Common Errors in English

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.

ABJECT
"Abject" is always negative. You can't experience "abject joy" unless you're being deliberately paradoxical.
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 truffle-making 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."<P>
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 (right-leaning) accent marks. French and Italian (but not Spanish) words often contain grave(left-leaning) 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 Fraeulein, where the accent mark changes the "ow" sound of Frau (woman) to "froy" (girl). Rock groups like "Blue Oeyster Cult" scatter 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 English-language publications accent marks are often discarded, but the acute and grave accents are the ones most often retained.
ACCEPT/EXCEPT
If you offer me Godiva chocolates I will gladly accept them--except for the candied violet ones.Just remember that the "X" in "except" excludes things--they 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.
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.
ACTUAL FACT/ACTUALLY
"In actual fact" is an unnecessarily complicated way of saying "actually."
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.
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.
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 of secrets.
ADVERSE/AVERSE
The word "adverse" turns up most frequently in the phrase "adverse circumstances," meaning difficult circumstances,circumstances which act as an adversary; but people often confuse this word with "averse," a much rarer word, meaning having a strong feeling against, or aversion toward.
ADVICE/ADVISE
"Advice" is the noun, "advise" the verb. When Ann Landers advises people, she gives them advice.
ADVISER/ADVISOR
"Adviser" and "advisor" are equally fine spellings. There is no distinction between them.
AFFECT/EFFECT
There are four distinct words here. When "affect" is accented on the final syllable (a-FECT), it is a verb meaning "have an influence on": "The million-dollar donation from the industrialist did not affect my vote against the Clean Air Act." A much rarer meaning is indicated when the word is accented on the first syllable (AFF-ect), meaning "emotion."In this case the word is used mostly by psychiatrists and social scientists--people who normally know how to spell it. The real problem arises when people confuse the first spelling with the second: "effect."This too can be two different words. The more common one is a noun:"When I left the stove on,the effect was that the house filled with smoke."When you affect a situation, you have an effect on it. The less common is a verb meaning "to create": "I'm trying to effect a change in the way we purchase widgets." No wonder people are confused. Hey, nobody ever said English was logical; just memorize it and get on with your life.
AFFLUENCE/EFFLUENCE
Wealth brings affluence; sewage is effluence.
AGREEANCE/AGREEMENT
When you agree with someone you are in agreement.
AHOLD/HOLD
In formal English you just "get hold" of something or somebody.
AIN'T
"Ain't" has a long and vital history as a substitute for "isn't,""aren't" and so on. It was originally formed from a contraction of "am not" and is still commonly used in that sense. Even though it has been universally condemned as the classic "mistake" in English, everyone uses it occasionally as part of a joking phrase or to convey a down-to-earth quality. But if you always use it instead of the more "proper"
contractions you're sure to be branded as uneducated.
ALL
Put this word where it belongs in the sentence. In negative statements,don't write "All the pictures didn't show her dimples" when you mean"The pictures didn't all show her dimples."
ALL GOES WELL/AUGURS WELL
Some folks who don't understand the word "augur" (to foretell based on omens) try to make sense of the common phrase "augurs well" by mangling it into "all goes well." "Augurs well" is synonymous with "bodes well."
ALL READY/ALREADY
"All ready" is a phrase meaning "completely prepared," as in "As soon as I put my coat on,I'll be all ready." "Already," however, is an adverb used to describe something that has happened before a certain time, as
in "What do you mean you'd rather stay home? I've already got my coat on."
ALLITERATE/ILLITERATE
Pairs of words with the same initial sound alliterate, like "wild and wooly." Those who can't read are illiterate.
ALLS/ALL
"Alls I know is . . ." may result from anticipating the "S" in "is," but the standard expression is "All I know is. . . ."
ALLUDE/ELUDE
You can allude (refer) to your daughter's membership in the honor society when boasting about her, but a criminal tries to elude (escape)captivity. There is no such word as "illude."
ALLUDE/REFER
To allude to something is to refer to it indirectly, by suggestion.If you are being direct and unambiguous, you refer to the subject rather than alluding to it.
ALLUSION/ILLUSION
An allusion is a reference, something you allude to: "Her allusion to flowers reminded me that Valentine's Day was coming."In that English paper,don't write "literary illusions"when you mean "allusions." Amirage,hallucination,or a magic trick is an illusion.(Doesn't being fooled just make you ill?)
ALMOST
Like "only," "almost" must come immediately before the word or phrase it modifies:"She almost gave a million dollars to the museum" means something quite different from"She gave almost a million dollars to the museum." Right? So you shouldn't write, "There was almost a riotous reaction when the will was read" when what you mean is "There was an almost riotous reaction."
ALOT/A LOT
Perhaps this common spelling error began because there does exist in English a word spelled "allot" which is a verb meaning to apportion or grant. The correct form, with "a" and "lot" separated by a space is perhaps not often encountered in print because formal writers usually use other expressions such as "a great deal," "often," etc. If you can't remember the rule, just remind yourself that just as you wouldn't write "alittle" you shouldn't write "alot."
ALRIGHT/ALL RIGHT
The correct form of this phrase has become so rare in the popular press that many readers have probably never noticed that it is actually two words. But if you want to avoid irritating traditionalists you'd better tell them that you feel "all right" rather than "alright."
ALTAR/ALTER
An altar is that platform at the front of a church or in a temple; to alter something is to change it.
ALTERIOR/ULTERIOR
When you have a concealed reason for doing something, it's an ulterior motive.
ALTERNATE/ALTERNATIVE
Although UK authorities disapprove, in U.S. usage, "alternate" is frequently an adjective, substituted for the older "alternative": "an alternate route." "Alternate" can also be a noun; a substitute delegate
is, for instance, called an "alternate." But when you're speaking of "every other" as in "our club meets on alternate Tuesdays," you can't substitute "alternative."
ALTOGETHER/ALL TOGETHER
"Altogether" is an adverb meaning "completely," "entirely." For example: "When he first saw the examination questions, he was altogether baffled." "All together," in contrast, is a phrase meaning "in a group."For example: "The wedding guests were gathered all together in the garden."
ALUMNUS/ALUMNI
We used to have "alumnus" (male singular), "alumni" (male plural),"alumna" (female singular) and "alumnae" (female plural); but the latter two are now popular only among older female graduates, with the first two terms becoming unisex. However, it is still important to distinguish between one alumnus and a stadium full of alumni. Never say, "I am an alumni" if you don't want to cast discredit on your school. Many avoid the whole problem by resorting to the informal abbreviation "alum."
AMATURE/AMATEUR
Most of the words we've borrowed from the French that have retained their "-eur" endings are pretty sophisticated, like "restaurateur"(notice, no "N") and "auteur" (in film criticism), but "amateur" attracts amateurish spelling.
AMBIGUOUS/AMBIVALENT
Even though the prefix "ambi-" means "both," "ambiguous" has come to mean "unclear," "undefined," while "ambivalent" means "torn between two opposing feelings or views." If your attitude cannot be defined into two polarized alternatives,then you're ambiguous, not ambivalent.
AMBIVALENT/INDIFFERENT
If you feel pulled in two directions about some issue, you're ambivalent about it; but if you have no particular feelings about it, you're indifferent.
AMERICAN
Many Canadians and Latin Americans are understandably irritated when U.S. citizens refer to themselves simply as "Americans." Canadians (and only Canadians) use the term "North American" to include themselves in a two-member group with their neighbor to the south, though geographers usually include Mexico in North America. When addressing an international audience composed largely of people from the Americas, it is wise to consider their sensitivities.However, it is pointless to try to ban this usage in all contexts.
Outside of the Americas, "American" is universally understood to refer to things relating to the U.S. There is no good substitute. Brazilians,Argentineans, and Canadians all have unique terms to refer to themselves.None of them refer routinely to themselves as"Americans"outside of contexts like the "Organization of American States." Frank Lloyd Wright promoted "Usonian," but it never caught on. For better or worse, "American" is standard English for "citizen or resident of the United States of America."
AMONGST/AMONG
Although "amongst" has not dated nearly as badly as "whilst," it is still less common in standard speech than "among."
AMORAL/IMMORAL
"Amoral" is a rather technical word meaning "unrelated to morality."When you mean to denounce someone's behavior, call it "immoralخليع،فاسد."
AMOUNT/NUMBER
This is a vast subject. I will try to limit the number of words I expend on it so as not to use up too great an amount of space. The confusion between the two categories of words relating to amount and number is so pervasive that those of us who still distinguish between them constitute an endangered species; but if you want to avoid our ire, learn the difference. Amount words relate to quantities of things that are
measured in bulk; number words to things that can be counted.In the second sentence above, it would have been improper to write "the amount of words" because words are discrete entities which can be counted, or numbered.Here is a handy chart to distinguish the two categories of words:
amount vs. number
quantity vs. number
little vs. few
less vs. fewer
much vs. many
You can eat fewer cookies, but you drink less milk. If you eat too many cookies, people will probably think you've had too much dessert. If the thing being measured is being considered in countable units, then use number words. Even a substance which is considered in bulk can also be measured by number of units. For instance, you shouldn't drink too much wine, but you should also avoid drinking too many glasses of wine. Note that here you are counting glasses. They can be numbered.The most common mistake of this kind is to refer to an "amount" of people instead of a "number" of people.Just to confuse things, "more" can be used either way: you can eat more cookies and drink more milk.
AN HISTORIC/A HISTORIC
You should use "an" before a word beginning with an "H" only if the "H"is not pronounced: "An honest effort"; it's properly "a historic event"though many sophisticated speakers somehow prefer the sound of "an
historic," so that version is not likely to get you into any real trouble.
AND ALSO/AND,ALSO
"And also" is redundant; say just "and" or "also."
ANGEL/ANGLE
People who want to write about winged beings from Heaven often miscall them "angles." A triangle has three angles. The Heavenly Host is made of angels. Just remember the adjectival form: "angelic." If you pronounce it aloud you'll be reminded that the E comes before the L.
ANXIOUS/EAGER
Most people use "anxious"interchangeably with "eager," but its original meaning had to do with worrying,being full of anxiety. Perfectly correct phrases like, "anxious to please" obscure the nervous tension implicit in this word and lead people to say less correct things like"I'm anxious for Christmas morning to come so I can open my presents."Traditionalists frown on anxiety-free anxiousness. Say instead you are
eager for or looking forward to a happy event.
ANY
Instead of saying "he was the worst of any of the dancers," say "he was the worst of the dancers."
ANYMORE/ANY MORE
In the first place, the traditional (though now uncommon) spelling is as two words: "any more" as in "We do not sell bananas any more." In the second place, it should not be used at the beginning of a sentence as a synonym for "nowadays." In certain dialects of English it is common to utter phrases like "anymore you have to grow your own if you want really
ripe tomatoes," but this is guaranteed to jolt listeners who aren't used to it. Even if they can't quite figure out what's wrong, they'll feel that your speech is vaguely clunky and awkward. "Any more" always needs to be used as part of an expression of negation except in questions like"Do you have any more bananas?" Now you won't make that mistake any more, will you?
ANYTIME/ANY TIME
Though it is often compressed into a single word by analogy with"anywhere" and similar words, "any time" is traditionally a two-word phrase.
ANYWAYS/ANYWAY
"Anyways" at the beginning of a sentence usually indicates that the speaker has resumed a narrative thread: "Anyways, I told Matilda that guy was a lazy bum before she ever married him." It also occurs at the end of phrases and sentences, meaning "in any case": "He wasn't all that good-looking anyways." A slightly less rustic quality can be imparted to these sentences by substituting the more formal "anyway." Neither expression is a good idea in formal written English. The two-word phrase "any way" has many legitimate uses, however: "Is there any way to prevent the impending disaster?"
APART/A PART
Paradoxically, the one-word form implies separation while the two-word form implies union. Feuding roommates decide to live apart. Their time together may be a part of their life they will remember with some bitterness.
APOSTROPHES
First let's all join in a hearty curse of the grammarians who inserted the wretched apostrophe into possessives in the first place. It was all a mistake. Our ancestors used to write "Johns hat" meaning "the hat of John" without the slightest ambiguity. However, some time in the Renaissance certain scholars decided that the simple "s" of possession must have been formed out of a contraction of the more "proper" "John his hat." Since in English we mark contractions with an apostrophe, they did so, and we were stuck with the stupid "John's hat." Their error can be a handy reminder though: if you're not sure whether a noun ending in "s" should be followed by an apostrophe, ask yourself whether you could plausibly substitute "his" or "her" for the "s."The exception to this pattern is personal pronouns indicating possession like "his," "hers," and "its." For more on this point, see "its/it's."Get this straight once and for all: when the "s" is added to a word simply to make it a plural, no apostrophe is used (except in expressions where letters or numerals are treated like words, like "mind your P's and Q's" and "learn your ABC's").Apostrophes are also used to indicate omitted letters in real contractions: "do not" becomes "don't."Why can't we all agree to do away with the wretched apostrophe? Because its two uses--contraction and possession--have people so thoroughly confused that they are always putting in apostrophes where they don't belong, in simple plurals ("cucumber's for sale") and family names when they are referred to collectively ("the Smith's").The practice of putting improper apostrophes in family names on signs in front yards is an endless source of confusion. "The Brown's" is just plain wrong. (If you wanted to suggest "the residence of the Browns" you would have to write "Browns'," with the apostrophe after the "S," which is there to indicate a plural number, not as an indication of possession.) If you simply want to indicate that a family named Brown
lives here, the sign out front should read simply "The Browns." When a name ends in an "S" you need to add an "ES" to make it plural: "the Adamses."No apostrophes for simple plural names or names ending in "S," OK? I get irritated when people address me as "Mr. Brian's." What about when plural names are used to indicate possession? "The Browns' cat" is standard (the second "S" is "understood"), though some prefer "the Browns's cat." The pattern is the same with names ending in "S": "the Adamses' cat" or--theoretically--"the Adamses's cat," though that would be mighty awkward.It is not uncommon to see the "S" wrongly apostrophized even in verbs, as in the mistaken "He complain's a lot."
APPRAISE/APPRISE
When you estimate the value of something, you appraise it. When you inform people of a situation, you apprise them of it.
APROPOS/APPROPRIATE
"Apropos,"(anglicized from the French phrase "a propos") means relevant, connected with what has gone before; it should not be used as an all-purpose substitute for "appropriate."It would be inappropriate,for example,to say"Your tuxedo was perfectly apropos for the opera gala."
ARTIC/ARCTIC
Although some brand names have incorporated this popular error, remember that the Arctic Circle is an arc.By the way, Ralph Vaughan Williams called his suite drawn from the score of the film "Scott of the Antarctic,"the "Sinfonia Antartica," but that's Italian, not English.
AS FAR AS
Originally people used to say things like "As far as music is concerned,I especially love Baroque opera." Recently they have begun to drop the"is concerned" part of the phrase. Perhaps this shift was influenced by confusion with a similar phrase, "as for." "As for money, I don't have any," is fine; "As far as money, I don't have any," is clumsy.
AS FOLLOW/AS FOLLOWS
"My birthday requests are as follows." This standard phrase doesn't change number when the items to follow grow from one to many. It's never correct to say "as follow."
AS OF YET/YET
"As of yet" is a windy and pretentious substitute for plain old English "yet" or "as yet," an unjustified extension of the pattern in sentences like "as of Friday the 27th of May."
AS PER/IN ACCORDANCE WITH
"Enclosed is the shipment of #2 toggle bolts as per your order of June 14" writes the businessman, unaware that not only is the "as" redundant,he is sounding very old-fashioned and pretentious. The meaning is "in accordance with," or "in response to the request made;" but it is better to avoid these cumbersome substitutes altogether: "Enclosed is the shipment of bolts you ordered June 14."
ASOCIAL/ANTISOCIAL
Someone who doesn't enjoy socializing at parties might be described as either "asocial" or "antisocial"; but "asocial" is too mild a term to describe someone who commits an antisocial act like planting a bomb."Asocial" suggests indifference to or separation from society, whereas"anti-social" more often suggests active hostility toward society.
ASPECT/RESPECT
When used to refer to different elements of or perspectives on a thing or idea, these words are closely related, but not interchangeable.It's "in all respects," not "in all aspects." Similarly, one can say "in some respects" but not "in some aspects." One says "in this respect," not "in this aspect. " One looks at all "aspects" of an issue, not at all"respects."
ASSURE/ENSURE/INSURE
To "assure" a person of something is to make him or her confident of it.According to Associated Press style, to "ensure" that something happens is to make certain that it does, and to "insure" is to issue an insurance policy. Other authorities, however, consider "ensure" and "insure" interchangeable. To please conservatives, make the distinction.However, it is worth noting that in older usage these spellings were not clearly distinguished.European "life assurance" companies take the position that all policy-holders are mortal and someone will definitely collect, thus assuring heirs of some income. American companies tend to go with "insurance" for coverage of life as well as of fire, theft, etc.
ASTERICK/ASTERISK
Some people not only spell this word without the second S, they say it that way too. It comes from Greek asteriskos: "little star." Tisk, tisk, remember the "-isk"; "asterick" is icky.
ATM machine/ATM
"ATM" means "Automated Teller Machine," so if you say "ATM machine" you are really saying "Automated Teller Machine machine."
ATHIEST/ATHEIST
An atheist is the opposite of a theist. "Theos" is Greek for "god." Make sure the "TH" is followed immediately by an "E."
ATHLETE
Tired of people stereotyping you as a dummy just because you're a jock? One way to impress them is to pronounce "athlete" properly, with just two syllables, as "ATH-leet" instead of using the common mispronunciation "ATH-uh-leet."
AUGUR/AUGER
An augur was an ancient Roman prophet, and as a verb the word means"foretell"--"their love augurs well for a successful marriage." Don't mix this word up with "auger," a tool for boring holes. Some people mishear the phrase "augurs well" as "all goes well" and mistakenly use that instead.
AURAL/ORAL
"Aural" has to do with things you hear, "oral" with things you say, or relating to your mouth.
AVOCATION/VOCATION
Your avocation is just your hobby; don't mix it up with your job: your vocation.
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, to be avoided 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 Paulson.
