Common errors in English Usage (pdf document) download at fliiby.com

"Common Errors in English by Paul Brians paulbrians@gmail.com http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/ (Brownie points to anyone who catches inconsistencies between the main site and this version.) Note that italics are deliberately omitted on this page. What is an error in English? The concept of language errors is a fuzzy one. I'll leave to linguists the technical definitions. Here we're concerned only with deviations from the standard use of English as judged by sophisticated users such as professional writers, editors, teachers, and literate executives and personnel officers. The aim of this site is to help you avoid low grades, lost employment opportunities, lost business, and titters of amusement at the way you write or speak. But isn't one person's mistake another's standard usage? Often enough, but if your standard usage causes other people to consider you stupid or ignorant, you may want to consider changing it. You have the right to express yourself in any manner you please, but if you wish to communicate effectively you should use nonstandard English only when you intend to, rather than fall into it because you don't know any better. I'm learning English as a second language. Will this site help me improve my English? Very likely, though it's really aimed at the most common errors of native speakers. The errors others make in English differ according to the characteristics of their first languages. Speakers of other languages tend to make some specific errors that are uncommon among native speakers, so you may also want to consult sites dealing specifically with English as a second language (see http://www.cln.org/subjects/esl_cur.html and http://esl.about.com/education/adulted/esl/). There is also a Help Desk for ESL students at Washington State University at http://www.wsu.edu/~gordonl/ESL/. An outstanding book you may want to order is Ann Raimes' Keys for Writers. This is not a questionandanswer site for ESL. Aren't some of these points awfully picky? This is a relative matter. One person's gaffe is another's peccadillo. Some common complaints about usage strike me as too persnickety, but I'm just covering mistakes in English that happen to bother me. Feel free to create your own page listing your own pet peeves, but I welcome suggestions for additions to these pages. What gives you the right to say what an error in English is? I could take the easy way out and say I'm a professor of English and do this sort of thing for a living. True, but my Ph.D. is in comparative literature, not composition or linguistics, and I teach courses in the history of ideas rather than language as such. But I admire good writing and try to encourage it in my students. I found a word you criticized in the dictionary! You will find certain words or phrases criticized here listed in dictionaries. Note carefully labels like "dial." (dialectical), "nonstandard," and "obsolete" before assuming that the dictionary is endorsing them. The primary job of a dictionary is to track how people actually use language. Dictionaries differ among themselves on how much guidance to usage they provide; but the goal of a usage guide like this is substantially different: to protect you against patterns which are regarded by substantial numbers of welleducated people as nonstandard. Why do you discuss mainly American usage? Because I'm an American, my students are mostly American, most Englishspeaking Web users are Americans, and American English is quickly becoming an international standard. I am slowly reworking the site to take note of American deviations from standard British practice. However, the job is complicated by the fact that Canadians, Australians, and many others often follow patterns somewhere between the two. If the standard usage where you are differs from what is described here, tell me about it, and if I think it's important to do so, I'll note that fact. Meanwhile, just assume that this site is primarily about American English. Isn't it oppressive of immigrants and subjugated minorities to insist on the use of standard English? Language standards can certainly be used for oppressive purposes, but most speakers and writers of all races and classes want to use language in a way that will impress others. The fact is that the world is full of teachers, employers, and other authorities who may penalize you for your nonstandard use of the English language. Feel free to denounce these people if you wish; but if you need their good opinion to get ahead, you'd be wise to learn standard English. Note that I often suggest differing usages as appropriate depending on the setting: spoken vs. written, informal vs. formal; slang is often highly appropriate. In fact, most of the errors discussed on this site are common in the writing of privileged middleclass Americans, and some are characteristic of people with advanced degrees and considerable intellectual attainments. However you come down on this issue, note that the great advantage of an open Webbased educational site like this is that it's voluntary: take what you want and leave the rest. It's interesting that I have received hundreds of messages from nonnative speakers thanking me for these pages and none from such people complaining that my pages discriminate against them. But you made a mistake yourself! We all do, from time to time. Drop me a line if you think you've found an error in my own writing. If I think you're right, I'll correct it; but be prepared to be disagreed with. If you write me, please don't call me "Brian." My given name is Paul. For instructions on how to write me, see the bottom of this page. This resource is copyrighted by Paul Brians. Permission is granted to reprint or photocopy small numbers of it in its entirety or in part for all local nonprofit, educational purposes provided that the author is cited and the URL http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/ is included. As a courtesy, please notify the author if you copy or link to this material. Because the content changes frequently, and I need to maintain control over the site, requests to create Web mirrors of the site are usually declined. Recommended in "Yahoo Internet Life Magazine," July, 1997, pp. 8283 and cited as a Yahoo "Site of the Week." It has also been recommended in the pages of "The Weekend Australian," "The Bangkok Post," the "Los Angeles Times," the "Seattle Times," the "Indianapolis StarTribune," the "Halifax ChronicleHerald," ZiffDavis' "Inside the Internet" newsletter, "Netsurfer Digest," and "The Web" magazine. 