2008-03 Common Errors in English

8/2/2019 2008-03 Common Errors in English

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March

1/22008

SATURDAY/SUNDAY

memorium/memoriam

The correct spelling of theLatin phrase is in memoriam.


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March

32008

MONDAY

prepositions (repeated)

In the sentence Alex liked Nancy, with whomhe shared his Snickers bar with, only one withis neededeliminate either one. Look out forsimilarly duplicated prepositions.

Incidentally, an often-cited example of thispattern is from Paul McCartneys Live and LetDie: In this ever-changing world in which we livein. But if you listen closely, youll hear instead a

quite correct In this ever-changing world in whichwere livin. Americans have a hard time hearingthe soft British R in were.


3/26

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March

42008

TUESDAY

stance/stand

When you courageously resist opposing forces, you take

or makea stand. The metaphor is a military one, withthe defending forces refusing to flee from the attacker. Yourstance, on the other hand, is just your positionliteralor figurativewhich may not be particularly militant. A

golfer wanting to improve her drives may adopt a differentstance, or your stance on cojack may be that it doesntbelong on a gourmet cheese platter; but if you organize agroup to force the neighbors to get rid of the hippo theyve

tethered in their front yard, youre taking a stand.

Howard the infant hippoassumed his usual stance.


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March

52008

WEDNESDAY

portentious/portentous

People being pretentious get confused about portentous,which is related to portentsomens.


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March

62008

THURSDAY

can goods/canned goodsIs there a sign at your grocery story that sayscan goods? It should say cannedgoods.

Can goods last over a year?They can if theyre canned!


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March

72008

FRIDAY

abstruse/obtuse

Most people first encounter obtuse in geometry class,where it labels an angle of more than 90 degrees. Imaginewhat sort of blunt arrowhead that kind of angle wouldmake and you will understand why it also has a figurativemeaning of dull, stupid. But people often mix the word

up with abstruse, which means difficult to understand.When you mean to criticize something for being

needlessly complex or baffling, the word you need is notobtuse, but abstruse.

Lying in it, as in a grave orsarcophagus, with a hurried

drapery of sheet and blanketthrown across it, was the bodyof a heavily-made man, with anobtuse head, and course, mean,common features.

Charles Dickens,Little Dorrit


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Daylight Saving Time BeginsMarch 9

March

8/92008

SATURDAY/SUNDAY

got/gotten

In England, the old word gotten dropped out of use exceptin such stock phrases as ill-gotten and gotten up, but inthe U.S. it is frequently used as the past participle of get.Sometimes the two are interchangeable. However, gotimplies current possession, as in Ive got just five dollars tobuy my dinner with. Gotten, in contrast, often implies theprocess of getting hold of something: Ive gotten five dollarsfor cleaning out Mrs. Quimbys shed, emphasizing the earningof the money rather than its possession. Phrases that involvesome sort of process usually involve gotten: My grades havegotten better since I moved out of the fraternity. When youhave to leave, youve got to go. If you say youve gotten to goyoure implying someone gave you permission to go.


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March

102008

MONDAY

a/an

If the word following begins with a vowel, the word youwant is an: Have an apple, Adam. If the word followingbegins with a consonant, but begins with a vowel sound,you still need an: An X-ray will show whether theres a

worm in it. It is nonstandard and often considered sloppyspeech to utter an uh sound in such cases.

When the following word definitely begins with aconsonant sound, you need A: A snake told me apples

enhance mental abilities.

Dare to eat a peach instead

theyre sweeter than apples, andwho trusts snakes, anyway?


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March

112008

TUESDAY

spaded/spayed

If you have sterilized your dog, youvespayed it; save the spading until it dies.


10/26

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March

122008

WEDNESDAY

redundancies

Redundancies are phrases which say twice what needs

to be said only once, like past history. Advertisers areparticularly liable to redundancy in hyping their offers:as an added bonus (as a bonus), preplan (plan), andfree gift (but look out for the shipping charges!). Two

other common redundancies that are clearly errors areand plus (plus) and end result (result). But some otherredundancies are contained in phrases sanctionedby tradition: safe haven, hot

water heater, new beginning,and tuna fish.

I vow for a new beginningno morerepetitive and repetitious speech, andalso a terminal end to reundancies.


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March

132008

THURSDAY

muchly/muchDrop the nonstandard -ly ending from much,or substitute the word very when appropriate.


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March

142008

FRIDAY

would have liked to have had/would have liked to have

She would have liked to have had another glass ofchampagne should be She would have liked tohave another glass. . . .


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March

15/162008

SATURDAY/SUNDAY

do respect/due respect

When you preface your critical comments by tellingpeople with all due respect you are claiming togive them the respect they are duethat which isowed them. Many folks misunderstand this phraseand misspell it all do respect or even all-dorespect. You shouldnt use this expression unless youreally do intend to be as polite as possible; all toooften its used merely to preface a deliberate insult.