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 never contain backslashes.Substituting one for the other makes the address inoperable.
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."
BARB WIRE, BOB WIRE/BARBED WIRE
In some parts of the country this prickly stuff is commonly called "barb wire" or even "bob wire." When writing for a general audience, stick with the standard "barbed wire."
BARE/BEAR
There are actually three words here. The simple one is the big growly creature (unless you prefer the Winnie-the-Pooh type). Hardly anyone past the age of ten gets that one wrong. The problem is the other two.Stevedores bear burdens on their backs and mothers bear children. Both mean "carry" (in the case of mothers, the meaning has been extended from carrying the child during pregnancy to actually giving birth). But strippers bare their bodies--sometimes bare-naked. The confusion between this latter verb and "bear" creates many unintentionally amusing sentences; so if you want to entertain your readers while convincing them that you are a dolt, by all means mix them up. "Bear with me," the standard expression, is a request for forbearance or patience. "Bare with me" would be an invitation to undress. "Bare" has an adjectival form: "The pioneers stripped the forest bare."
BASICLY/BASICALLY
There are "-ly" words and "-ally" words, and you basically just have to memorize which is which. But "basically" is very much overused and is often better avoided in favor of such expressions as "essentially,"
"fundamentally," or "at heart."
BAZAAR/BIZARRE
A "bazaar" is a market where miscellaneous goods are sold. "Bizarre," in contrast, is an adjective meaning "strange," "weird." Let all those As in "bazaar" remind you that this is a Persian word denoting traditional
markets.
BEAUROCRACY/BUREAUCRACY
The French bureaucrats from whom we get this word worked at their bureaus (desks, spelled "bureaux" in French) in what came to be known as bureaucracies.
BECKON CALL/BECK AND CALL
This is a fine example of what linguists call "popular etymology."People don't understand the origins of a word or expression and make one up based on what seems logical to them. "Beck" is just an old shortened version of "beckon." If you are at people's beck and call it means they can summon you whenever they want: either by gesture (beck) or speech(call).
FROM THE BEGINNING OF TIME
Stephen Hawking writes about the beginning of time, but few other people do.People who write "from the beginning of time" or "since time began" are usually being lazy. Their grasp of history is vague, so they resort to these broad, sweeping phrases.Almost never is this usage literally accurate: people have not fallen in love since time began, for instance, because people arrived relatively late on the scene in the cosmic scheme of things. When I visited Ferrara several years ago I was interested to see that the whole population of the old city seemed to use bicycles for transportation, cars being banned from the central area. I asked how long this had been the custom and was told "We've ridden bicycles for centuries." Since the bicycle was only invented in the 1890s, I strongly doubted this (no, Leonardo da Vinci did not invent the bicycle--he just drew a picture of what one might look like). If you really don't know the appropriate period from which your subject dates, you could substitute a less silly but still vague phrase such as "for many years," or "for centuries"; but it's better simply to avoid historical statements if you don't know your history.See "today's modern society."
BEGS THE QUESTION
An argument that improperly assumes as true the very point the speaker is trying to argue for is said in formal logic to "beg the question."Here is an example of a question-begging argument: "This painting is trash because it is obviously worthless." The speaker is simply asserting the worthlessness of the work, not presenting any evidence to demonstrate that this is in fact the case. Since we never use "begs" with this odd meaning ("to improperly take for granted") in any other phrase, many people mistakenly suppose the phrase implies something quite different: that the argument demands that a question about it be asked. If you're not comfortable with formal terms of logic, it's best to stay away from this phrase, or risk embarrassing yourself.
BEHAVIORS
"Behavior" has always referred to patterns of action, including multiple actions,and did not have separate singular and plural forms until social scientists created them.Unless you are writing in psychology,sociology, anthropology, or a related field, it is better to avoid the use of "behaviors" in your writing.See also "peoples."
BEMUSE/AMUSE
When you bemuse someone, you confuse them, and not necessarily in an entertaining way. Don't confuse this word with "amuse."
BESIDE/BESIDES
"Besides" can mean "in addition to" as in "besides the puppy chow, Spot scarfed up the filet mignon I was going to serve for dinner." "Beside,"in contrast, usually means "next to." "I sat beside Cheryl all evening,but she kept talking to Jerry instead." Using "beside" for "besides," won't usually get you in trouble; but using "besides" when you mean"next to" will.
BETTER
When Chuck says "I better get my research started; the paper's due tomorrow," he means "I had better," abbreviated in speech to "I'd better." The same pattern is followed for "he'd better," "she'd better," and "they'd better."
BETWEEN
"Between 1939 to 1945" is obviously incorrect to most people--it should be "between 1939 and 1945"--but the error is not so obvious when it is written thus: "between 1939-1949." In this case, the "between" should be dropped altogether. Also incorrect are expressions like "there were between 15 to 20 people at the party." This should read "between 15 and 20 people."
BETWEEN YOU AND I/BETWEEN YOU AND ME
"Between you and me" is preferred in standard English.
See "I/me/myself."
BEYOND THE PAIL/BEYOND THE PALE
In Medieval Ireland, the area around Dublin was within the limit of English law, everything outside being considered as wild, dangerous territory. The boundary was marked by a fence called "the Pale" (compare with "palisade"). The expression "beyond the pale" came to mean"bizarre, beyond proper limits"; but people who don't understand the phrase often alter the last word to "pail."
BIAS/BIASED
A person who is influenced by a bias is biased. The expression is not"they're bias," but "they're biased." Also, many people say someone is "biased toward" something or someone when they mean biased against. To have a bias toward something is to be biased in its favor.See also "prejudice/prejudiced."
BIBLE
Whether you are referring to the Jewish Bible (the Torah plus the Prophets and the Writings) or the Protestant Bible (the Jewish Bible plus the New Testament), or the Catholic Bible (which contains everything in the Jewish and Protestant Bibles plus several other books and passages mostly written in Greek in its Old Testament), the word "Bible" must be capitalized. Even when used generically, as in, "The Qur'an is the Bible of the Muslims," the word is usually capitalized. Just remember that it is the title of a book, and book titles are normally capitalized. An oddity in English usage is, however, that "Bible" and the names of the various parts of the Bible are not italicized or placed between quotation marks."Biblical" may be capitalized or not, as you choose (or as your editor chooses).Those who wish to be sensitive to the Jewish authorship of the Jewish Bible may wish to use "Hebrew Bible" and "Christian Scriptures" instead of the traditionally Christian nomenclature: "Old Testament" and "New Testament." Modern Jewish scholars sometimes use the Hebrew acronym "Tanakh" to refer to their Bible, but this term is not generally understood by others.
BIWEEKLY/SEMIWEEKLY
Technically, a biweekly meeting occurs every two weeks and a semiweekly one occurs twice a week; but so few people get this straight that your club is liable to disintegrate unless you avoid these words in the newsletter and stick with "every other week" or "twice weekly." The same is true of "bimonthly" and" semimonthly," though "biennial" and "semi-annual" are less often confused with each other.
BLATANT
The classic meaning of "blatant" is "noisily conspicuous," but it has long been extended to any objectionable obviousness. A person engaging in blatant behavior is usually behaving in a highly objectionable manner, being brazen. Unfortunately, many people nowadays think that "blatant" simply means "obvious" and use it in a positive sense, as in "Kim wrote a blatantly brilliant paper." Use "blatant" or "blatantly" only when you think the people you are talking about should be ashamed of themselves.
BONAFIED/BONA FIDE
"Bona fide" is a Latin phrase meaning "in good faith," most often used to mean "genuine" today. It is often misspelled as if it were the past tense of an imaginary verb: "bonify."
BORN OUT OF/BORN OF
Write "my love of dance was born of my viewing old Ginger Rogers-Fred Astaire movies," not "born out of." The latter expression is probably substituted because of confusion with the expression "borne out" as in "my concerns about having another office party were borne out when Mr. Peabody spilled his beer into the fax machine." The only correct (if antiquated) use of "born out of" is in the phrase "born out of wedlock."
BORROW/LOAN
In some dialects it is common to substitute "borrow" for "loan" or"lend," as in "borrow me that hammer of yours, will you, Jeb?" In standard English the person providing an item can loan it; but theperson receiving it borrows it.For "loan" vs. "lend, see "Non-Errors."
BOTH/EACH
There are times when it is important to use "each" instead of "both."Few people will be confused if you say "I gave both of the boys a baseball glove," meaning "I gave both of the boys baseball gloves"because it is unlikely that two boys would be expected to share one glove; but you risk confusion if you say "I gave both of the boys $50."It is possible to construe this sentence as meaning that the boys shared the same $50 gift. "I gave each of the boys $50" is clearer.
BOUGHTEN/BOUGHT
"Bought" is the past tense of "buy," not "boughten." "Store-bought," a colloquial expression for "not home-made," is already not formal English; but it is not improved by being turned into "store-boughten."
BOURGEOIS
In the original French, a bourgeois was originally merely a free inhabitant of a "bourg," or town. Through a natural evolution it became the label for members of the property-owning class, then of the middle class. As an adjective it is used with contempt by bohemians and Marxists to label conservatives whose views are not sufficiently revolutionary. The class made up of bourgeois (which is both the singular and the plural form) is the bourgeoisie. Shaky spellers are prone to leave out the "E" from the middle because "eoi" is not a
natural combination in English; but these words have remarkably enough retained their French pronunciation: boorzhwah and boorzhwazee. The feminine form, "bourgeoise," is rarely encountered in English.
BOUYANT/BUOYANT
Buoys are buoyant. In the older pronunciation of "buoy" as "bwoy" this unusual spelling made more sense. Now that the pronunciation has shifted to "boy" we have to keep reminding ourselves that the U comes before the O.
BRAND NAMES
Popular usage frequently converts brand names into generic ones, with the generic name falling into disuse. Few people call gelatin dessert mix anything other than "Jell-O," which helps to explain why it's hard to find Nabisco's Royal Gelatin on the grocery shelves. All facial tissues are "Kleenex" to the masses, all photocopies "Xeroxes." Such commercial fame is, however, a two-edged sword: sales may be lost as well as gained from such over-familiarity. Few people care whether their"Frisbee" is the genuine Wham-O brand original or an imitation. Some of these terms lack staying power: "Hoover" used to be synonymous with "vacuum cleaner," and the brand name was even transmuted into a verb:"to hoover" (these uses are still common in the UK). Most of the time this sort of thing is fairly harmless, but if you are a motel operator offering a different brand of whirlpool bath in your rooms, better not call it a "Jacuzzi."
BRANG, BRUNG/BROUGHT
In some dialects the past tense of "bring" is "brang" and "brung" is the past participle; but in standard English both are "brought."
BREACH/BREECH
Substitute a K for the CH in "breach" to remind you that the word has to do with breakage: you can breach (break through) a dam or breach(violate the terms of) a contract. As a noun, a breach is something broken off or open, as in a breach in a military line during combat. "Breech" however, refers to rear ends, as in "breeches" (slang spelling "britches"). Thus "breech cloth," "breech birth," or "breech-loading gun.""Once more into the breach, dear friends," means "let's fill up the gap in the line of battle," not "let's reach into our pants again."
BREATH/BREATHE
When you need to breathe, you take a breath. "Breathe" is the verb, "breath" the noun.
BRING/TAKE
When you are viewing the movement of something from the point of arrival, use "bring": "When you come to the potluck, please bring a green salad." Viewing things from the point of departure, you should use "take": "When you go to the potluck, take a bottle of wine."
BUILD OFF OF/BUILD ON
You build "on" your earlier achievements, you don't build "off of" them.

BUMRUSH/BUM'S RUSH
A 1987 recording by the rap group Public Enemy popularized the slang term "bumrush" as a verb meaning "to crash into a show hoping to see it for free," evidently by analogy with an earlier usage in which it meant "a police raid." In the hip-hop world to be "bumrushed" (also spelled as two words) has evolved a secondary meaning, "to get beaten up by a group of lowlifes, or 'bums'." However, older people are likely to take all of these as mistakes for the traditional expression "bum's rush," as in "Give that guy the bum's rush," i.e. throw him out unceremoniously, treating him like an unwanted bum. It was traditionally the bum being
rushed, whereas in the newer expressions the bums are doing the rushing. It's good to be aware of your audience when you use slang expressions like this, to avoid baffling listeners.Side note: Britons laugh themselves silly when they see Americans wandering around in sportswear with "B.U.M." plastered in huge letters across their chests. "Bum" means "rear end" in the U.K.
BUTT NAKED/BUCK NAKED
The standard expression is "buck naked," and the contemporary "butt naked" is an error that will get you laughed at in some circles.However, it might be just as well if the new form were to triumph.Originally a "buck" was a dandy, a pretentious,overdressed show-off of a man. Condescendingly applied in the U.S. to Native Americans and black slaves, it quickly acquired negative connotations. To the historically aware speaker, "buck naked" conjures up stereotypical images of naked "savages" or--worse--slaves laboring naked on plantations. Consider using the alternative expression "stark naked."
BY/'BYE/BUY
These are probably confused with each other more often through haste than through actual ignorance, but "by" is the common preposition in phrases like "you should know by now." It can also serve a number of other functions, but the main point here is not to confuse "by" with the other two spellings: "'bye" is an abbreviated form of "goodbye" (preferably with an apostrophe before it to indicate the missing syllable), and "buy" is the verb meaning "purchase." "Buy" can also be a noun, as in "that was a great buy." The term for the position of a competitor who advances to the next level of a tournament without playing is a "bye." All others are "by."
CALL THE QUESTION
This is more a matter of parliamentary procedure than of correct English, but people are generally confused about what "calling the question" means. They often suppose that it means simply "let's vote!"and some even imagine that it is necessary to call for the question before a vote may be taken. You even see deferential meeting chairs pleading, "Would someone like to call for the question?"But "calling the question" when done properly should be a rare occurrence. If debate has dragged on longer than you feel is really warranted, you can "call the question,"at which time the chair has to immediately ask those assembled to vote to determine whether or not
debate should be cut off or continue. The motion to call the question is itself not debatable. If two-thirds of those voting agree that the discussion should have died some time ago, they will support the call.Then, and only then, will the vote be taken on the question itself. Potentially this parliamentary maneuver would be a great way to shut down windy speakers who insist on prolonging a discussion when a clear consensus has already been arrived at; but since so few people understand what it means, it rarely works as intended.
Chairs: when someone "calls the question," explain what the phrase means and ask if that is what's intended. Other folks: you'll get further most of the time just saying "Let's vote!"
CALLOUS/CALLUSED
Calling someone callous is a way of metaphorically suggesting a lack of feeling similar to that caused by calluses on the skin; but if you are speaking literally of the tough build-up on a person's hand or feet, the word you need is "callused."
CALLS FOR/PREDICTS
Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them?
Shakespeare: Henry IV, Part 1 Newspeople constantly joke that the weather service is to blame for the weather, so we shouldn't be surprised when they tell us that the forecast "calls for rain" when what they mean is that it "predicts" rain. Remember, wherever you live, the weather is uncalled for.
CALVARY/CAVALRY
"Calvary," always capitalized, is the hill on which Jesus was crucified. It means "hill of skulls." Soldiers mounted on horseback are cavalry.
CANON/CANNON
"Canon" used to be such a rare word that there was no temptation to confuse it with "cannon": a large piece of artillery. The debate over the literary canon (a list of officially-approved works) and the popularity of Pachelbel's Canon (an imitative musical form commonly called a round) have changed all that--confusion is rampant. Just remember that the big gun is a "cannon." All the rest are "canons." Note that there are metaphorical uses of "cannon" for objects shaped like large guns, such as a horse's "cannon bone." By the way, Pachelbel's Canon is not a canon (round) at all; it is a passacaglia, a musical composition built on a set of variations over a repeating bass line.Note that there are metaphorical uses of "cannon" for objects shaped like large guns, such as a horse's "cannon bone."
CANNOT/CAN NOT
These two spellings are largely interchangeable, but by far the most common is "cannot"; and you should probably use it except when you want to be emphatic: "No, you can not wash the dog in the Maytag."See also "may/might."
CAPITAL/CAPITOL
A "capitol" is always a building. Cities and all other uses are spelled with an A in the last syllable. Would it help to remember that Congress with an O meets in the Capitol Building with another O?
CARAMEL/CARMEL
Take Highway 1 south from Monterey to reach the charming seaside town of Carmel, of which Clint Eastwood was formerly mayor. Dissolve sugar in a little water and cook it down until the sugar turns brown to create caramel. A nationwide chain uses the illiterate spelling
"Karmelkorn(TM)," which helps to perpetuate the confusion between these two words.
CARAT/CARET/CARROT/KARAT
"Carrots" are those crunchy orange vegetables Bugs Bunny is so fond of, but this spelling gets misused for the less familiar words which are pronounced the same but have very different meanings. Precious stones like diamonds are weighed in carats. The same word is used to express the proportion of pure gold in an alloy, though in this usage it is sometimes spelled "karat" (hence the abbreviation "20K gold"). A caret is a proofreader's mark showing where something needs to be inserted,shaped like a tiny pitched roof. It looks rather like a French circumflex, but is usually distinct from it on modern computer keyboards. Carets are extensively used in computer programming. Just remember, if you can't eat it, it's not a carrot.
CARING
Most people are comfortable referring to "caring parents," but speaking of a "caring environment" is jargon, not acceptable in formal English.The environment may contain caring people, but it does not itself do the
caring.
CATCH-22/CATCH
People familiar with Joseph Heller's novel are irritated when they see "Catch-22" used to label any simple hitch or problem rather than this sort of circular dilemma: you can't get published until you have an agent, and you can't get an agent until you've been published. "There's
a catch" will do fine for most other situations.
CD-ROM disk/CD-ROM
"CD-ROM" stands for "compact disc, read-only memory," so adding another "disc" or "disk" is redundant. The same goes for "DVD" –originally "Digital Video Disc"-even though some manufacturers now claim the initials stand for "Digital Versatile Disc." Don't say "give me that DVD disk," just "give me that DVD."