100�s/hundreds It looks cheesy to spell "hundreds" as "100's"; and it isn't really logical because "100" doesn't mean "hundred"it means specifically "one hundred." 360 DEGREES/180 DEGREES When you turn 360 degrees you've completed a circle and are back where you started. So if you want to describe a position that's diametrically opposed to another, the expression you want is not "360 degrees away" but "180 degrees away." A/AN If the word following begins with a vowel sound, the word you want is "an": "Have an apple, Adam." If the word following begins with a consonant, but begins with a vowel sound, you still need "an": "An Xray will show whether there's a worm in it." It is nonstandard and often considered sloppy speech to utter an "uh" sound in such cases. When the following word definitely begins with a consonant sound, you need "a": "A snake told me apples enhance mental abilities." See also "an historic." A.D. "A.D." does not mean "after death," as many people suppose. "B.C." stands for the English phrase "before Christ," but "A.D." stands confusingly for a Latin phrase: anno domini ("in the year of the Lord"the year Jesus was born). If the calendar actually changed with Jesus' death, then what would we do with the years during which he lived? Since Jesus was probably actually born around 6 B.C. or so, the connection of the calendar with him can be misleading. Many Biblical scholars and historians, and archeologists prefer the less sectarian designations "before the Common Era" (B.C.E.) and "the Common Era" (C.E.). All of these abbreviations can also be spelled without their periods. AM/PM "AM" stands for the Latin phrase "Ante Meridiem"which means "before noon"and "PM" stands for "Post Meridiem": "after noon." Although digital clocks routinely label noon "12:00 PM" you should avoid this expression not only because it is incorrect, but because many people will imagine you are talking about midnight instead. The same goes for "12:00 AM." Just say or write "noon" or "midnight" when you mean those precise times. It is now rare to see periods placed after these abbreviations: "A.M.", but in formal writing it is still preferable to capitalize them, though the lowercase "am" and "pm" are now so popular they are not likely to get you into trouble. Occasionally computer programs encourage you to write "AM" and "PM" without a space before them, but others will misread your data if you omit the space. The nonstandard pattern of omitting the space is spreading rapidly, and should be avoided in formal writing. ABJECT "Abject" is always negative, meaning "lowly" or "hopeless." You can't experience "abject joy" unless you're being deliberately paradoxical. ABLE TO People are able to do things, but things are not able to be done: you should not say, "the budget shortfall was able to be solved by selling brownies." ABOUT "This isn't about you." What a great rebuke! But conservatives sniff at this sort of abstract use of "about," as in "I'm all about good taste" or "successful trufflemaking is about temperature control"; so it's better to avoid it in very formal English. ABSORBTION/ABSORPTION Although it's "absorbed" and "absorbing" the correct spelling of the noun is "absorption." But note that scientists distinguish between "absorption" as the process of swallowing up or sucking in something and "adsorption" as the process by which something adheres to the surface of something else without being assimilated into it. Even technical writers often confuse these two. ABSTRUSE/OBTUSE Most people first encounter "obtuse" in geometry class, where it labels an angle of more than 90 degrees. Imagine what sort of blunt arrowhead that kind of angle would make and you will understand why it also has a figurative meaning 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 not "obtuse," but "abstruse." ACADEMIA Although some academics are undoubtedly nuts, the usual Englishlanguage pronunciation of "academia" does not rhyme with "macadamia." The third syllable is pronounced "deem." Just say "academe" and add "eeyuh." However, there's an interesting possibility if you go with "ackuhDAMEeeyuh: although some people will sneer at your lack of sophistication, others will assume you're using the Latin pronunciation and being learned. ACCEDE/EXCEED If you drive too fast, you exceed the speed limit. "Accede" is a much rarer word meaning "give in," "agree." ACCENT MARKS In what follows, "accent mark" will be used in a loose sense to include all diacritical marks that guide pronunciation. Operating systems and programs differ in how they produce accent marks, but it's worth learning how yours works. Writing them in by hand afterwards looks amateurish. Words adopted from foreign languages sometimes carry their accent marks with them, as in "fiance" "protege," and "cliche." As words become more at home in English, they tend to shed the marks: "Cafe" is often spelled "cafe." Unfortunately, "resume" seems