eat your cake and have it too," meaning that if you eat your cake you won't have it any more. 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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law or doctrine: "The workers fough
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PUNDINT/PUNDIT "Pundit" is one of t
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quoted words and phrases within quo
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wrecked. If things are wrecked, the
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come, she's ravenous. REACTIONARY/R
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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 216 and 217: A truthful person has "veracity." "
Page 218 and 219: sound "wah," as it usually does in
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Page 232 and 233: they mean to say they're healthy. F
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Page 236 and 237: different. "You've got mail" should
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Page 242 and 243: y in large or enlarge by and large
Page 244 and 245: end justifies the meaning enervate
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Page 254 and 255: language. Try one of them instead.
Page 256 and 257: as to which one prefers. My goal is
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