CEASAR/CAESAR
Did you know that German "Kaiser" is derived from the Latin "Caesar"?The Germans kept the authentic hard "K" sound of the initial letter in the Latin word. We're stuck with our illogical pronunciation, so we have to memorize the correct spelling. (The Russians messed up the pronunciation as thoroughly as the English, with their "Czar.") Thousands of menus are littered with "Ceasar salads" throughout America--named after Tijuana restaurateur Caesar Cardini, not the emperor (but they both spelled their names the same way). Julius Caesar's family name was "Julius"; he made the name "Caesar" famous all by himself.
CELIBATE/CHASTE
Believe it or not, you can be celibate without being chaste, and chaste without being celibate. A celibate person is merely unmarried, usually (but not always) because of a vow of celibacy. The traditional assumption is that such a person is not having sex with anyone, which leads many to confuse the word with "chaste," denoting someone who does not have illicit sex. A woman could have wild sex twice a day with her lawful husband and technically still be chaste, though the word is more
often used to imply a general abstemiousness from sex and sexuality. You can always amuse your readers by misspelling the latter word as "chased."
CELTIC
Because the Boston Celtics basketball team pronounces its name as if it began with an S, Americans are prone to use this pronunciation of the word as it applies to the Bretons, Cornish, Welsh, Irish and Scots; but the dominant pronunciation among sophisticated US speakers is "keltik." Just remember: "Celts in kilts." Interestingly, the Scots themselves often use the "S" pronunication, notably in referring to the soccer team, "Glasgow Celtic."
CEMENT/CONCRETE
People in the building trades distinguish cement (the gray powder that comes in bags) from concrete (the combination of cement, water, sand, and gravel which becomes hard enough in your driveway to drive your car on). In contexts where technical precision matters, it's probably better to speak of a "concrete sidewalk" rather than of a "cement sidewalk."

CENTER AROUND/CENTER ON, REVOLVE AROUND
Two perfectly good expressions--"center on" and "revolve around"—get conflated in this nonsensical neologism. When a speaker says his address will "center around the topic of" whatever, my interest level plummets.
CENTER OF ATTRACTION/CENTER OF ATTENTION
"Center of attraction" makes perfect sense, but the standard saying is "center of attention."
CENTS
On a sign displaying a cost of twenty-nine cents for something the price can be written as ".29," as "$.29," or as "29c," but don't combine the two forms. ".29c" makes no sense, and "$.29c" is worse.
CHAI TEA/CHAI
"Chai" is simply the word for "tea" in Hindi and several other Asian languages. The spicy, milky variety known in India as "masala chai" is called "chai" in the U.S. Since Americans likely to be attracted by the word "chai" already know it's a tea-based drink, it's both redundant and pointless to call the product "chai tea."
CHAISE LONGUE
When English speakers want to be elegant they commonly resort to French, often mangling it in the process. The entree [acute accent over the second E], the dish served before the plat, usurped the latter's position as main dish. And how in the world did French "lingerie" (originally meaning linen goods of all sorts, later narrowed to underwear only) pronounced--roughly--"lanzheree" come to be English "lawnzheray"? Quelle horreur! "Chaise longue" (literally "long chair"), pronounced--roughly--"shezz lohng" with a hard G on the end became in English "shayz long." Many speakers, however, confuse French chaise with English "chase" and French longue with English "lounge" (understandable since the article in question is a sort of couch or lounge), resulting in the mispronunciation "chase lounge." We may imagine the French as chasing each other around their lounges, but a chaise is just a chair.
CHEMICALS
Markets offering "organic" produce claim it has been raised "without chemicals." News stories fret about "chemicals in our water supply." This common error in usage indicates quite clearly the lamentable level of scientific literacy in our population. Everything on earth save a few stray subatomic particles and various kinds of energy (and--if you believe in it--pure spirit) is composed of chemicals. Pure water consists of the chemical dihydrogen oxide. Vitamins and minerals are chemicals. In the broadest sense, even simple elements like nitrogen can be called chemicals. Writers who use this term sloppily contribute to the obfuscation of public debate over such serious issues as pollution and malnutrition.
CHICANO/LATINO/HISPANIC
"Chicano" means "Mexican-American," and not all the people denoted by this term like it. When speaking of people from various other Spanish-speaking countries, "Chicano" is an error for "Latino" or "Hispanic." Only "Hispanic" can include people with a Spanish as well as with a Latin American heritage; and only "Latino" could logically include Portuguese-speaking Brazilians, though that is rarely done.
CHUNK/CHUCK
In casual conversation, you may get by with saying "Chuck [throw] me that monkey wrench, will you?" But you will mark yourself as illiterate beyond mere casualness by saying instead "Chunk me that wrench." This is a fairly common substitution in some dialects of American English.
CHURCH
Catholics routinely refer to their church as the Church, with a capital "C." This irritates the members of other churches, but is standard usage. When "Church" stands by itself (that is, not as part of a name like "First Methodist Church") capitalize it only to mean "Roman Catholic Church."
CITE/SITE/SIGHT
You cite the author in an endnote; you visit a Web site or the site of the crime, and you sight your beloved running toward you in slow motion on the beach (a sight for sore eyes!).
CLEANUP/CLEAN UP
"Cleanup" is usually a noun: "the cleanup of the toxic waste site will cost billions of dollars." "Clean" is a verb in the phrase "clean up": "You can go to the mall after you clean up your room."
CLICHE/CLICHED
One often hears young people say "That movie was so cliche!" "Cliche" is a noun, meaning an overfamiliar phrase or image. A work containing cliches is cliched.
CLICK/CLIQUE
Students lamenting the division of their schools into snobbish factions often misspell "clique" as "click." In the original French, "clique" was synonymous with "claque"--an organized group of supporters at a theatrical event who tried to prompt positive audience response by clapping enthusiastically.
CLOSE/CLOTHES
Because the TH in "clothes" is seldom pronounced distinctly, it is often misspelled "close." Just remember the TH in "clothing," where it is obvious. Clothes are made of cloth. Rags can also be cloths (without an E).
COARSE/COURSE
"Coarse" is always an adjective meaning "rough, crude." Unfortunately, this spelling is often mistakenly used for a quite different word, "course," which can be either a verb or a noun (with several different meanings).
COLOMBIA/COLUMBIA
Although both are named after Columbus, the U.S. capital is the District of Columbia, whereas the South American country is Colombia.
COMMAS
What follows is not a comprehensive guide to the many uses of commas, but a quick tour of the most common errors involving them.The first thing to note is that the comma often marks a brief pause in the flow of a sentence, and it helpfully marks off one phrase from another. If you write "I plan to see Shirley and Fred will go shopping while we visit" your reader is naturally going to think the announced visit will be to both Shirley and Fred until the second half surprises them into realizing that Fred is not involved in this visit at all. A simple comma makes everything clear: "I plan to see Shirley, and Fred will go shopping while we visit." People who read and write little have trouble with commas if they deal with English primarily as a spoken language, where emphasis and rhythm mark out phrases. It takes a conscious effort to translate the rhythm of a sentence into writing using punctuation. Not many people other than creative writers have the occasion to write dialogue, but it is surprising how few understand that introductory words and phrases have to be separated from the main body of speech in direct address: "Well, what did you think of that?" "Good evening, Mr. Nightingale."Commas often help set off interrupting matter within sentences. The proper term for this sort of word or phrase is "parenthetical." There are three ways to handle parenthetical matter. For asides sharply interrupting the flow of the sentence (think of your own examples) use parenthesis marks. For many other kinds of fairly strong interjections dashes--if you know how to type them properly--work best. Milder
interruptions, like this, are nicely set off with commas. Many writers don't realize that they are setting off a phrase, so they begin with the first comma but omit the second, which should conclude the parenthetical
matter. Check for this sort of thing in your proofreading.A standard use for commas is in separating the items in a series: "cats, dogs, and gerbils." Authorities differ as to whether that final comma before the "and" is required. Follow the style recommended by your teacher, editor, or boss when you have to please them; but if you are on your own, I suggest you use the final comma. It often removes ambiguities.A different kind of series has to do with a string of adjectives modifying a single noun: "He was a tall, strong, handsome, but stupid man." But when the adjectives modify each other instead of the noun,then no comma is used: "He was wearing a garish bright green tie." A simple test: if you could logically insert "and" between the adjectives in a series like this, you need commas. English teachers refer to sentences where clauses requiring some stronger punctuation are instead lightly pasted together with a comma as "comma splices." Here's an example: "He brought her a dozen roses, he had forgotten she was allergic to them." In this sentence the reader needs to be brought up sharply and reoriented mid-sentence with a semicolon; a comma is too weak to do the trick. Here's a worse example of a comma splice: "It was a beautiful day outside, she remembered just in time to grab the coffee mug." There is no obvious logical connection between the two parts of this sentence. They don't belong in the same sentence at all. The comma should be a period, with the rest being turned into a separate sentence.Some writers insert commas seemingly at random: "The unabridged dictionary, was used mainly to press flowers." When you're not certain a comma is required, read your sentence aloud. If it doesn't seem natural to insert a slight pause or hesitation at the point marked by the comma, it should probably be omitted.See also "colons/semicolons" and "hyphens & dashes."
COMPARE AND CONTRAST
Hey kids, here's a chance to catch your English teacher in a redundancy! To compare two things is to note their similarities and their differences. There's no need to add "and contrast."
COMPARE TO/COMPARE WITH
These are sometimes interchangeable, but when you are stressing similarities between the items compared, the most common word is "to": "She compared his home-made wine to toxic waste." If you are examining both similarities and differences, use "with": "The teacher compared Steve's exam with Robert's to see whether they had cheated."
COMPLEMENT/COMPLIMENT
Originally these two spellings were used interchangeably, but they have come to be distinguished from each other in modern times. Most of the time the word people intend is "compliment": nice things said about someone ("She paid me the compliment of admiring the way I shined my shoes."). "Complement," much less common, has a number of meanings associated with matching or completing. Complements supplement each other, each adding something the others lack, so we can say that "Alice's love for entertaining and Mike's love for washing dishes complement each other." Remember, if you're not making nice to someone,the word is "complement."
COMPLEMENTARY/COMPLIMENTARY
When paying someone a compliment like "I love what you've done with the kitchen!" you're being complimentary. A free bonus item is also a complimentary gift. But colors that go well with each other are complementary.
COMPRISED OF/COMPOSED OF
Although "comprise" is used primarily to mean "to include," it is also often stretched to mean "is made up of"--a meaning that some critics object to. The most cautious route is to avoid using "of" after any form of "comprise" and substitute "is composed of" in sentences like this: "Jimmy's paper on Marxism was composed entirely of sentences copied off the Marx Brothers Home Page."
COMPTROLLER
Although it is less and less often heard, the traditional pronunciation of "comptroller" is identical with "controller." The Oxford English Dictionary, indeed, considers "comptroller" to have begun as a misspelling of "controller"--back in the 16th century.
CONCENSUS/CONSENSUS
You might suppose that this word had to do with taking a census of the participants in a discussion, but it doesn't. It is a good old Latin word that has to do with arriving at a common sense of the meeting, and the fourth letter is an "S."
CONCERTED EFFORT
One cannot make a "concerted effort" all by one's self. To work "in concert" is to work together with others. The prefix "con-" means "with."
CONFLICTED/CONFLICTING FEELINGS
Phrases like "conflicted feelings" or "I feel conflicted" are considered jargon by many, and out of place in formal writing. Use "I have conflicting feelings" instead, or write "I feel ambivalent."
CONFUSIONISM/CONFUCIANISM
This spelling error isn't exactly an English error, but it's very common among my students. Confucius is the founder of Confucianism. His name is not spelled "Confucious," and his philosophy is not called "Confusionism." When you spot the confusion in the latter term, change it quickly to "Confucianism."
CONGRADULATIONS/CONGRATULATIONS
I fear that all too many people are being"congradulated" for graduating from high school who don't know that this word should be spelled "congratulations." Try a search for this misspelling on your favorite Web search engine and be prepared to be astonished.
CONTACT
Although some still object to "contact" as a verb, sentences like "contact me when the budget is ready" are now standard English.
CONTINUAL/CONTINUOUS
"Continuous" refers to actions which are uninterrupted: "My upstairs neighbor played his stereo continuously from 6:00 PM to 3:30 AM." Continual actions, however, need not be uninterrupted, only repeated: "My father continually urges me to get a job."
CONVERSATE/CONVERSE
"Conversate" is what is called a "back-formation" based on the noun "conversation." But the verb for this sort of thing is "converse."
CORE/CORPS/CORPSE
Apples have cores. A corps is an organization, like the Peace Corps. A corpse is a dead body, a carcass.
COLLABORATE/CORROBORATE
People who work together on a project "collaborate" (share their labor);people who support your testimony as a witness "corroborate" (strengthen by confirming) it.
COLONS/SEMICOLONS
Colons have a host of uses, but they mostly have in common that the colon acts to connect what precedes it with what follows. Think of the two dots of a colon as if they were stretched out to form an equal sign, so that you get cases like this: "he provided all the ingredients: sugar, flour, butter, and vanilla."There are a few exceptions to this pattern, however. One unusual use of colons is in between the chapter and verses of a Biblical citation, for instance, "Matthew 6:5." In bibliographic citation a colon separates the city from the publisher: "New York: New Directions, 1979." It also separates minutes from hours in times of day when given in figures: "8:35." It is incorrect to substitute a semicolon in any of these cases.Think of the semicolon as erecting a little barrier with that dug-in comma under the dot; semicolons always imply separation rather than connection. A sentence made up of two distinct parts whose separation needs to be emphasized may do so with a semicolon: "Mary moved to Seattle; she was sick of getting sunburned in Los Angeles." When a compound sentence contains commas within one or more of its clauses, you have to escalate to a semicolon to separate the clauses themselves: "It was a mild, deliciously warm spring day; and Mary decided to walk to the fair." The other main use of semicolons is to separate one series of items from another--a series within a series, if you will: "The issues discussed by the board of directors were many: the loud, acrimonious complaints of the stockholders; the abrupt, devastating departure of the director; and the startling, humiliating discovery that he had absconded with half the company's assets." Any time the phrases which make up a series contain commas, for whatever reason, they need to be separated by semicolons.Many people are so terrified of making the wrong choice that they try to avoid colons and semicolons altogether, but I'm afraid this just can't be done. Formal writing requires their use, and it's necessary to learn the correct patterns.
CONTRASTS/CONTRASTS WITH
"With" must not be omitted in sentences like this: "Julia's enthusiasm for rugby contrasts with Cheryl's devotion to chess."
COULD CARE LESS/COULDN'T CARE LESS
Cliches are especially prone to scrambling because they become meaningless through overuse. In this case an expression which originally meant "it would be impossible for me to care less than I do because I do not care at all" is rendered senseless by being transformed into the now-common "I could care less." Think about it: if you could care less, that means you care some. The original already drips sarcasm, so it's pointless to argue that the newer version is "ironic." People who misuse this phrase are just being careless.
COULD OF, SHOULD OF, WOULD OF/COULD HAVE, SHOULD HAVE, WOULD HAVE
This is one of those errors typically made by a person more familiar with the spoken than the written form of English. A sentence like "I would have gone if anyone had given me free tickets" is normally spoken in a slurred way so that the two words "would have" are not distinctly separated, but blended toget her into what is properly rendered "would've." Seeing that "V" tips you off right away that "would've" is a contraction of "would have." But many people hear "would of" and that's
how they write it. Wrong.Note that "must of" is similarly an error for "must have."
COUNCIL/COUNSEL/CONSUL
The first two words are pronounced the same but have distinct meanings. An official group that deliberates, like the Council on Foreign Relations, is a "council"; all the rest are "counsels": your lawyer, advice, etc. A consul is a local representative of a foreign government.
COUPLE/COUPLE OF
Instead of "she went with a couple sleazy guys before she met me," write "a couple of guys" if you are trying to sound a bit more formal. Leaving the "of" out is a casual, slangy pattern.
CREDIBLE/CREDULOUS
"Credible" means "believable" or "trustworthy." It is also used in a more abstract sense, meaning something like "worthy": "She made a credible lyric soprano." Don't confuse "credible" with "credulous," a much rarer word which means "gullible." "He was incredulous" means "he didn't believe it" whereas "he was incredible" means "he was wonderful"(but use the latter expression only in casual speech).See also "incredible."
CRESCENDO/CLIMAX
When something is growing louder or more intense, it is going through a crescendo (from an Italian word meaning "growing"). Traditionalists object to its use when you mean "climax." A crescendo of cheers by an enthusiastic audience grows until it reaches a climax, or peak "Crescendo" as a verb is common, but also disapproved by many authorities. Instead of "the orchestra crescendos," write "the orchestra plays a crescendo."
CRITERIA/CRITERION
There are several words with Latin or Greek roots whose plural forms ending in A are constantly mistaken for singular ones. See, for instance, data and media. You can have one criterion or many criteria. Don't confuse them.
CRITICISM
Beginning literature or art history students are often surprised to learn that in such contexts "criticism" can be a neutral term meaning simply "evaluating a work of literature or art." A critical article about The Color Purple can be entirely positive about Alice Walker's novel. Movie critics write about films they like as well as about films they dislike: writing of both kinds is called "criticism."
CRITIQUE/CRITICIZE
A critique is a detailed evaluation of something. The formal way to request one is "give me your critique," though people often say informally "critique this"--meaning "evaluate it thoroughly." But "critique" as a verb is not synonymous with "criticize" and should not be routinely substituted for it. "Josh critiqued my backhand" means Josh evaluated your tennis technique but not necessarily that he found it lacking. "Josh criticized my backhand" means that he had a low opinion of it.You can write criticism on a subject, but you don't criticize on something, you just criticize it.
CRUCIFICTION/CRUCIFIXION
One might suppose that this common misspelling was a product of skepticism were it not for the fact that it most often occurs in the writings of believers. The word should make clear that Jesus was affixed to the cross, not imply that his killing is regarded as a fiction.
CURRANT/CURRENT
"Current" is an adjective having to do with the present time, and can also be a noun naming a thing that, like time, flows: electrical current, currents of public opinion. "Currant" refers only to little fruits.

