Common_Errors_in_English_usage

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AVENGE/REVENGE When you try to get vengeance for people who've been wronged, you want to avenge them. You can also avenge a wrong itself: "He avenged the murder by taking vengeance on the killer." Substituting "revenge" for "avenge" in such contexts is very common, but frowned on by some people. They feel that if you seek revenge in the pursuit of justice you want to avenge wrongs; not revenge them. AVOCATION/VOCATION Your avocation is just your hobby; don't mix it up with your job: your vocation. AWAY/A WAY "Jessica commented on my haircut in a way that made me think maybe I shouldn't have let my little sister do it for me." In this sort of context, "a way" should always be two distinct words, though many people use the single word "away" instead. If you're uncertain, try substituting another word for "way": "in a manner that," "in a style that." If the result makes sense, you need the twoword phrase. Then you can tell Jessica to just go away. AWE, SHUCKS/AW, SHUCKS "Aw, shucks," is a traditional folksy expression of modesty. An "awshucks" kind of person declines to accept compliments. "Aw" is an interjection roughly synonymous with "oh." "Awe" is a noun which most often means "amazed admiration." So many people have begun to misspell the familiar phrase "awe, shucks," that some writers think they are being clever when they link it to the current expression "shock and awe." Instead, they reveal their confusion. AWHILE/A WHILE When "awhile" is spelled as a single word, it is an adverb meaning "for a time" ("stay awhile"); but when "while" is the object of a prepositional phrase, like "Lend me your monkey wrench for a while" the "while" must be separated from the "a." (But if the preposition "for" were lacking in this sentence, "awhile" could be used in this way: "Lend me your monkey wrench awhile.") AX/ASK The dialectical pronunciation of "ask" as "ax" is a sure marker of a substandard education. You should avoid it in formal speaking situations. AXEL/AXLE The center of a wheel is its axle. An axel is a tricky jump in figure skating named after Axel Paulsen.
BACK/FORWARD/UP IN TIME For most people you move an event forward by scheduling it to happen sooner, but other people imagine the event being moved forward into the future, postponed. This is what mostbut not allpeople mean by saying they want to move an event backlater. Usage is also split on whether moving an event up means making it happen sooner (most common) or later (less common). The result is widespread confusion. When using these expressions make clear your meaning by the context in which you use them. "We need to move the meeting forward" is ambiguous; "we need to move the meeting forward to an earlier date" is not. Just to confuse things further, when you move the clock ahead in the spring for daylight saving time, you make it later; but when you move a meeting ahead, you make it sooner. Isn't English wonderful? BACKSLASH/SLASH This is a slash: /. Because the top of it leans forward, it is sometimes called a "forward slash." This is a backslash: \. Notice the way it leans back, distinguishing it from the regular slash. Slashes are often used to indicate directories and subdirectories in computer systems such as Unix and in World Wide Web addresses. Unfortunately, many people, assuming "backslash" is some sort of technical term for the regular slash, use the term incorrectly, which risks confusing those who know enough to distinguish between the two but not enough to realize that Web addresses rarely contain backslashes. BACKWARD/BACKWARDS As an adverb, either word will do: "put the shirt on backward" or "put the shirt on backwards." However, as an adjective, only "backward" will do: "a backward glance." When in doubt, use "backward." BAIL/BALE You bail the boat and bale the hay. In the expression "bail out" meaning to abandon a position or situation, it is nonstandard in America to use "bale," though that spelling is widely accepted in the UK. The metaphor in the US is to compare oneself when jumping out of a plane to a bucket of water being tossed out of a boat, though that is probably not the origin of the phrase. BALDFACED, BOLDFACED/BAREFACED The only one of these spellings recognized by the Oxford English Dictionary as meaning "shameless" is "barefaced." Etymologies often refer to the prevalence of beards among Renaissance Englishmen, but beards were probably too common to be considered as deceptively
Page 2 and 3: Common Errors in English by Paul Br
Page 4 and 5: But you made a mistake yourself! We
Page 6 and 7: ABSORBTION/ABSORPTION Although it's
Page 8 and 9: ACCURATE/PRECISE In ordinary usage,
Page 10 and 11: ADVOCATE FOR/ADVOCATE When they are
Page 12 and 13: as believers do not need to be able
Page 14 and 15: captivity. There is no such word as
Page 16 and 17: (notice, no "N") and "auteur" (in f
Page 18 and 19: with each other. Your greatgrandm
Page 20 and 21: "This pizza is really expensive
Page 22 and 23: ARTIC/ARCTIC Although some brand na
Page 24 and 25: To "assure" a person of something i
Page 28 and 29: concealing. It seems more likely th
Page 30 and 31: long this had been the custom and w
Page 32 and 33: the last word to "pail." The area o
Page 34 and 35: past tense of "bear": "My brother's
Page 36 and 37: "Breech" however, refers to rear en
Page 38 and 39: Side note: Britons laughed themselv
Page 40 and 41: weather, so we shouldn't be surpris
Page 42 and 43: not cast in stone." They may be inf
Page 44 and 45: lounge), resulting in the mispronun
Page 46 and 47: You cite the author in an endnote;
Page 48 and 49: trouble with commas if they deal wi
Page 50 and 51: CONCENSUS/CONSENSUS You might suppo
Page 52 and 53: COME WITH In some American dialects
Page 54 and 55: More on COULD CARE LESS" People who
Page 56 and 57: There are several words with Latin
Page 58 and 59: it just a goofy typo? DAMP SQUID/DA
Page 60 and 61: with short deadlines but not da
Page 62 and 63: degree" and "doctor of philosophy d
Page 64 and 65: substituting "do" for "due" (owing)
Page 66 and 67: established, if unusual. However, t
Page 68 and 69: applied to plans and activities, no
Page 70 and 71: Latin phrase exempli gratia. When y
Page 72 and 73: "burned/burnt" and "kneeled/knelt."
Page 74 and 75: 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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REDICULOUS/RIDICULOUS You may ridic
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the quality of being truly religiou
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RESPOND BACK/RESPOND, REPLY It's po
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People unfamiliar with the French
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"Salsa" is Spanish for "sauce," so
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Those are pearls that were his eyes
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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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