to be losing its marks one at a time (see under "vita/vitae"). Many computer users have not learned their systems well enough to understand how to produce the desired accent and often insert an apostrophe (curled) or foot mark (straight) after the accented letter instead: "cafe'." This is both ugly and incorrect. The same error is commonly seen on storefront signs. So far we've used examples containing acute (rightleaning) accent marks. French and Italian (but not Spanish) words often contain grave (leftleaning) accents; in Italian it's a caffe. It is important not to substitute one kind of accent for the other. The diaeresis over a letter signifies that it is to be pronounced as a separate syllable: "noel" and "naive" are sometimes spelled with a diaeresis, for instance. The umlaut, which looks identical, modifies the sound of a vowel, as in German Fraulein (girl), where the accent mark changes the "frow" sound of Frau (woman) to "froy." Rock groups like "Blue Oyster Cult" scattered umlauts about nonsensically to create an exotic look. Spanish words not completely assimilated into English like pinata and nino retain the tilde, which tells you that an "N" is to be pronounced with a "Y" sound after it. In Englishlanguage publications accent marks are often discarded, but the acute and grave accents are the ones most often retained. [Note: the accent marks in this entry may not display properly on all operating systems. Consult the page on accent marks to see them properly.] ACCEPT/EXCEPT If you offer me Godiva chocolates I will gladly accept themexcept for the candied violet ones. Just remember that the "X" in "except" excludes thingsthey tend to stand out, be different. In contrast, just look at those two cozy "Cs" snuggling up together. Very accepting. And be careful; when typing "except" it often comes out "expect." ACCESS/GET ACCESS TO "Access" is one of many nouns that's been turned into a verb in recent years. Conservatives object to phrases like "you can access your account online." Substitute "use," "reach," or "get access to" if you want to please them. ACCESSORY There's an "ack" sound at the beginning of this word, though some mispronounce it as if the two "C's" were to be sounded the same as the two "SS's." ACCIDENTLY/ACCIDENTALLY You can remember this one by remembering how to spell "accidental." There are quite a few words with ally suffixes (like "incidentally") which are not to be confused with words that have "ly" suffixes (like "independently"). "Incidental" is a word, but "independental" is not. ACCURATE/PRECISE In ordinary usage, "accurate" and "precise" are often used as rough synonyms, but scientists like to distinguish between them. Someone could say that a snake is over a meter long and be accurate (the snake really does exceed one meter in length), but that is not a precise measurement. To be precise, the measurement would have to be more exact: the snake is 1.23 meters long. The same distinction applies in scientific contexts to the related words "accuracy" and "precision." ACRONYMS AND APOSTROPHES One unusual modern use of the apostrophe is in plural acronyms, like "ICBM's" "NGO's" and "CD's". Since this pattern violates the rule that apostrophes are not used before an S indicating a plural, many people object to it. It is also perfectly legitimate to write "CDs," etc. See also "50's." But the use of apostrophes with initialisms like "learn your ABC's and "mind your P's and Q's" is now so universal as to be acceptable in almost any context. Note that "acronym" was used originally only to label pronounceable abbreviations like "NATO," but is now generally applied to all sorts of initialisms. Be aware that some people consider this extended definition of "acronym" to be an error. ACROSSED/ACROSS The chicken may have crossed the road, but did so by walking across it. ACTIONABLE/DOABLE "Actionable" is a technical term referring to something that provides grounds for a legal action or lawsuit. People in the business world have begun using it as a fancy synonym for "doable" or "feasible." This is both pretentious and confusing. ACTUAL FACT/ACTUALLY "In actual fact" is an unnecessarily complicated way of saying "actually." AD NAUSEUM/AD NAUSEAM Seeing how often "ad nauseam" is misspelled makes some people want to throw up. ADD/AD "Advertisement" is abbreviated "ad," not "add." ADAPT/ADOPT You can adopt a child or a custom or a law; in all of these cases you are making the object of the adoption your own, accepting it. If you adapt something, however, you are changing it. ADDICTING/ADDICTIVE Do you find beer nuts "addicting" or "addictive"? "Addicting" is a perfectly legitimate word, but much less common than "addictive," and some people will scowl at you if you use it. ADMINISTER/MINISTER You can minister to someone by administering first aid. Note how the "ad" in "administer resembles "aid" in order to remember the correct form of the latter phrase. "Minister" as a verb always requires "to" following it. ADMINISTRATE/ADMINISTER Although it is very popular with administrators and others, many people scorn "administrate" as an unnecessary substitute for the more common verb form "administer." ADULTRY/ADULTERY "Adultery" is often misspelled "adultry," as if it were something every adult should try. This spelling error is likely to get you snickered at. The term does not refer to all sorts of illicit sex: at least one of the partners involved has to be married for the relationship to be adulterous. ADVANCE/ADVANCED When you hear about something in advance, earlier than other people, you get advance notice or information. "Advanced" means "complex, sophisticated" and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the revealing..."

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