CUT AND DRY/CUT AND DRIED
Many people mishear the standard expression meaning "routine" as "cut and dry." Although this form is listed in the Oxford English Dictionary,it is definitely less common in sophisticated writing. The dominant modern usage is "cut and dried." When used to modify a noun, it must be hyphenated: "cut-and-dried plan."
CUT AND PASTE/COPY AND PASTE
Because "cut and paste" is a familiar phrase, many people say it when they mean "copy and paste" in a computer context. This can lead to disastrous results if followed literally by an inexpert person. If you mean to tell someone to duplicate something rather than move it, say "copy." And when you are moving bits of computer information from one place to another the safest sequence is often to copy the original, paste the copy elsewhere, and only then delete (cut) the original.
DAMPED/DAMPENED
When the vibration of a wheel is reduced it is damped, but when you drive through a puddle your tire is dampened. "Dampened" always has to do with wetting, if only metaphorically: "The announcement that Bob's parents were staying home after all dampened the spirits of the party-goers." The parents are being a wet blanket.
DATA/DATUM
There are several words with Latin or Greek roots whose plural forms ending in A are constantly mistaken for singular ones. See, for instance, "criteria" and "media." "Datum" is so rare now in English that people may assume "data" has no singular form. Many American usage communities, however, use "data" as a singular and some have even gone so far as to invent "datums" as a new plural. This is a case where you need to know the patterns of your context. An engineer or scientist used to writing "the data is" may well find that the editors of a journal or publishing house insist on changing this phrase to "the data are." Usage is so evenly split in this case that there is no automatic way of determining which is right; but writers addressing an international audience of nonspecialists would probably be safer treating "data" as plural.
DECIMATE/ANNIHILATE, SLAUGHTER, ETC.
This comes under the heading of the truly picky. Despite the fact that most dictionaries have caved in, some of us still remember that when the Romans killed one out of every ten (decem) soldiers in a rebellious group as an example to the others, they decimated them. People sensitive to the roots of words are uncomfortably reminded of that ten percent figure when they see the word used instead to mean "annihilate," "obliterate," etc. You can usually get away with using "decimate" to mean "drastically reduce in numbers," but you're taking a bigger risk when you use it to mean "utterly wipe out."
DEEP-SEEDED/DEEP-SEATED
Those who pine for the oral cultures of Ye Olden Dayes can rejoice as we enter an era where many people are unfamiliar with common expressions in print and know them only by hearsay.* The result is mistakes like "deep
seeded." The expression has nothing to do with a feeling being planted deep within one, but instead refers to its being seated firmly within one's breast: "My aversion to anchovies is deep-seated." Compounding their error, most people who misuse this phrase leave the hyphen out. Tennis players may be seeded, but not feelings.*The notion that English should be spelled as it is pronounced is widespread, but history is against the reformers in most cases. Pronunciation is often a poor guide to spelling. The veneration of certain political movements for the teaching of reading through phonics is nicely caricatured by a t-shirt slogan I've seen: "Hukt awn fonix."
DEFENCE/DEFENSE
If you are writing for a British publication, use "defence," but the American "defense" has the advantages of greater antiquity, similarity to the words from which it was derived, and consistency with words like "defensible."
DEFINATE/DEFINITE
Any vowel in an unstressed position can sometimes have the sound linguists call a "schwa:" "uh." The result is that many people tend to guess when they hear this sound, but "definite" is definitely the right spelling. Also common are various misspellings of "definitely," including the bizarre "defiantly."
DEFUSE/DIFFUSE
You defuse a dangerous situation by treating it like a bomb and removing its fuse; to diffuse, in contrast, is to spread something out: "Bob's cheap cologne diffused throughout the room, wrecking the wine-tasting."
DEGRADE/DENIGRATE/DOWNGRADE
Many people use "downgrade" instead of "denigrate" to mean "defame,slander." "Downgrade" is entirely different in meaning. When something is downgraded, it is lowered in grade (usually made worse), not just considered worse. "When the president of the company fled to Rio with fifteen million dollars, its bonds were downgraded to junk bond status.""Degrade" is much more flexible in meaning. It can mean to lower in status or rank (like "downgrade") or to corrupt or make contemptible; but it always has to do with actual reduction in value rather than mere insult, like "denigrate." Most of the time when people use "downgrade" they would be better off instead using "insult," "belittle," or "sneer at."
DEJA VU
In French "deja vu" means literally "already seen" and usually refers to something excessively familiar. However the phrase, sans accent marks, was introduced into English mainly as a psychological term indicating the sensation one experiences when feeling that something has been experienced before when this is in fact not the case. If you feel strongly that you have been previously in a place where you know for a fact you have never before been, you are experiencing a sensation of deja vu. English usage is rapidly sliding back toward the French meaning, confusing listeners who expect the phrase to refer to a false sensation rather than a factual familiarity, as in "Congress is in session and talking about campaign finance reform, creating a sense of deja vu." In this relatively new sense, the phrase has the same associations as the colloquial "same old, same old" (increasingly often misspelled "sameo, sameo" by illiterates).Baseball player Yogi Berra famously mangled this expression in his redundant statement "It seems like it's deja vu all over again." Over the ensuing decades clever writers would allude to this blunder in their prose by repeating the phrase "deja vu all over again," assuming that their readers would catch the allusion and share a chuckle with them. Unfortunately, recently the phrase has been worn to a frazzle and become all but substituted for the original, so that not only has it become a very tired joke indeed--a whole generation has grown up thinking that Berra's malapropism is the correct form of the expression. Give it a rest, folks!
DEMOCRAT PARTY/DEMOCRATIC PARTY
Certain Republican members of Congress have played the childish game in recent years of referring to the opposition as the "Democrat Party," hoping to imply that Democrats are not truly democratic. They succeed only in making themselves sound ignorant, and so will you if you imitate them. The name is "Democratic Party."
DEPENDS/DEPENDS ON
In casual speech, we say "it depends who plays the best defense"; but in writing follow "depends" with "on."
DEPRECIATE/DEPRECATE
To depreciate something is to actually make it worse, whereas to deprecate something is simply to speak or think of it in a manner that demonstrates your low opinion of it.
DESERT/DESSERT
Perhaps these two words are confused partly because "dessert" is one of,the few words in English with a double "S" pronounced like "Z" ("brassiere" is another). That impoverished stretch of sand called a desert can only afford one "S." In contrast, that rich gooey extra thing at the end of the meal called a dessert indulges in two of them. The word in the phrase "he got his just deserts" is confusingly pronounced just like "desserts."
DEVICE/DEVISE
"Device" is a noun. A can-opener is a device. "Devise" is a verb. You can devise a plan for opening a can with a sharp rock instead. Only in law is "devise" properly used as a noun, meaning something deeded in a will.
DIALOGUE/DISCUSS
"Dialogue" as a verb in sentences like "the Math Department will dialogue with the Dean about funding" is commonly used jargon in business and education settings; but abhorred by traditionalists. Say "have a dialogue" or "discuss" instead.
DIETIES/DEITIES
This one is always good for a laugh. The gods are deities, after the Latin "deus," meaning "god."
DIFFERENT THAN/ DIFFERENT FROM/TO
Americans say "Scuba-diving is different from snorkeling," the British sometimes say "different to" and those who don't know any better say "different than."
DIFFER/VARY
"Vary" can mean "differ," but saying "our opinions vary" makes it sound as if they were changing all the time when what you really mean is "our opinions differ." Pay attention to context when choosing one of these words.
DILEMMA/DIFFICULTY
A dilemma is a difficult choice, not just any difficulty or problem. Whether to invite your son's mother to his high school graduation when your current wife hates her is a dilemma. Cleaning up after a hurricane is just a problem, though a difficult one.
DIRE STRAIGHTS/DIRE STRAITS
When you are threading your way through troubles as if you were traversing a dangerously narrow passage you are in "dire straits." The expression and the band by that name are often transformed by those who don't understand the word "strait" into "dire straights."See also "straightjacket/straitjacket."
DISBURSE/DISPERSE
You disburse money by taking it out of your purse (French "bourse") and distributing it. If you refuse to hand out any money, the eager mob of beggars before you may disperse (scatter).
DISC/DISK
"Compact disc" is spelled with a "C" because that's how its inventors decided it should be rendered; but a computer disk is spelled with a "K" (unless it's a CD-ROM, of course). The New York Times insisted for many years on the spelling "compact disk" in its editorial pages, often incongruously next to ads containing the copyrighted spelling "disc"; but now even it has given in.
DISCREET/DISCRETE
The more common word is "discreet," meaning "prudent, circumspect": "When arranging the party for Agnes, be sure to be discreet; we want her to be surprised." "Discrete" means "separate, distinct": "He arranged the guest list into two discrete groups: meat-eaters and vegetarians." Note how the T separates the two Es in "discrete."
DISCUSSED/DISGUST
"Discussed" is the past tense of the verb "discuss." Don't substitute for it the noun "disgust" in such sentences as "The couple's wedding plans were thoroughly discussed."
DISINTERESTED/UNINTERESTED
A bored person is uninterested. Do not confuse this word with the much rarer "disinterested," which means "objective, neutral".
DISRESPECT
The hip-hop subculture has revived the use of "disrespect" as a verb. In the meaning to have or show disrespect, this usage has been long established, if unusual. However, the new street meaning of the term, ordinarily abbreviated to "dis," is slightly but significantly different: to act disrespectfully, or--more frequently—insultingly toward someone. In some neighborhoods "dissing" is defined as merely failing to show sufficient terror in the face of intimidation. In those neighborhoods, it is wise to know how the term is used; but an applicant for a job who complains about having been "disrespected" elsewhere is likely to incur further disrespect . . . and no job. Street slang has its uses, but this is one instance that has not become generally accepted.
DOCTORIAL/DOCTORAL
"Doctoral" is occasionally misspelled--and often mispronounced--"doctorial."
DOLLY/HANDCART
A dolly is a flat platform with wheels on it, often used to make heavy objects mobile, or by an auto mechanic lying on one under a car body. Many people mistakenly use this word to designate the vertically oriented two-wheeled device with upright handles and horizontal lip. This latter device is more properly called a "handcart" or "hand truck."
DOMINATE/DOMINANT
The verb is "dominate"; the adjective is "dominant." The dominant chimpanzee tends to dominate the others.
DONE/DID
The past participle of "do" is "done," so it's not "they have did what they promised not to do" but "they have done. . . ." But without a helping verb, the word is "did." Nonstandard: "I done good on the test." Standard: "I did well on the test."
DOUBLE NEGATIVES
It is not true, as some assert, that double negatives are always wrong; but the pattern in formal speech and writing is that two negatives equal a mild positive: "he is a not untalented guitarist" means he has somem talent. In informal speech, however, double negatives are intended as negatives: "he ain't got no talent" means he is a lousy musician. People are rarely confused about the meaning of either pattern, but you do need to take your audience into account when deciding which pattern to follow.One of the funniest uses of the literary double negative is Douglas Adams' description of a machine dispensing "a substance almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea."
DOUBT THAT/DOUBT WHETHER/DOUBT IF
If you really doubt that something is true (suspect that it's false), use "doubt that": "I doubt that Fred has really lost 25 pounds." If you want to express genuine uncertainty, use "whether": "I doubt whether we'll see the comet if the clouds don't clear soon." "Doubt if" can be substituted for "doubt whether," though it's considered somewhat more casual, but don't use it when you mean "doubt that."
DOUBTLESSLY/DOUBTLESS
Leave off the unnecessary "-ly" in "doubtless."
DOVE/DIVED
Although "dove" is a common form of the past tense of "dive," a few authorities consider "dived" preferable in formal writing.
DOWNFALL/DRAWBACK
A downfall is something that causes a person's destruction, either literal or figurative: "expensive cars were Fred's downfall: he spent his entire inheritance on them and went bankrupt." A drawback is not nearly so drastic, just a flaw or problem of some kind, and is normally applied to plans and activities, not to people: "Gloria's plan to camp on Mosquito Island had just one drawback: she had forgotten to bring her minsect repellent."
DRANK/DRUNK
Many common verbs in English change form when their past tense is preceded by an auxiliary ("helping") verb: "I ran, I have run." The same is true of "drink." Don't say "I've drank the beer" unless you want people to think you are drunk. An even more common error is "I drunk all the milk." It's "I've drunk the beer" and "I drank all the milk."
DRASTIC
"Drastic" means "severe" and is always negative. Drastic measures are not just extreme, they are likely to have harmful side-effects. Don't use this word or "drastically" in a positive or neutral sense. A drastic rise in temperature should be seen as downright dangerous, not just surprisingly large. Often people mean "dramatic" instead.
DRIER/DRYER
A clothes dryer makes the clothes drier.
DRIBBLE/DRIVEL
"Dribble" and "drivel" originally meant the same thing: drool. But the two words have become differentiated. When you mean to criticize someone else's speech as stupid or pointless, the word you want is "drivel."
DRIVE/DISK
A hard drive and a hard disk are much the same thing; but when it comes to removable computer media, the drive is the machinery that turns and reads the disk. Be sure not to ask for a drive when all you need is a
disk.
DRUG/DRAGGED
"Well, look what the cat drug in!" Unless you are trying to render dialectical speech to convey a sense of down-home rusticity, use "dragged" as the past tense of "drag."
DUAL/DUEL
"Dual" is an adjective describing the two-ness of something—dual carburetors, for instance. A "duel" is a formal battle intended to settle a dispute.
DUCK TAPE/DUCT TAPE
A commercial firm has named its product "Duck Tape," harkening back the original name for this adhesive tape (which was green), developed by Johnson & Johnson during World War II to waterproof ammunition cases. It is now usually called "duct tape," for its common use in connecting ventilation and other ducts (which match its current silver color).
DUE TO THE FACT THAT/BECAUSE
Although "due to" is now a generally acceptable synonym for "because," "due to the fact that" is a clumsy and wordy substitute that should be avoided in formal writing. "Due to" is often misspelled "do to."
DYEING /DYING
If you are using dye to change your favorite t-shirt from white to blue you are dyeing it; but if you don't breathe for so long that your face turns blue, you may be dying.
E.G./I.E.
When you mean "for example," use e.g. It is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase exempli gratia. When you mean "that is," use "i.e." It is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase id est. Either can be used to clarify a preceding statement, the first by example, the second by restating the idea more clearly or expanding upon it. Because these uses are so similar, the two abbreviations are easily confused. If you just stick with good old English "for example" and "that is" you won't give anyone a chance to sneer at you. If you insist on using the abbreviation, perhaps "example given" will remind you to use "e.g.," while "in effect" suggests "I.E."
EACH
"Each" as a subject is always singular: think of it as equivalent to "every one." The verb whose subject it is must also be singular. Some uses, like "to keep them from fighting, each dog has been given its own bowl," cause no problem. No one is tempted to say "have been given." But when a prepositional phrase with a plural object intervenes between subject and verb, we are likely to be misled into saying things like "Each of the children have to memorize their own locker combinations." The subject is "each," not "children." The tendency to avoid specifying gender by using "their" adds to pressure toward plurality; but the correct version of this sentence is "Each of the children has to
memorize his or her own locker combination." One can avoid the entire problem by pluralizing throughout: "All the children have to memorize their own locker combinations" (but see the entry on singular "they"). In many uses, however, "each" is not the subject, as in "We each have our own favorite flavor of ice cream" which is correct because "we" and not "each" is the subject of the verb "have"."Each other" cannot be a subject, so the question of verb number does not arise; but the number of the possessive creates a problem for some writers. "They gazed into each other's eyes" is correct and "each
others'" is incorrect because "each other" is singular. Reword to "each gazed into the other's eyes" to see the logic behind this rule. "Each other" is always two distinct words separated by a space although it functions grammatically as a sort of compound word.
EARTH, MOON
Soil is lower-case "earth." And in most uses even the planet itself remains humbly in lower-case letters: "peace on earth." But in astronomical contexts, the Earth comes into its own with a proud initial capital, and in science fiction it drops the introductory article and becomes "Earth," just like Mars and Venus. A similar pattern applies to Earth's satellite: "shine on, harvest moon," but "from the Earth to the Moon." Because other planets also have moons, it never loses its article.
ECOLOGY/ENVIRONMENT
"Ecology" is the study of living things in relationship to their environment. The word can also be used to describe the totality of such relationships; but it should not be substituted for "environment" in statements like "improperly discarded lead batteries harm the ecology." It's not the relationships that are being harmed, but nature itself: the batteries are harming the environment.
ECONOMICAL/ECONOMIC
Something is economical if it saves you money; but if you're talking about the effect of some measure on the world's economy, it's an economic effect.
ECSTATIC
Pronounced "eck-sta-tic," not "ess-ta-tic."
ECT./ETC.
"Etc." is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase et cetera, meaning "and others." (Et means "and" in French too.) Just say "et cetera" out loud to yourself to remind yourself of the correct order of the "T" and "C."
Also to be avoided is the common mispronunciation "excetera." "And etc." is a redundancy.
-ED/-ING
In some dialects it is common to say "my shoes need shined" instead of the standard "my shoes need shining" or "my shoes need to be shined."
-ED/-T
You have learnt your lessons only in U.K.-influenced countries, you've learned them in the U.S. There are several common verbs which often have "T" endings in Britain which seem a little quaint and poetic in American English, where we prefer "-ED." Other examples: "dreamt/dreamed,""dwelt/dwelled,""leant/leaned,""leapt/leaped," and "spelt/spelled."However, the following alternatives are both common in the U.S.:"burned/burnt" and "kneeled/knelt."
EI/IE
The familiar rule is that English words are spelled with the "I" before the "E" unless they follow a "C," as in "receive." But it is important to add that words in which the vowel sound is an "A" like "neighbor" and "weigh" are also spelled with the "E" first. And there are a few exceptions like "counterfeit" and "seize."See also "neice/niece."
EITHER
"Either" often gets misplaced in a sentence: "He either wanted to build a gambling casino or a convent" should be "He wanted to build either a gambling casino or a convent." Put "either" just before the first thing being compared.