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Saint Patricks Day

March

172008

MONDAY

cope up/cope with

When you cant keep up with your work youmay not be able to cope with your job; but you

never cope up with anything. In casual speechwe say I cant cope but in formal writingcope is normally followed by with.

The first step was to collect anarmy to cope with the Danes.

Mary Francis Cusack,Illustrated History of Ireland,

from the Earliest Period


15/26

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March

182008

TUESDAY

healthy/healthful

Many argue people are healthy, but vegetables are healthful.

Logic and tradition are on the side of those who make thisdistinction, but Im afraid phrases like part of a healthybreakfast have become so widespread that they are rarelyperceived as erroneous except by the hyper-correct. On a

related though slightly different subject, it is interestingto note that in English adjectives connected to sensationsin the perceiver of an object or event are often transferredto the object or event itself. In the 19th century it was not

uncommon to refer, for instance, to a grateful shower ofrain, and we still say a gloomy landscape, a cheerful sight,and a happy coincidence.

A big bunch of delicious grapesalways a cheerful sight!


16/26

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March

192008

WEDNESDAY

sluff off/slough off

You use a loofah to slough off dead skin.


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Spring Begins

March

202008

THURSDAY

dual/duelDual is an adjective describing the two-ness ofsomethingdual carburetors, for instance. A duel

is a formal battle intended to settle a dispute.

Dueling pistolsnot exactly dual purpose!


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March

212008

FRIDAY

hoard/hordeA greedily hoarded treasure is a hoard. A herdof wildebeests or a mob of people is a horde.


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March

242008

MONDAY

for free/free

Some people object to for free because anysentence containing the phrase will read just as

well without the for, but it is standard English.


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March

252008

TUESDAY

double negatives

It is not true, as some assert, that double negatives are always

wrong; but the pattern in formal speech and writing is thattwo negatives equal a mild positive: He is a not untalentedguitarist means he has some talent. In informal speech,however, double negatives are intended as negatives: He aint

got no talent means he is a lousy musician. People are rarelyconfused about the meaning of either pattern, but you doneed to take your audience into account when deciding whichpattern to follow.

One of the funniest uses of the literary double negativeis Douglas Adams description of a machine dispensing asubstance almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.

I feel as though Ivenever not known you.

Thats not the leastkind thing Ive nevernot heard!


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March

262008

WEDNESDAY

dangling and misplaced modifiers

It is not necessary to understand the grammatical details

involved to grasp the basic principle here: words or phraseswhich modify some other word or phrase in a sentenceshould be clearly, firmly joined to them and not dangle offforlornly on their own.

Sometimes the dangling phrase is simply too far removedfrom the word it modifies, as in Sizzling on the grill, Theosmelled the Copper River salmon. This makes it sound likeTheo is being barbecued, because his name is the nearest

noun to sizzling on the grill. We need to move the danglingmodifier closer to the word it really modifies: salmon.Theo smelled the Copper River salmon sizzling on the grill.


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March

272008

THURSDAY

John Stuart Mill begs the questionon the very title-page of his book,for he assumes the subjection ofwomen. How is he to convincehis opponents when he assumes

in the first part of his argumentthat the present system entirelysubordinates the weaker sex to thestronger?

Carlos White,

Ecce Femina: An Attempt toSolve the Woman Question

begs the question

An argument that assumes as true the very point the

speaker is trying to argue for is said in formal logic to begthe question. Here is an example of a question-beggingargument: This painting is trash because it is worthless. Thespeaker simply asserts the worthlessness of the work without

any evidence to demonstrate that this is the case. Since wenever use begs with this odd meaning (to improperly takefor granted) in any other phrase, many people mistakenlysuppose the phrase implies something quite different: that the

argument demands a question beasked. If youre not comfortablewith formal terms of logic, itsbest to stay away from this phrase.


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March

282008

FRIDAY

interment/internment

Interment is burial; internment is merely imprisonment.


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March

29/302008

SATURDAY/SUNDAY

threw/through

Threw is the past tense of the verb throw: Thepitcher threw a curve ball. Through is nevera verb: The ball came through my living room

window. Unless your sentence involves someone

throwing somethingeven figuratively, as in shethrew out the ideacasuallythe wordyou want is through.

Cy Young won many games

and threw many pitchesbefore he was through.

/ i


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March

312008

MONDAY

parameters/perimeters

When parameters were spoken of only by mathematicians

and scientists, the term caused few problems; but nowthat it has become widely adopted by other speakers, itis constantly confused with perimeters. A parameter ismost commonly a mathematical constant, a set of physical

properties, or a characteristic of something. But theperimeter of something is its boundary. The two wordsshade into each other because we often speak of factors of anissue or problem being parameters, simultaneously thinking

of them as limits; but this is to confuse two distinct, ifrelated ideas. A safe rule is to avoid using parametersaltogether unless you are confident you know what it means.

2008-03 Common Errors in English

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