EITHER ARE/EITHER IS
As a subject, "either" is singular. It's the opposite of "both," and refers to one at a time: "Either ketchup or mustard is good on a hot dog." But if "either" is modifying a subject in an "either . . . or" phrase, then the number of the verb is determined by the number of the second noun: "Either the puppy or the twins seem to need my attention every other minute."
ELAPSE/LAPSE
Both these words come from a Latin root meaning "to slip." "Elapse" almost always refers to the passage of time. "Lapse" usually refers to a change of state, as in lapsing from consciousness into unconsciousness. Here are examples of the correct uses of these words you might get in the mail: "Six months have elapsed since your last dental appointment" and "You have allowed your subscription to Bride Magazine to lapse."Occasionally "lapse" can be used as a synonym of "elapse" in the sense "to slip away." Substituting one for the other is dangerous, however, if you are a lawyer. Insurance policies and collective bargaining agreements do not elapse when they expire, they lapse.
ELECTROCUTE/SHOCK
To electrocute is to kill using electricity. If you live to tell the tale, you've been shocked, but not electrocuted. For the same reason,the phrase "electrocuted to death" is a redundancy.
ELICIT/ILLICIT
The lawyer tries to elicit a description of the attacker from the witness. "Elicit" is always a verb. "Illicit," in contrast, is always an adjective describing something illegal or naughty.
ELLIPSES
Those dots that come in the middle of a quotation to indicate something omitted are called an "ellipsis" (plural "ellipses"): "Tex told Sam to get the . . . cow out of the bunk house." Here Tex's language has been
censored, but you are more likely to have a use for ellipses when quoting some source in a paper: "Ishmael remarks at the beginning of Moby Dick, 'some years ago . . . I thought I would sail about a little'--a very understated way to begin a novel of high adventure." The
three dots stand for a considerable stretch of prose that has been omitted. If the ellipsis ends your sentence, some editorial styles require four dots, the first of which is a period: From the same paragraph in Moby Dick: "almost all men . . . cherish very nearly the same feelings. . . ." Note that the period in the second ellipsis has to be snug up against the last word quoted, with spaces between the other dots.Some modern styles do not call for ellipses at the beginning and ending of quoted matter unless not doing so would be genuinely misleading, so check with your teacher or editor if you're uncertain whether to use one in those positions. It is never correct to surround a quoted single word or short phrase with ellipses: "Romeo tells Juliet that by kissing her again his 'sin is purged'" (note, by the way, that I began the quotation after the first word in the phrase "my sin is purged" in order to make it work grammatically in the context of the sentence).When text is typeset, the spaces are often but not always omitted between the dots in an ellipsis. Since modern computer printer output looks much more like typeset writing than old-fashioned typewriting, you may be tempted to omit the spaces; but it is better to include them and let the publisher decide whether they should be eliminated.An ellipsis that works perfectly well on your computer may "break" when your text is transferred to another if it comes at the end of a line,with one or more of the dots wrapping around to the next line. To avoid this, learn how to type "non-breaking spaces" between the dots of ellipses: in Word for Windows it's Control-Shift-Spacebar; on a Mac,it's Option-Spacebar. When writing HTML code to create a Web page, make a nonbreaking space with this code: <&nbsp;> (angle brackets are standard HTML "quotation marks" and are not to be actually typed as part of the code).
EMBARESS/EMBARRASS
You can pronounce the last two syllables as two distinct words as a jog to memory, except that then the word may be misspelled "embareass,"which isn't right either. You also have to remember the double R:"embarrass."
EMERGENT/EMERGENCY
The error of considering "emergent" to be the adjectival form of "emergency" is common only in medical writing, but it is becoming widespread. "Emergent" properly means "emerging" and normally refers to events that are just beginning--barely noticeable rather than catastrophic. "Emergency" is an adjective as well as a noun, so rather
than writing "emergent care," use the homely "emergency care."
EMIGRATE/IMMIGRATE
To "emigrate" is to leave a country. The E at the beginning of the word is related to the E in other words having to do with going out, such as "exit." "Immigrate," in contrast, looks as if it might have something to do with going in, and indeed it does: it means to move into a new country. The same distinction applies to "emigration" and "immigration." Note the double M in the second form. A migrant is someone who continually moves about.
EMINENT/IMMINENT/IMMANENT
By far the most common of these words is "eminent," meaning "prominent,famous." "Imminent," in phrases like "facing imminent disaster," means "threatening." It comes from Latin minere, meaning "to project or overhang." Think of a mine threatening to cave in. Positive events can also be imminent: they just need to be coming soon. The rarest of the three is "immanent," used by philosophers to mean "inherent" and by theologians to mean "present throughout the universe" when referring to God. It comes from Latin "manere," "remain." Think of God creating "man" in his own image.
EMPATHY/SYMPATHY
If you think you feel just like another person, you are feeling empathy. If you just feel sorry for another person, you're feeling sympathy.
EMPHASIZE ON/EMPHASIZE
You can place emphasis on something, or you can emphasize it, but you can't emphasize on it or stress on it, though you can place stress on it.
ENORMITY/ENORMOUSNESS
Originally these two words were synonymous, but "enormity" got whittled down to meaning "monstrous" or "outrageous." Don't wonder at the "enormity" of the Palace of Versailles unless you wish to express horror at this embodiment of Louis XIV's ego. "Enormity" can also be used as a noun meaning "monstrosity."
END RESULT/END
Usually a redundancy. Most of the time plain "end" will do fine.
ENQUIRE/INQUIRE
These are alternative spellings of the same word. "Enquire" is perhaps slightly more common in the U.K., but either is acceptable in the U.S.
ENTHUSE
"Enthuse" is a handy word and "state enthusiastically" is not nearly so striking; but unfortunately "enthuse" is not acceptable in the most formal contexts.
ENVELOP/ENVELOPE
To wrap something up in a covering is to envelop it (pronounced "enVELLup"). The specific wrapping you put around a letter is an envelope (pronounced variously, but with the accent on the first syllable).
ENVIOUS/JEALOUS
Although these are often treated as synonyms, there is a difference. You are envious of what others have that you lack. Jealousy, on the other hand, involves wanting to hold on to what you do have. You can be jealous of your boyfriend's attraction to other women, but you're envious of your boyfriend's CD collection.
ENVIROMENT/ENVIRONMENT
The second N in "environment" is seldom pronounced distinctly, so it's not surprising that is often omitted in writing. If you know the related word "environs" it may help remind you.
EPIGRAM/EPIGRAPH/EPITAPH/EPITHET
An epigram is a pithy saying, usually humorous. Mark Twain was responsible for many striking, mostly cynical epigrams, such as "Always do right. That will gratify some of the people, and astonish the rest."Unfortunately, he was also responsible for an even more famous one that has been confusing people ever since: "Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody." It's true that the moon keeps one side away from the earth, but--if you don't count the faint glow reflected from the earth--it is not any darker than the side that faces us. In fact, over time, the side facing us is darkened slightly more often because it is occasionally eclipsed by the shadow of the
earth.An epigraph is a brief quotation used to introduce a piece of writing or the inscription on a statue or building.An epitaph is the inscription on a tombstone or some other tribute to a dead person.In literature, an epithet is a term that replaces or is added to the name of a person, like "clear-eyed Athena," in which "clear-eyed" is the epithet. You are more likely to encounter the term in its negative sense, as a term of insult or abuse: "the shoplifter hurled epithets at the guard who had arrested her."
EPITOMY/EPITOME
Nothing makes you look quite so foolish as spelling a sophisticated word incorrectly. Taken directly from Latin, where it means "abridgement,""epitome" is now most often used to designate an extremely representative example of the general class: "Snow White is the epitome
of a Disney cartoon feature." Those who don't misspell this word often mispronounce it, misled by its spelling, as "EP-i-tohm," but the proper pronunciation is "ee-PIT-o-mee." The word means "essence," not "climax,"so instead of writing "the market had reached the epitome of frenzied selling at noon," use "peak" or a similar word.
ETHNIC
It's misleading to refer to minority groups as "ethnics" since everyone has ethnicity, even a dominant majority.
EVERY
"Every," "everybody" and "everyone" and related expressions are normally treated as singular in American English: "Every woman I ask out tells me she already has plans for Saturday night." However, constructions like "everyone brought their own lunch" are widely accepted now because of a desire to avoid specifying "his" or "her." See "they/their (singular)."
EVERYDAY
"Everyday" is a perfectly good adjective, as in "I'm most comfortable in my everyday clothes." The problem comes when people turn the adverbial phrase "every day" into a single word. It is incorrect to write "I take a shower everyday." It should be "I take a shower every day."
EVERYTIME/EVERY TIME
"Every time" is always two separate words.
EVIDENCE TO/EVIDENCE OF
You can provide evidence to a court, even enough evidence to convict someone; but the standard expression "is evidence of" requires "of" rather than "to" in sentences like this: "Driving through the front entrance of the Burger King is evidence of Todd's inexperience in driving." If you could substitute "evidences" or "evidenced" in your sentence, you need "of."
EXACT SAME/EXACTLY THE SAME
In casual speech we often say things like, "The fruitcake he gave me was the exact same one I'd given him last Christmas," but in formal English the phrase is "exactly the same."
EXALT/EXULT
When you celebrate joyfully, you exult. When you raise something high(even if only in your opinion), you exalt it. Neither word has an "H" in it.
EXCAPE/ESCAPE
The proper spelling is "escape." Say it that way too.
EXCEPTIONAL/EXCEPTIONABLE
If you take exception (object) to something, you find it
"exceptionable." The more common word is "exceptional," applied to things that are out of the ordinary, usually in a positive way: "these are exceptional Buffalo wings."
EXHILERATION/EXHILARATION
"Exhilaration" is closely related to "hilarious," whose strongly accented A should help remind you of the correct spelling.
EXPONENTIAL
Something grows exponentially when it repeatedly grows by multiples of some factor in a rapidly accelerating fashion. Don't use the word loosely to refer to ordinary rapid, but steady, growth.See also "orders of magnitude."
EXPRESSES THAT/SAYS THAT
"In her letter Jane expresses that she is getting irritated with me for not writing" should be corrected to "In her letter Jane says that. . . "You can express an idea or a thought, but you can't ever express that.In technical terms, "express" is a transitive verb and requires an object.
EXPRESSO/ESPRESSO
I've read several explanations of the origin of this word: the coffee is made expressly for you upon your order, or the steam is expressed through the grounds, or (as most people suppose--and certainly wrongly) the coffee is made at express speed. One thing is certain: the word is "espresso," not "expresso."While you're at an American espresso stand, you might muse on the fact that both "biscotti" and "panini" are plural forms, but you're likely to baffle the barista if you ask in correct Italian for a biscotto or a panino.
IN THE FACT THAT/BY THE FACT THAT
The correct phrase is "by the fact that," not "in the fact that." While we're at it, "infact" is not a word; "in fact" is always a two-word phrase.
FACTOID
The "-oid" ending in English is normally added to a word to indicate that an item is not the real thing. A humanoid is not quite human.Originally "factoid" was an ironic term indicating that the "fact" being offered was not actually factual. However, CNN and other sources have taken to treating the "-oid" as if it were a mere diminutive, and using the term to mean "trivial but true fact." As a result, the definition of "factoid" is hopelessly confused and it's probably better to avoid using the term altogether.
FAIR/FARE
When you send your daughter off to camp, you hope she'll fare well. That's why you bid her a fond farewell. "Fair" as a verb is a rare word meaning "to smooth a surface to prepare it for being joined to another."
FARTHER/FURTHER
Some authorities (like the Associated Press) insist on "farther" to refer to physical distance and on "further" to refer to an extent of time or degree, but others treat the two words as interchangeable except for insisting on "further" for "in addition," and "moreover." You'll always be safe in making the distinction; some people get really testy about this.
FASTLY/FAST
"Fastly" is an old form that has died out in English. Interest in soccer is growing fast, not "fastly."
FATAL/FATEFUL
A "fatal" event is a deadly one; a "fateful" one is determined by fate.If there are no casualties left lying at the scene--whether mangled corpses or failed negotiations--the word you are seeking is "fateful." The latter word also has many positive uses, such as "George fondly remembered that fateful night in which he first met the woman he was to love to his dying day."
FAZE/PHASE
"Faze" means to embarrass or disturb, but is almost always used in the negative sense, as in "the fact that the overhead projector bulb was burned out didn't faze her." "Phase" is a noun or verb having to do with an aspect of something. "He's just going through a temperamental phase." "They're going to phase in the new accounting procedures gradually."Unfortunately, Star Trek has confused matters by calling its ray pistols phasers. Too bad they aren't fazers instead.
FEARFUL/FEARSOME
To be "fearful" is to be afraid. To be "fearsome" is to cause fear in others. Remember that someone who is fierce is fearsome rather than fearful.
FEBUARY/FEBRUARY
Few people pronounce the first R in "February" distinctly, so it is not surprising that it is often omitted in spelling. This poor month is short on days; don't further impoverish it by robbing it of one of its letters.
FIREY/FIERY
It's "fire," so why isn't it "firey"? If you listen closely, you hear that "fire" has two distinct vowel sounds in it: "fi-er." Spelling the adjective "fiery" helps to preserve that double sound.

50s
There's no requirement for the apostrophe before the "S" in decade names like 50s and 60s, since there are no omitted letters, though it's also acceptable to include one. The term may be written '50s since "19" is being omitted, but "50s" is fine too. Writers who wish to have their references to decades clearly understood in the twenty-first century would be well advised not to omit the first two digits.Note that you may have to turn off "smart quotes" in your word processor to get a leading apostrophe like the one in "'50s" to curl correctly unless you know how to type the character directly. Or you can just type two and delete the first one.
FINALIZE/FINISH, PUT INTO FINAL FORM
"Finalize" is very popular among bureaucrats, but many people hate it.Avoid it unless you know that everyone in your environment uses it too.
FIRST ANNUAL
Some people get upset when the "first annual" occurrence of some event is announced, arguing that it doesn't become annual until it's been repeated. But "first annual" simply means "the first of what is planned to be an annual series of events"--it's a fine expression.
FIRST PERSON
Some teachers frown on the first-person voice in student writing,striking out "I," "me," and "myself" whenever they encounter them; but although there are times when it is inappropriate to call attention to yourself, writing something like "public displays of affection are
disgusting" is not more modest than "public displays of affection disgust me." The impersonal form arrogantly implies that you are the final authority and that all right-minded people must agree with you.The phrase "the author" substituted for "I" is no longer generally used even in the most formal writing. When you are arguing for a theory or opinion, it is often best to stand squarely behind it by using the first-person voice.
FISCAL/PHYSICAL
The middle syllable of "physical" is often omitted in pronunciation,making it sound like the unrelated word "fiscal." Sound that unaccented "I" distinctly.
FIT THE BILL/FILL THE BILL
Originally a "bill" was any piece of writing, especially a legal document (we still speak of bills being introduced into Congress in this sense). More narrowly, it also came to mean a list such as a restaurantm "bill of fare" (menu) or an advertisement listing attractions in a theatrical variety show such as might be posted on a "billboard." In nineteenth-century America, when producers found short acts to supplement the main attractions, nicely filling out an evening's entertainment, they were said in a rhyming phrase to "fill the bill."People who associate bills principally with shipping invoices frequently transform this expression, meaning "to meet requirements or desires," into "fit the bill." They are thinking of bills as if they were orders,lists of requirements. It is both more logical and more traditional to say "fill the bill."
FLAIR/FLARE
"Flair" is conspicuous talent: "She has a flair for organization.""Flare" is either a noun meaning "flame" or a verb meaning to blaze with light or to burst into anger.
FLAMMABLE/INFLAMMABLE
The prefix "in-" does not indicate negation here; it comes from the word "inflame." "Flammable" and "inflammable" both mean "easy to catch on fire"; but so many people misunderstand the latter term that it's better to stick with "flammable" in safety warnings.
FLAUNT/FLOUT
To flaunt is to show off: you flaunt your new necklace by wearing it to work. "Flout" has a more negative connotation; it means to treat with contempt some rule or standard. The cliche is "to flout convention." Flaunting may be in bad taste because it's ostentatious, but it is not a violation of standards.
FLESH OUT/FLUSH OUT
To "flesh out" an idea is to give it substance, as a sculptor adds clay flesh to a skeletal armature. To "flush out" a criminal is to drive him or her out into the open. The latter term is derived from bird-hunting, in which one flushes out a covey of quail. If you are trying to develop something further, use "flesh"; but if you are trying to reveal something hitherto concealed, use "flush."
FLOPPY DISK/HARD DISK
Floppy disks are fast disappearing from the computer world, but it's been many years since they were literally floppy. The fact that a 3 1/2" diskette is enclosed in a hard plastic case should not lead you to call it a "hard disk." That's a high-capacity storage medium like the main disk inside your computer on which your programs, operating system, and data are stored.
FLOUNDER/FOUNDER
As a verb, "founder" means "to fill with water and sink." It is also used metaphorically of various kinds of equally catastrophic failures.In contrast, to flounder is to thrash about in the water (like a flounder), struggling to stay alive. "Flounder" is also often used metaphorically to indicate various sorts of desperate struggle. If you're sunk, you've foundered. If you're still struggling, you're floundering.
FOOT/FEET
You can use eight-foot boards to side a house, but "foot" is correct only in this sort of adjectival phrase combined with a number (and usually hyphenated). The boards are eight feet (not foot) long. It's always X feet per second and X feet away.
FOOTNOTES/ENDNOTES
About the time that computers began to make the creation and printing of footnotes extremely simple and cheap, style manuals began to urge a shift away from them to endnotes printed at the ends of chapters or at the end of a book or paper rather than at the foot of the page. I happen to think this was a big mistake; but in any case, if you are using endnotes, don't call them "footnotes."
FOR/FORE/FOUR
The most common member of this trio is the preposition "for," which is not a problem for most people. "Fore" always has to do with the front of something (it's what you shout to warn someone when you've sent a golf ball their way). "Four" is just the number "4."
FOR ALL INTENSIVE PURPOSES/FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES
Another example of the oral transformation of language by people who don't read much. "For all intents and purposes" is an old cliche which won't thrill anyone, but using the mistaken alternative is likely to elicit guffaws.
FOR FREE/FREE
Some people object to "for free" because any sentence containing the phrase will read just as well without the "for," but it is standard English.
FOR ONE/FOR ONE THING
People often say "for one" when they mean "for one thing": "I really want to go to the movie. For one, Kevin Spacey is my favorite actor."(One what?) The only time you should use "for one" by itself to give an example of something is when you have earlier mentioned a class to which the example belongs: "There are a lot of reasons I don't want your old car. For one, there are squirrels living in the upholstery." (One reason.)
FOR SALE/ON SALE
If you're selling something, it's for sale; but if you lower the price, it goes on sale.
FORBIDDING/FOREBODING/FORMIDABLE
"Foreboding" means "ominous," as in "The sky was a foreboding shade of gray" (i.e. predictive of a storm). The prefix "fore-" with an E, often indicates futurity, e. g. "forecast," "foreshadowing" and "foreword" (a prefatory bit of writing at the beginning of a book, often misspelled "forword"). A forbidding person or task is hostile or dangerous: "The trek across the desert to the nearest latte stand was forbidding." The two are easily confused because some things, like storms, can be both foreboding and forbidding."Formidable," which originally meant "fear-inducing" ("Mike Tyson is a formidable opponent") has come to be used primarily as a compliment meaning "awe-inducing" ("Gary Kasparov's formidable skills as a chess player were of no avail against Deep Blue").See also "fearful/fearsome."
FORCEFUL, FORCIBLE, FORCED
These words sometimes overlap, but generally "forceful" means "powerful"("He imposed his forceful personality on the lions.") while "forcible" must be used instead to describe the use of force ("The burglar made a forcible entry into the apartment.). "Forced" is often used for the latter purpose, but some prefer to reserve this word to describe something that is done or decided upon as a result of outside causes without necessarily being violent: "a forced landing," "a forced smile," "forced labor."
FOREGO/FORGO
The E in "forego" tells you it has to do with going before. It occurs mainly in the expression "foregone conclusion," a conclusion arrived at in advance. "Forgo" means to abstain from or do without. "After finishing his steak, he decided to forgo the blueberry cheesecake."
FORMALLY/FORMERLY
These two are often mixed up in speech. If you are doing something in a formal manner, you are behaving formally; but if you previously behaved differently, you did so formerly.
FORESEE/FORSEE
"Foresee" means "to see into the future." There are lots of words with the prefix "fore-" which are future-oriented,including"foresight,""foretell," "forethought," and "foreword," all of which are often misspelled by people who omit the E. Just remember: what golfers shout when they are warning people ahead of them about the shot they are about to make is "fore!"
FORTUITOUS/FORTUNATE
"Fortuitous" events happen by chance; they need not be fortunate events, only random ones: "It was purely fortuitous that the meter reader came along five minutes before I returned to my car." Although fortunate events may be fortuitous, when you mean "lucky," use "fortunate."
FOUL/FOWL
A chicken is a fowl. A poke in the eye is a foul.
FRANKENSTEIN
"Frankenstein" is the name of the scientist who creates the monster in Mary Shelley's novel. The monster itself has no name, but is referred to popularly as "Frankenstein's monster."
FRANKLY
Sentences beginning with this word are properly admissions of something shocking or unflattering to the speaker; but when a public spokesperson for a business or government is speaking, it almost always precedes a self-serving statement. "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" is correct; but "Frankly, I think the American people can make their own decisions about health care" is an abuse of language. The same contortion of meaning is common in related phrases. When you hear a public figure say, "to be completely honest with you," expect a lie.
FRENCH DIP WITH AU JUS
This diner classic consists of sliced roast beef on a more or less firm bun, with a side dish of broth in which to dip it. "Au jus" means "with broth"; so adding "with" to "au jus" is redundant. In fancier restaurants, items are listed entirely in French with the English translation underneath:Tete de cochon avec ses tripes farcies Pig's head stuffed with tripe Mixing the languages is hazardous if you don't know what the original means. "With au jus broth" is also seen from time to time. People generally know what a French dip sandwich is, and they'll see the broth when it comes. Why not just call it a "French dip?"
FROM . . . TO
"From soup to nuts" makes sense because soup was the traditional first course in a formal meal, nuts the last. Similarly "from A to Z" makes sense because these are the first and last letters of the alphabet. But this construction, which identifies the extremes of a spectrum or range is often improperly used when no such extremes are being identified, as in "She tried everything from "penicillin to sulfa drugs." These are not extremes, just examples of different sorts of drugs. Even worse is "He gave his daughter everything from a bicycle to lawn darts to a teddy bear." A range can't have more than two extremes. "He gave his daughter everything from paper dolls to a Cadillac" conveys the notion of a spectrum from very cheap to very expensive, and is fine. Often when people are tempted to use "from . . . to" they would be better off using a different expression, as, for example, in this sentence: "She tried all sorts of medicines, including penicillin and sulfa drugs."
MOUNT FUJIYAMA/FUJIYAMA
"Yama" means "mountain" in Japanese, so when you say "Mount Fujiyama" you are saying "Mount Fuji Mountain." The Japanese usually say "Fuji-san"; but "Fujiyama," or "Mount Fuji" is standard in English—just be aware that both sound "foreign" to Japanese native speakers.
-FUL/-FULS
It's one cupful, but two cupfuls, not "two cupsful." The same goes for "spoonfuls" and "glassfuls."
FULSOME
Because its most common use is in the phrase "fulsome praise," many people suppose that this word means something like "generous" or "whole-hearted." Actually, it means "disgusting," and "fulsome praise" is disgustingly exaggerated praise.
G/Q
Lower-case "q" is the mirror image of lower-case "g" in many typefaces, and the two are often confused with each other and the resulting misspelling missed in proofreading, for instance "quilt" when "guilt" is intended.
GAFF/GAFFE
"Gaffe" is a French word meaning "embarrassing mistake," and should not be mixed up with "gaff": a large hook.
GAMUT/GAUNTLET
To "run a gamut" is to go through the whole scale or spectrum of something. To "run the gauntlet" (also gantlet) is to run between two lines of people who are trying to beat you. And don't confuse "gamut" with "gambit," a play in chess, and by extension, a tricky maneuver of any kind.
GAURD/GUARD
Too bad the Elizabethan "guard" won out over the earlier, French-derived spelling "garde"; but the word was never spelled "gaurd." The standard spelling is related to Italian and Spanish "guarda," pronounced "gwarda."
GHANDI/GANDHI
Mohandas K. Gandhi's name has an H after the D, not after the G. Note that "Mahatma" ("great soul") is an honorific title, not actually part of his birth name.
GIBE/JIBE/JIVE
"Gibe" is a now rare term meaning "to tease." "Jibe" means "to agree," but is usually used negatively, as in "the alibis of the two crooks didn't jibe." The latter word is often confused with "jive," which derives from slang which originally meant to treat in a jazzy manner ("Jivin' the Blues Away") but also came to be associated with deception ("Don't give me any of that jive").
GIG/JIG
"The jig is up" is an old slang expression meaning "the game is over--we're caught." A musician's job is a gig.
GILD/GUILD
You gild an object by covering it with gold; you can join an organization like the Theatre Guild.
GOD
When "God" is the name of a god, as in Judaism, Christianity and Islam("Allah" is just Arabic for "God," and many modern Muslims translate the name when writing in English), it needs to be capitalized like any other name. When it is used as a generic term, as in "He looks like a Greek god," it is not capitalized.If you see the word rendered "G*d" or "G-d" it's not an error, but a Jewish writer reverently following the Orthodox prohibition against spelling out the name of the deity in full.
GOES
"So he goes 'I thought your birthday was tomorrow,' and
I'm--like--'well, duh!'" Perhaps this bizarre pattern developed in analogy to childish phrases such as "the cow goes 'moo'" and "the piggym goes 'oink, oink'." Is there any young person unaware that the use of "go" to mean "say" drives most adults crazy? Granted, it's deliberate slang rather than an involuntary error; but if you get into the habit of using it all the time, you may embarrass yourself in front of a class by saying something witless like "So then Juliet goes 'A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.'"
GONE/WENT
This is one of those cases in which a common word has a past participle which is not formed by the simple addition of -ED and which often trip people up. "I should have went to the business meeting, but the game was tied in the ninth" should be "I should have gone. . . ." The same problem crops up with the two forms of the verb "to do." Say "I should have done my taxes before the IRS called" rather than "I should have did. . . ."See "drank/drunk."
GOOD/WELL
"Good" is the adjective; "well" is the adverb. You do something well,but you give someone something good. The exception is verbs of sensation in phrases such as "the pie smells good," or "I feel good." Despite the arguments of nigglers, this is standard usage. Saying "the pie smells well" would imply that the pastry in question had a nose. Similarly, "I feel well" is also acceptable, especially when discussing health; but it is not the only correct usage.
GOT/GOTTEN
In England, the old word "gotten" dropped out of use except in such stock phrases as "ill-gotten" and "gotten up," but in the U.S. it is frequently used as the past participle of "get." Sometimes the two are interchangeable, However, "got" implies current possession, as in "I've got just five dollars to buy my dinner with." "Gotten," in contrast,often implies the process of getting hold of something: "I've gotten five dollars for cleaning out Mrs. Quimby's shed" emphasizing the earning of the money rather than its possession. Phrases that involve some sort of process usually involve "gotten": "My grades have gotten better since I moved out of the fraternity." When you have to leave, you've got to go. If you say you've "gotten to go" you're implying someone gave you permission to go.
GOVERNMENT
Be careful to pronounce the first "N" in "government."
GRADUATE/GRADUATE FROM
In certain dialects (notably that of New York City) it is common to say"he is going to graduate school in June" rather than the more standard "graduate from." When writing for a national or international audience, use the "from."
GRAMMER/GRAMMAR
It's amazing how many people write to thank me for helping them with their "grammer." It's "grammar." The word is often incorrectly used to label patterns of spelling and usage that have nothing to do with the structure of language, the proper subject of grammar in the most conservative sense. Not all bad writing is due to bad grammar.
GRATIS/GRATUITOUS
If you do something nice without being paid, you do it "gratis."Technically, such a deed can also be "gratuitous"; but if you do or say something obnoxious and uncalled for, it's always "gratuitous," not "gratis."
GREATFUL/GRATEFUL
Your appreciation may be great, but you express gratitude by being grateful.
GRIEVIOUS/GRIEVOUS
There are just two syllables in "grievous," and it's pronounced "grieve-us."
GRISLY/GRIZZLY
"Grisly" means "horrible"; a "grizzly" is a bear. "The grizzly left behind the grisly remains of his victim." "Grizzled," means "having gray hairs," not to be confused with "gristly," full of gristle.
GROUND ZERO
"Ground zero" refers to the point at the center of the impact of a nuclear bomb, so it is improper to talk about "building from ground zero" as if it were a place of new beginnings. You can start from scratch, or begin at zero, but if you're at ground zero, you're at the end. The metaphorical extension of this term to the site of the destruction of the World Trade Center towers is, however, perfectly legitimate.
GROUP (PLURAL VS. SINGULAR)
When the group is being considered as a whole, it can be treated as a single entity: "the group was ready to go on stage." But when the individuality of its members is being emphasized, "group" is plural: "the group were in disagreement about where to go for dinner."
GROW
We used to grow our hair long or grow tomatoes in the yard, but now we are being urged to "grow the economy" or "grow your investments."Business and government speakers have extended this usage widely, but it irritates traditionalists. Use "build," "increase," "expand," "develop," or "cause to grow" instead in formal writing.
GYP/CHEAT
Gypsies complain that "gyp" ("cheat") reflects bias; but the word is so well entrenched and its origin so obscure to most users that there is little hope of eliminating it from standard use any time soon.
HAIRBRAINED/HAREBRAINED
Although "hairbrained" is common, the original word "harebrained," means "silly as a hare" (rabbit) and is preferred in writing.
HANGING INDENTS
Bibliographies are normally written using hanging indents, where the first line extends out to the left-hand margin, but the rest of the entry is indented.Twain, Mark. Mark Twain at the Buffalo Express: Articles and Sketches by America's Favorite Humorist, edited by Joseph B. McCullough and Janice McIntire-Strasburg (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2000).These are extremely easy to create on a word processor, but many people have never mastered the technique. Normally the left-hand margin marker at the top of the page consists of two small arrows. Drag the top one to the right to make a normal indent, the bottom one to create a hanging indent. In most programs, you have to hold down the Shift key while dragging the bottom marker to leave the top part behind. Don't get into the habit of substituting a carriage return and a tab or spaces to create hanging indents because when your work is transferred to a different computer the result may look quite different--and wrong.
HARDLY
When Bill says "I can't hardly bend over with this backache," he means he can hardly bend over, and that's what he should say. Similarly, when Jane says "you can feed the cat without hardly bending over" she means "almost without bending over."
HARDLY NEVER/HARDLY EVER
The expression is "hardly ever."
HARDY/HEARTY
These two words overlap somewhat, but usually the word you want is "hearty." The standard expressions are "a hearty appetite," "a hearty meal," a "hearty handshake," "a hearty welcome," and "hearty applause.""Hardy" turns up in "hale and hardy," but should not be substituted for "hearty" in the other expressions. "Party hearty" and "party hardy" are both common renderings of a common youth saying, but the first makes more sense.
HEADING/BOUND
If you're reporting on traffic conditions, it's redundant to say "heading northbound on I-5." It's either "heading north" or "northbound."
HEARING-IMPAIRED/DEAF
"Hearing-impaired" is not an all-purpose substitute for "deaf" since it strongly implies some residual ability to hear.
HIV VIRUS
"HIV" stands for "human immunodeficiency virus," so adding the word "virus" to the acronym creates a redundancy. "HIV" is the name of the organism that is the cause of AIDS, not a name for the disease itself.A person may be HIV-positive (a test shows the person to be infected with the virus) without having yet developed AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). HIV is the cause, AIDS the result.
HANGED/HUNG
Originally these words were pretty much interchangeable, but "hanged" eventually came to be used pretty exclusively to mean "executed by hanging." Does nervousness about the existence of an indelicate adjectival form of the word prompt people to avoid the correct word in such sentences as "Lady Wrothley saw to it that her ancestors' portraits were properly hung"? Nevertheless, "hung" is correct except when capital punishment is being imposed.
HEAR/HERE
If you find yourself writing sentences like "I know I left my wallet hear!" you should note that "hear" has the word "ear" buried in it and let that remind you that it refers only to hearing and is always a verb (except when you are giving the British cheer "Hear! Hear!"). "I left my wallet here" is the correct expression.
HE DON'T/ HE DOESN'T
In formal English, "don't" is not used in the third person singular. "I don't like avocado ice cream" is correct, and so is "they don't have their passports yet " and "they don't have the sense to come in out of the rain"; but "he don't have no money," though common in certain dialects, is nonstandard on two counts: it should be "he doesn't" and "any money." The same is true of other forms: "she don't" and "it don't" should be "she doesn't" and "it doesn't."
HEIGHTH/HEIGHT
"Width" has a "TH" at the end, so why doesn't "height"? In fact it used to, but the standard pronunciation today ends in a plain "T" sound.People who use the obsolete form misspell it as well, so pronunciation is no guide. By the way, this is one of those pesky exceptions to the
rule, "I before E except after C," but the vowels are seldom switched,perhaps because we see it printed on so many forms along with "age" and "weight."
HELP THE PROBLEM
People say they want to help the problem of poverty when what they really mean is that they want to help solve the problem of poverty.Poverty flourishes without any extra help, thank you. I guess I know what a "suicide help line" is, but I'd rather it were a "suicide prevention help line." I suppose it's too late to ask people to rename alcoholism support groups as sobriety support groups, but it's a shoddy use of language.
HERO/PROTAGONIST
In ordinary usage "hero" has two meanings: "leading character in a story" and "brave, admirable person." In simple tales the two meanings may work together, but in modern literature and film the leading character or "protagonist" (a technical term common in literary criticism) may behave in a very unheroic fashion. Students who express shock that the "hero" of a play or novel behaves despicably reveal their inexperience. In literature classes avoid the word unless you mean to stress a character's heroic qualities. However, if you are discussing the main character in a traditional opera, where values are often simple, you may get by with referring to the male lead as the "hero"--but is Don Giovanni really a hero?See also "heroin/heroine."
HEROIN/HEROINE
Heroin is a highly addictive opium derivative; the main female character in a narrative is a heroine.
HIGHLY LOOKED UPON/HIGHLY REGARDED
Many people, struggling to come up with the phrase "highly regarded,"come up with the awkward "highly looked upon" instead; which suggests that the looker is placed in a high position, looking down, when what is meant is that the looker is looking up to someone or something admirable.
HIM, HER/HE, SHE
There is a group of personal pronouns to be used as subjects in a sentence, including "he," "she," "I," and "we." Then there is a separate group of object pronouns, including "him," "her," "me," and "us." The problem is that the folks who tend to mix up the two sets often don't find the subject/object distinction clear or helpful, and say things like "Her and me went to the movies."A simple test is to substitute "us" for "her and me." Would you say "us went to the movies?" Obviously not. You'd normally say "we went to the movies," so when "we" is broken into the two persons involved it becomes "she and I went to the movies."But you would say "the murder scene scared us," so it's correct to say "the murder scene scared her and me."If you aren't involved, use "they" and "them" as test words instead of "us" and "we." "They won the lottery" becomes "he and she won the
lottery," and "the check was mailed to them" becomes "the check was mailed to him and her."See also "I/me/myself"
HIPPIE/HIPPY
A long-haired 60s flower child was a "hippie." "Hippy" is an adjective describing someone with wide hips. The IE is not caused by a Y changing to IE in the plural as in "puppy" and "puppies." It is rather a dismissive diminutive, invented by older, more sophisticated hipsters looking down on the new kids as mere "hippies." Confusing these two is definitely unhip.
HISSELF/HIMSELF
In some dialects people say "hisself" for "himself," but this is nonstandard.
AN HISTORIC/A HISTORIC
You should use "an" before a word beginning with an "H" only if the "H" is not pronounced: "an honest effort"; it's properly "a historic event" though many sophisticated speakers somehow prefer the sound of "an historic," so that version is not likely to get you into any real trouble.
HOARD/HORDE
A greedily hoarded treasure is a hoard. A herd of wildebeests or a mob of people is a horde.
HOI POLLOI
Hoi polloi is Greek for "the common people," but it is often misused to mean "the upper class" (does "hoi" make speakers think of "high" or "hoity-toity"?). Some urge that since "hoi" is the article "the hoi polloi" is redundant; but the general rule is that articles such as "the" and "a" in foreign language phrases cease to function as such in place names, brands, and catch phrases except for some of the most familiar ones in French and Spanish, where everyone recognizes "la"—for instance--as meaning "the." "The El Nino" is redundant, but "the hoi polloi" is standard English.
HOLD YOUR PEACE/SAY YOUR PIECE
Some folks imagine that since these expressions are opposites, the last word in each should be the same; but in fact they are unrelated expressions. The first means "maintain your silence," and the other means literally "speak aloud a piece of writing" but is used to express the idea of making a statement.
HOLOCAUST
"Holocaust" is a Greek-derived translation of the Hebrew term "olah," which denotes a sort of ritual sacrifice in which the food offered is completely burnt up rather than being merely dedicated to God and then eaten. It was applied with bitter irony by Jews to the destruction of millions of their number in the Nazi death camps. Although phrases like "nuclear holocaust" and "Cambodian holocaust" have become common, you risk giving serious offense by using the word in less severe circumstances, such as calling a precipitous decline in stock prices a "sell-off holocaust."
HOME PAGE
On the World Wide Web, a "home page" is normally the first page a person entering a site encounters, often functioning as a sort of table of contents for the other pages. People sometimes create special pages within their sites introducing a particular topic, and these are also informally called "home pages" (as in "The Emily Dickinson Home Page");but it is a sure sign of a Web novice to refer to all Web pages as home pages.
HOMOPHOBIC
Some object to this word--arguing that it literally means "man-fearing,"but the "homo" in "homosexual" and in this word does not refer to the Latin word for "man," but is derived from a Greek root meaning "same" while the "-phobic" means literally "having a fear of," but in English has come to mean "hating." "Homophobia"is now an established term for "prejudiced against homosexuals."
HONE IN/HOME IN
You home in on a target (the center of the target is "home")."Honing" has to do with sharpening knives,not aim.
HORS D'OEUVRES
If you knew only a little French, you might interpret this phrase as meaning "out of work," but in fact it means little snack foods served before or outside of ("hors") the main dishes of a meal (the "oeuvres"). English speakers have trouble mastering the sounds in this phrase, but it is normally rendered "or-DERVES," in a rough approximation of the original. Mangled spellings like "hors' dourves" are not uncommon. Actually, many modern food writers have decided we needn't try to wrap our tongues around this peculiar foreign phrase and now prefer "starters."
HOW COME/WHY
"How come?" is a common question in casual speech, but in formal contexts use "why?"
HYPHENATION
The Chicago Manual of Style contains a huge chart listing various sorts of phrases that are or are not to be hyphenated. Consult such a reference source for a thorough-going account of this matter, but you may be able to get by with a few basic rules. An adverb/adjective combination in which the adverb ends in "-LY" is never hyphenated: "His necktie reflected his generally grotesque taste." Other sorts of adverbs are followed by a hyphen when combined with an adjective: "His long-suffering wife finally snapped and fed it through the office shredder." The point here is that "long" modifies "suffering," not "wife." When both words modify the same noun, they are not hyphenated. A "light-green suitcase" is pale in color, but a "light green suitcase" is not heavy. In the latter example "light" and "green" both modify "suitcase," so no hyphen is used.Adjectives combined with nouns having an "-ED" suffix are hyphenated: "Frank was a hot-headed cop."Hyphenate ages when they are adjective phrases involving a unit of measurement: "Her ten-year-old car is beginning to give her trouble." A girl can be a "ten-year-old" ("child" is implied). But there are no hyphens in such an adjectival phrase as "Her car is ten years old." In fact, hyphens are generally omitted when such phrases follow the noun they modify except in phrases involving "all" or "self" such as "all-knowing" or "self-confident." Fractions are almost always hyphenated when they are adjectives: "He is one-quarter Irish and three-quarters Nigerian." But when the numerator is already hyphenated,the fraction itself is not, as in "ninety-nine and forty-four one hundredths." Fractions treated as nouns are not hyphenated: "He ate one quarter of the turkey."A phrase composed of a noun and a present participle ("-ing" word) must be hyphenated: "The antenna had been climbed by thrill-seeking teenagers who didn't realize the top of it was electrified."These are the main cases in which people are prone to misuse hyphens. If you can master them, you will have eliminated the vast majority of such mistakes in your writing. Some styles call for space around dashes (a practice of which I strongly disapprove), but it is never proper to surround hyphens with spaces, though in the following sort of pattern you may need to follow a hyphen with a space: "Follow standard pre- and post-operative procedures."
HYPHENS & DASHES
Dashes are longer than hyphens, but since some browsers do not reliably interpret the code for dashes, they are usually rendered on the Web as they were on old-fashioned typewriters, as double hyphens--like that.Dashes tend to separate elements and hyphens to link them. Few people would substitute a dash for a hyphen in an expression like "a quick-witted scoundrel," but the opposite is common. In a sentence like "Astrud--unlike Inger--enjoyed vacations in Spain rather than England,"one often sees hyphens incorrectly substituted for dashes.When you are typing for photocopying or direct printing, it is a good idea to learn how to type a true dash instead of the double hyphen(computers differ). In old-fashioned styles, dashes (but never hyphens)are surrounded by spaces -- like this. With modern computer output which emulates professional printing, this makes little sense. Skip the spaces unless your editor or teacher insists on them.There are actually two kinds of dashes. The most common is the "em-dash"(theoretically the width of a letter "M"--but this is often not the case). To connect numbers, it is traditional to use an "en-dash" which is somewhat shorter, but not as short as a hyphen: "cocktails 5-7 pm."All modern computers can produce en-dashes, but few people know how to type them. For most purposes you don't have to worry about them, but if you are preparing material for print, you should learn how to use them.
HYPOCRITICAL
"Hypocritical" has a narrow, very specific meaning. It describes behavior or speech that is intended to make one look better or more pious than one really is. It is often wrongly used to label people who are merely narrow-minded or genuinely pious. Do not confuse this word with "hypercritical," which describes people who are picky.
HYSTERICAL/HILARIOUS
People say of a bit of humor or a comical situation that it was "hysterical"--shorthand for "hysterically funny"--meaning "hilarious."But when you speak of a man being "hysterical" it means he is having a fit of hysteria, and that may not be funny at all.
I/ME/MYSELF
In the old days when people studied traditional grammar, we could simply say, "The first person singular pronoun is 'I' when it's a subject and 'me' when it's an object," but now few people know what that means.Let's see if we can apply some common sense here. The misuse of "I" and "myself" for "me" is caused by nervousness about "me." Educated people know that "Jim and me is goin' down to slop the hogs," is not elegant speech, not "correct." It should be "Jim and I" because if I were slopping the hogs alone I would never say "Me is going . . ." So far so good. But the notion that there is something wrong with "me" leads people to overcorrect and avoid it where it is perfectly appropriate. People will say "The document had to be signed by both Susan and I" when the correct statement would be, "The document had to be signed by both Susan and me." Trying even harder to avoid the lowly "me," many people will substitute "myself," as in "The suspect uttered epithets at Officer O'Leary and myself." "Myself" is no better than "I" as an object."Myself" is not a sort of all-purpose intensive form of "me" or "I." Use "myself" only when you have used "I" earlier in the same sentence: "I am not particularly fond of goat cheese myself." "I kept half the loot for myself." All this confusion can easily be avoided if you just remove the second party from the sentences where you feel tempted to use "myself" as an object or feel nervous about "me." You wouldn't say, "The IRS sent the refund check to I," so you shouldn't say "The IRS sent the refund check to my wife and I" either. And you shouldn't say "to my wife and myself." The only correct way to say this is, "The IRS sent the refund check to my wife and me." Still sounds too casual? Get over it.On a related point, those who continue to announce "It is I" have traditional grammatical correctness on their side, but they are vastly outnumbered by those who proudly boast "It's me!" There's not much that can be done about this now. Similarly, if a caller asks for Susan and Susan answers "This is she," her somewhat antiquated correctness is likely to startle the questioner into confusion.
-IC
In the Cold War era, anti-socialists often accused their enemies of being "socialistic" by which they meant that although they were not actually socialists, some of their beliefs were like those of socialists. But the "-ic" suffix is recklessly used in all kinds of settings, often without understanding its implications. Karl Marx was not "socialistic," he was actually socialist.
IDEA/IDEAL
Any thought can be an idea, but only the best ideas worth pursuing are ideals.
IF I WAS/IF I WERE
The subjunctive mood, always weak in English, has been dwindling away for centuries until it has almost vanished. According to traditional thought, statements about the conditional future such as "If I were a carpenter . . ." require the subjunctive "were"; but "was" is certainly much more common. Still, if you want to impress those in the know with your usage, use "were." The same goes for other pronouns: "you," "she," "he," and "it." In the case of the plural pronouns "we" and "they" the form "was" is definitely nonstandard, of course, because it is a singular form.
IGNORANT/STUPID
A person can be ignorant (not knowing some fact or idea) without being stupid (incapable of learning because of a basic mental deficiency). And those who say, "That's an ignorant idea" when they mean "stupid idea" are expressing their own ignorance.
ILLINOIS
The final "S" in "Illinois" is silent.
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION/VIRGIN BIRTH
The doctrine of "immaculate conception" (the belief that Mary was conceived without inheriting original sin) is often confused with the doctrine of the "virgin birth" (the belief that Mary gave birth to Jesus while remaining a virgin).
IMPACT
One (very large) group of people thinks that using "impact" as a verb is just nifty: "The announcement of yet another bug in the software will strongly impact the price of the company's stock." Another (very passionate) group of people thinks that "impact" should be used only as a noun and considers the first group to be barbarians. Although the first group may well be winning the usage struggle, you risk offending more people by using "impact" as a verb than you will by substituting more traditional words like "affect" or "influence."
IMPERTINENT/IRRELEVANT
"Impertinent" looks as if it ought to mean the opposite of "pertinent,"and indeed it once did; but for centuries now its meaning in ordinary speech has been narrowed to "impudent," specifically in regard to actions or speech toward someone regarded as socially superior. Only snobs and very old-fashioned people use "impertinent" correctly; most people would be well advised to forget it and use "irrelevant" instead to mean the opposite of "pertinent."
IMPLY/INFER
These two words, which originally had quite distinct meanings, have become so blended together that most people no longer distinguish between them. If you want to avoid irritating the rest of us, use "imply" when something is being suggested without being explicitly stated and "infer" when someone is trying to arrive at a conclusion based on evidence. "Imply" is more assertive, active: I imply that you need to revise your paper; and, based on my hints, you infer that I didn't think highly of your first draft.
IN REGARDS TO/WITH REGARD TO
Business English is deadly enough without scrambling it. "As regards your downsizing plan . . ." is acceptable, if stiff. "In regard to . .." is also correct. But don't confuse the two by writing "In regards to."
IN THE FACT THAT/IN THAT
Many people mistakenly write "in the fact that" when they mean simply "in that" in sentences like "It seemed wiser not to go to work in the fact that the boss had discovered the company picnic money was missing."Omit "the fact." While we're at it, "infact" is not a word; "in fact" is always a two-word phrase.
INCENT, INCENTIVIZE
Business folks sometimes use "incent" to mean "create an incentive," but it's not standard English. "Incentivize" is even more widely used, but strikes many people as an ugly substitute for "encourage."
INCIDENCE/INCIDENTS/INSTANCES
These three overlap in meaning just enough to confuse a lot of people.Few of us have a need for "incidence, " which most often refers to degree or extent of the occurrence of something ("the incidence of measles in Whitman County has dropped markedly since the vaccine has been provided free"). "Incidents," which is pronounced identically, is merely the plural of "incident," meaning "occurrences" ("police reported damage to three different outhouses in separate incidents last Halloween"). Instances are examples ("semicolons are not required in the first three instances given in your query"). Incidents can be used as instances only if someone is using them as examples.
INCREDIBLE
The other day I heard a film reviewer praise a director because he created "incredible characters," which would literally mean unbelievable characters. What the reviewer meant to say, of course, was precisely the opposite: characters so lifelike as to seem like real people. Intensifiers and superlatives tend to get worn down quickly through overuse and become almost meaningless, but it is wise to be aware of their root meanings so that you don't unintentionally utter absurdities."Fantastic" means "as in a fantasy" just as "fabulous" means "as in a fable." A "wonderful" sight should make you pause in wonder (awe). Some of these words are worn down beyond redemption, however. For instance,who now expects a "terrific" sight to terrify?
INDEPTH/IN DEPTH
You can make an "in-depth" study of a subject by studying it "in depth,"but never "indepth." Like "a lot" this is two words often mistaken for one. The first, adjectival, use of the phrase given above is commonly hyphenated, which may lead some people to splice the words even more closely together. "Indepth" is usually used as an adverb by people of limited vocabulary who would be better off saying "profoundly" or "thoroughly." Some of them go so far as to say that they have studied a subject "indepthly." Avoid this one if you don't want to be snickered at.
INDIAN/NATIVE AMERICAN
Although academics have long promoted "Native American" as a more accurate label than "Indian" most of the people so labeled continue to refer to themselves as "Indians" and prefer that term. In Canada, there is a move to refer to descendants of the original inhabitants as "First Peoples," but so far that has not spread to the U.S.
UNIVERSITY OF INDIANA
There is no such place as "the University of Indiana"; it's "Indiana University."I should know; I went there.
INDIVIDUAL/PERSON
Law-enforcement officers often use "individual" as a simple synonym for"person" when they don't particularly mean to stress individuality: "I pursued the individual who had fired the weapon at me for three blocks."This sort of use of "individual" lends an oddly formal air to yourwriting. When "person" works as well, use it.
INFAMOUS/NOTORIOUS
"Infamous" means famous in a bad way. It is related to the word "infamy." Humorists have for a couple of centuries jokingly used the word in a positive sense, but the effectiveness of the joke depends on the listener knowing that this is a misuse of the term. Because this is a very old joke indeed you should stick to using "infamous" only of people like Hitler and Billy the Kid."Notorious" means the same thing as "infamous" and should also only be used in a negative sense.
INFACT/IN FACT
"In fact" is always two words.
INFINITE
When Shakespeare's Enobarbus said of Cleopatra that "age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety" he was obviously exaggerating. So few are the literal uses of "infinite" that almost every use of it is metaphorical. There are not an infinite number of possible positions on a chessboard, nor number of stars in the universe.To say of snowflakes that the possible variety of their shape is infinite is incorrect: surely one could theoretically calculate the maximum possible size of something one could justly call a "snowflake," calculate the number of molecules possible in that volume, and the number of possible arrangements of those molecules. The result would be a very large number, but not an infinity. Things can be innumerable (in one sense of the word) without being infinite; in other words, things which are beyond the human capacity to count them can still be limited in number. "Infinite" has its uses as a loose synonym for "a very great many," but it is all too often lazily used when one doesn't want to do the work to discover the order of magnitude involved. When you are making quasi-scientific statements you do a disservice to your reader by implying infinity when mere billions are involved.
INFLAMMABLE
"Inflammable" means the same thing as "flammable": burnable, capable of being ignited or inflamed. So many people mistake the "in-" prefix as a negative, however, that it has been largely abandoned as a warning
label.
INPUT
Some people object to "input" as computer jargon that's proliferated unjustifiably in the business world. Be aware that it's not welcome in all settings; but whatever you do, don't misspell it "imput."
INSTALL/INSTILL
People conjure up visions of themselves as upgradable robots when they write things like "My Aunt Tillie tried to install the spirit of giving in my heart." The word they are searching for is "instill." You install equipment, you instill feelings or attitudes.
INSTANCES/INSTANTS
Brief moments are "instants," and examples of anything are "instances."
INTENSE/INTENSIVE
If you are putting forth an intense effort, your work is "intense": "My intense study of Plato convinced me that I would make a good leader." But when the intensity stems not so much from your effort as it does from outside forces, the usual word is "intensive": "the village endured intensive bombing."
INTENSIFIERS
People are always looking for ways to emphasize how really, really special the subject under discussion is. (The use of "really" is one of the weakest and least effective of these.) A host of words has been worn down in this service to near-meaninglessness. It is good to remember the etymological roots of such words to avoid such absurdities as "fantastically realistic," "absolutely relative," and "incredibly convincing." When you are tempted to use one of these vague intensifiers consider rewriting your prose to explain more precisely and vividly what you mean: "Fred's cooking was incredibly bad" could be changed to "When I tasted Fred's cooking I almost thought I was back in the middle-school cafeteria."See also "Incredible."
INTERESTING
The second syllable is normally silent in "interesting." It's nonstandard to go out of your way to pronounce the "ter," and definitely substandard to say "innaresting."
INTERFACE/INTERACT
The use of the computer term "interface" as a verb, substituting for "interact," is widely objected to.
INTERMENT/INTERNMENT
Interment is burial; internment is merely imprisonment.
INTERNET/INTRANET
"Internet" is the proper name of the network most people connect to, and the word needs to be capitalized. However "intranet," a network confined to a smaller group, is a generic term which does not deserve capitalization. In advertising, we often read things like "unlimited Internet, $19." It would be more accurate to refer in this sort of context to "Internet access."
INTERPRETATE/INTERPRET
"Interpretate" is mistakenly formed from "interpretation," but the verb form is simply "interpret." See also "orientate."
INTO/IN TO
"Into" is a preposition which often answers the question, "where?" For example, "Tom and Becky had gone far into the cave before they realized they were lost." Sometimes the "where" is metaphorical, as in, "He went into the army" or "She went into business." It can also refer by analogy to time: "The snow lingered on the ground well into April." In old-fashioned math talk, it could be used to refer to division: "two into six is three." In other instances where the words "in" and "to"
just happen to find themselves neighbors, they must remain separate words. For instance, "Rachel dived back in to rescue the struggling boy." Here "to" belongs with "rescue" and means "in order to," not "where." (If the phrase had been "dived back into the water," "into" would be required.)Try speaking the sentence concerned aloud, pausing distinctly between "in" and "to." If the result sounds wrong, you probably need "into."Then there is the 60s colloquialism which lingers on in which "into" means "deeply interested or involved in": "Kevin is into baseball cards." This is derived from usages like "the committee is looking into the fund-raising scandal." The abbreviated form is not acceptable formal English, but is quite common in informal communications.
IRONICALLY/COINCIDENTALLY
An event that is strikingly different from or the opposite of what one would have expected, usually producing a sense of incongruity, is ironic: "The sheriff proclaimed a zero-tolerance policy on drugs, but
ironically flunked his own test." Other striking comings-together of events lacking these qualities are merely coincidental: "the lovers leapt off the tower just as a hay wagon coincidentally happened to be passing below."
IRREGARDLESS/REGARDLESS
Regardless of what you have heard, "irregardless" is a redundancy. The suffix "-less" on the end of the word already makes the word negative. It doesn't need the negative prefix "ir-" added to make it even more negative.
IS, IS
In speech, people often lose track in the middle of a sentence and repeat "is" instead of saying "that": "The problem with the conflict in the Balkans is, is the ethnic tensions seem exacerbated by everything we do." This is just a nervous tic, worth being alert against when you're speaking publicly.Of course, I suppose it all depends on what you think the meaning of "is" is.
ISLAMS/MUSLIMS
Followers of Islam are called "Muslims," not "Islams." (Although the Associated Press still does not accept it, "Muslim" is now widely preferred over the older and less phonetically accurate "Moslem.")
ISREAL/ISRAEL
To remember how to spell "Israel" properly, try pronouncing it the way Israelis do when they're speaking English: "ISS-rah-el."
ISSUES/PROBLEMS
In many circles people speak of "having issues" when they mean they have problems with some issue or objections of some kind. Traditionalists are annoyed by this.
ITCH/SCRATCH
Strictly speaking, you scratch an itch. If you're trying to get rid of a tingly feeling on your back scratch it, don't itch it.
ITS/IT'S
The exception to the general rule that one should use an apostrophe to indicate possession is in possessive pronouns. Some of them are not a problem. "Mine" has no misleading "s" at the end to invite an apostrophe. And few people are tempted to write "hi's," though the equally erroneous "her's" is fairly common, as are "our's" and "their's"--all wrong, wrong, wrong. The problem with avoiding "it's" as a possessive is that this spelling is perfectly correct as a contraction meaning "it is." Just remember two points and you'll never make this mistake again. (1) "It's" always means "it is" or "it has" and nothing else. (2) Try changing the "its" in your sentence to "his" and if it doesn't make sense, then go with "it's."
JERRY-BUILT/JURY-RIGGED
Although their etymologies are obscure and their meanings overlap, these are two distinct expressions. Something poorly built is "jerry-built."Something rigged up temporarily in a makeshift manner with materials at hand, often in an ingenious manner, is "jury-rigged." "Jerry-built" always has a negative connotation, whereas one can be impressed by the cleverness of a jury-rigged solution. Many people cross-pollinate these two expressions and mistakenly say "jerry-rigged" or "jury-built."
JEW/JEWISH
"Jew" as an adjective ("Jew lawyer") is an ethnic insult; the word is "Jewish." But people who object to "Jew" as a noun are being oversensitive. Most Jews are proud to be called Jews. The expression "to Jew someone down"--an expression meaning "to bargain for a lower price"--reflects a grossly insulting stereotype and should be avoided in all contexts.
JEWELRY
To remember the American pronunciation, just say "jewel" and add "-ree" on the end. "Jool-er-ee" is British. And the British spelling is much fancier: "jewellery."
JOHN HENRY/JOHN HANCOCK
John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence so flamboyantly that his name became a synonym for "signature." Don't mix him up with John Henry, who was a steel-drivin' man.
JUDGEMENT/JUDGMENT
In Great Britain and many of its former colonies, "judgement" is still the correct spelling; but ever since Noah Webster decreed the first E superfluous, Americans have omitted it. Many of Webster's crotchets have faded away (each year fewer people use the spelling "theater," for instance); but even the producers of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, chose the traditional American spelling. If you write "judgement" you should also write "colour," "tyre," and "gaol."
KICK-START/JUMP-START
You revive a dead battery by jolting it to life with a jumper cable: an extraordinary measure used in an emergency. So if you hope to stimulate a foundering economy, you want to jump-start it. Kick-starting is just the normal way of getting a motorcycle going.
KOALA BEAR/KOALA
A koala is not a bear. People who know their marsupials refer to them simply as "koalas."
LAISSEZ-FAIRE
The mispronunciation "lazy-fare" is almost irresistible in English, but this is a French expression meaning "let it be" or, more precisely, "the economic doctrine of avoiding state regulation of the economy," and it has retained its French pronunciation (though with an English R):"lessay fare." It is most properly used as an adjective, as in "laissez-faire capitalism," but is also commonly used as if it were a noun phrase: "the Republican party advocates laissez-faire."
LARGE/IMPORTANT
In colloquial speech it's perfectly normal to refer to something as a"big problem," but when people create analogous expressions in writing,the result is awkward. Don't write "this is a large issue for our firm" when what you mean is "this is an important issue for our firm." Size and intensity are not synonymous.
LAST NAME/FAMILY NAME
Now that few people know what a "surname" is, we usually use the term "last name" to designate a family name; but in a host of languages the family name comes first. "Julius" was the family name of Julius Caesar, and "Kawabata" was the family name of author Kawabata Yasunari. For Asians, this situation is complicated because publishers and immigrants often switch names to conform to Western practice, so you'll find most of Kawabata's books in an American bookstore by looking under "Yasunari Kawabata." It's safer with international names to write "given name" and "family name" rather than "first name" and "last name."
LATE/FORMER
If you want to refer to your former husband, don't call him your "late husband" unless he's dead.
LATER/LATTER
Except in the expression "latter-day" (modern), the word "latter" usually refers back to the last-mentioned of a set of alternatives. "We gave the kids a choice of a vacation in Paris, Rome, or Disney World. Of course the latter was their choice." In other contexts not referring back to such a list, the word you want is "later."
LAY/LIE
You lay down the book you've been reading, but you lie down when you go to bed. In the present tense, if the subject is acting on some other object, it's "lay." If the subject is lying down, then it's "lie." This distinction is often not made in informal speech, partly because in the past tense the words sound much more alike: "He lay down for a nap," but "He laid down the law." If the subject is already at rest, you might "let it lie." If a helping verb is involved, you need the past participle forms. "Lie" becomes "lain" and "lay" becomes "laid.": "He had just lain down for a nap," and "His daughter had laid the gerbil on his nose."
LEACH/LEECH
Water leaches chemicals out of soil or color out of cloth, your brother-in-law leeches off the family by constantly borrowing money to pay his gambling debts (he behaves like a bloodsucking leech).
LEAD/LED
When you're hit over the head, the instrument could be a "lead" pipe.But when it's a verb, "lead" is the present and "led" is the past tense.The problem is that the past tense is pronounced exactly like the above-mentioned plumbing material ("plumb" comes from a word meaning "lead"), so people confuse the two. In a sentence like "She led us to the scene of the crime," always use the three-letter spelling.
LEAVE/LET
The colloquial use of "leave" to mean "let" in phrases like "leave me be" is not standard. "Leave me alone" is fine, though.
LEGEND/MYTH
Myths are generally considered to be traditional stories whose importance lies in their significance, like the myth of the Fall in Eden; whereas legends can be merely famous deeds, like the legend of Davy Crockett. In common usage "myth" usually implies fantasy. Enrico Caruso was a legendary tenor, but Hogwarts is a mythical school. Legends may or may not be true. But be cautious about using "myth" to mean "untrue story" in a mythology, theology, or literature class, where teachers can be quite touchy about insisting that the true significance of a myth lies not in its factuality but in its meaning for the culture which produces or adopts it.
LENSE/LENS
Although the variant spelling "lense" is listed in some dictionaries,the standard spelling for those little disks that focus light is "lens."
LIABLE/LIBEL
If you are likely to do something you are liable to do it; and if a debt can legitimately be charged to you, you are liable for it. A person who defames you with a false accusation libels you. There is no such word as "lible."
LIBARY/LIBRARY
The first R in "library" is often slurred or omitted in speech, and it sometimes drops out in writing as well; and "librarian" is often turned into "libarian."
LIGHT-YEAR
"Light-year" is always a measure of distance rather than of time; in fact it is the distance that light travels in a year. "Parsec" is also a measure of distance, equaling 3.26 light-years, though the term was used incorrectly as a measure of time by Han Solo in "Star Wars."Please, "Star Wars"fans, don't bother sending me elaborate explanations of why Solo's speech makes sense; I personally heard George Lucas admit in a TV interview that it was just a mistake.
LIGHTED/LIT
Don't fret over the difference between these two words; they're interchangeable.
LIKE
Since the 1950s, when it was especially associated with hipsters, "like"as a sort of meaningless verbal hiccup has been common in speech. The earliest uses had a sort of sense to them in which "like" introduced feelings or perceptions which were then specified: "When I learned my poem had been rejected I was, like, devastated." However, "like" quickly migrated elsewhere in sentences: "I was like, just going down the road,when, like, I saw this cop, like, hiding behind the billboard." This habit has spread throughout American society, affecting people of all ages. Those who have the irritating "like" habit are usually unaware of it, even if they use it once or twice in every sentence: but if your job involves much speaking with others, it's a habit worth breaking.Recently young people have extended its uses by using "like" to introduce thoughts and speeches: "When he tells me his car broke down on the way to my party I'm like, 'I know you were with Cheryl because she told me so.'" To be reacted to as a grown-up, avoid this pattern.(See also "goes.")
LIKE/AS IF
"As if" is generally preferred in formal writing over "like" in sentences such as "the conductor looks as if he's ready to begin the symphony." But in colloquial speech, "like" prevails, and when recording expressions such as "he spends money like it's going out of style" it would be artificial to substitute "as if." And in expressions where the verb is implied rather than expressed, "like" is standard rather than "as": "she took to gymnastics like a duck to water."
LIKE FOR/LIKE
I would like you to remember that saying "I'd like for you to take out the garbage" is not formal English. The "for" is unnecessary.
LIQUOR
Although it may be pronounced "likker," you shouldn't spell it that way,and it's important to remember to include the "U" when writing the word.
LISTSERV
"LISTSERV" is the brand name of one kind of electronic mail-handling software for distributing messages to a list of subscribers. Other common brand names are "Majordomo" and "Listproc". You can subscribe to the poodle-fluffing list, but not the LISTSERV. People at my university,where only Listproc is used, often (and erroneously) refer to themselves as managers of "listservs." English teachers are frequently tripped up when typing "listserv" as part of a computer command; they naturally want to append an E on the end of the word. According to L-Soft, the manufacturer of LISTSERV, the name of their software should always be capitalized. See their Web site for the details: http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8d/user/user.html#1.1
"LITE" SPELLING
Attempts to "reform" English spelling to render it more phonetic have mostly been doomed to failure--luckily for us. These proposed changes, if widely adopted, would make old books difficult to read and obscure etymological roots which are often a useful guide to meaning. A few, like "lite" for "light," "nite" for "night," and "thru" for "through" have attained a degree of popular acceptance, but none of these should be used in formal writing. "Catalog" has become an accepted substitute for "catalogue," but I don't like it and refuse to use it. "Analog" has triumphed in technical contexts, but humanists are still more likely to write "analogue."
LITERALLY
Like "incredible," "literally" has been so overused as a sort of vague intensifier that it is in danger of losing its literal meaning. It should be used to distinguish between a figurative and a literal meaning of a phrase. It should not be used as a synonym for "actually" or "really." Don't say of someone that he "literally blew up" unless he swallowed a stick of dynamite.
LIVED
In expressions like "long-lived" pronouncing the last part to rhyme with "dived" is more traditional, but rhyming it with "sieved" is so common that it's now widely acceptable.
LOSE/LOOSE
This confusion can easily be avoided if you pronounce the word intended aloud. If it has a voiced Z sound, then it's "lose." If it has a hissy S sound, then it's "loose." Here are examples of correct usage: "He tends to lose his keys." "She lets her dog run loose." Note that when "lose" turns into "losing" it loses its "E."
LUSTFUL/LUSTY
"Lusty" means "brimming with vigor and good health" or "enthusiastic."Don't confuse it with "lustful," which means "filled with sexual desire."
MANTLE/MANTEL
Though they stem from the same word, a "mantle" today is usually a cloak, while the shelf over a fireplace is most often spelled "mantel."
MARITAL/MARTIAL
"Marital" refers to marriage, "martial" to war, whose ancient god was Mars. These two are often swapped, with comical results.
MARSHALL/MARSHAL
You may write "the Field Marshal marshalled his troops," but you cannot spell his title with a double "L." A marshal is always a marshal, never a marshall.
MASS/MASSIVE
When the dumb Coneheads on Saturday Night Live talked about consuming "mass quantities" of beer they didn't know any better, but native Earth humans should stick with "massive" unless they are trying to allude to SNL. "Mass" is often used by young people in expressions where "many" or even the informal "a lot of" would be more appropriate.
MASSEUSE/MASSEUR
"Masseuse" is a strictly female term; Monsieur Philippe, who gives back rubs down at the men's gym, is a masseur. Because of the unsavory associations that have gathered around the term "masseuse," serious practitioners generally prefer to be called "massage therapists."
MAUVE
"Mauve" (a kind of purple) is pronounced to rhyme with "grove," not "mawv."
MAY/MIGHT
Most of the time "might" and "may" are almost interchangeable, with "might" suggesting a somewhat lower probability. You're more likely to get wet if the forecaster says it may rain than if she says it might rain; but substituting one for the other is unlikely to get you into trouble--so long as you stay in the present tense.But "might" is also the past tense of the auxiliary verb "may," and is required in sentences like "Chuck might have avoided arrest for the robbery if he hadn't given the teller his business card before asking
for the money." When speculating that events might have been other than they were, don't substitute "may" for "might."As an aside: if you are an old-fashioned child, you will ask, "May I go out to play?" rather than "Can I go out to play?" Despite the prevalence of the latter pattern, some adults still feel strongly that "may" has to do with permission whereas "can" implies only physical ability. But then if you have a parent like this you've had this pattern drilled into your head long before you encountered this page.
MEDAL/METAL/MEDDLE/METTLE
A person who proves his or her mettle displays courage or stamina. The word "mettle" is seldom used outside of this expression, so people constantly confuse it with other similar-sounding words.
MEDIA/MEDIUM
There are several words with Latin or Greek roots whose plural forms ending in A are constantly mistaken for singular ones. See, for instance, "criteria" and "data." Radio is a broadcast medium. Television is another broadcast medium. Newspapers are a print medium. Together they are media. Following the tendency of Americans to abbreviate phrases, with "transistor radio" becoming "transistor," (now fortunately obsolete) and "videotape" becoming "video," "news media" and "communications media" have been abbreviated to "media." Remember that watercolor on paper and oil on black velvet are also media, though they have nothing to do with the news. When you want to get a message from your late Uncle Fred, you may consult a medium. The word means a vehicle between some source of information and the recipient of it. The "media" are the transmitters of the news; they are not the news itself.
MEDIEVAL AGES/MIDDLE AGES
The "eval" of "Medieval" means "age" so by saying "Medieval Ages" you are saying "Middle Ages Ages." Medievalists also greatly resent the common misspelling "Midevil."
MEDIOCRE
Although some dictionaries accept the meaning of this word as "medium" or "average," in fact its connotations are almost always more negative. When something is distinctly not as good as it could be, it is mediocre. If you want to say that you are an average student, don't proclaim yourself mediocre, or you'll convey a worse impression of yourself than you intend.
MEDIUM/MEDIAN
That strip of grass separating the lanes going opposite directions in the middle of a freeway is a median.
MEMORIUM/MEMORIAM
The correct spelling of the Latin phrase is "in memoriam."
MIC/MIKE
Until very recently the casual term for a microphone was "mike," not "mic." Young people now mostly imitate the technicians who prefer the shorter "mic" label on their soundboards, but it looks distinctly odd to those used to the traditional term. There are no other words in English in which "-ic" is pronounced to rhyme with "bike"--that's the reason for the traditional "mike" spelling in the first place.
MIGHT COULD/MIGHT, COULD
In some American dialects it is common to say things like "I might could pick up some pizza on the way to the party." In standard English, "might" or "could" are used by themselves, not together.
MISCHIEVIOUS/MISCHIEVOUS
The correct pronunciation of this word is "MISS-chuh-vuss," not "miss-CHEE-vee-uss." Don't let that mischievous extra "I" sneak into the word.
MISNOMER
A misnomer is mistake in naming a thing; calling a debit card a "credit card" is a misnomer. Do not use the term more generally to designate other sorts of confusion, misunderstood concepts, or fallacies, and above all do not render this word as "misnamer."
MORAL/MORALE
If you are trying to make people behave properly, you are policing their morals; if you are just trying to keep their spirits up, you are trying to maintain their morale. "Moral" is accented on the first syllable, "morale" on the second.
MORE IMPORTANTLY/MORE IMPORTANT
When speakers are trying to impress audiences with their rhetoric, they often seem to feel that the extra syllable in "importantly" lends weight to their remarks: "and more importantly, I have an abiding love for the American people." However, these pompous speakers are wrong. It is rarely correct to use this form of the phrase because it is seldom adverbial in intention. Say "more important" instead. The same applies to "most importantly"; it should be "most important."
MORESO/MORE SO
"More so" should always be spelled as two distinct words.
MOST ALWAYS/ALMOST ALWAYS
"Most always" is a casual, slangy way of saying "almost always." The latter expression is better in writing.
MOTION/MOVE
When you make a motion in a meeting, say simply "I move," as in "I move to adjourn"; and if you're taking the minutes, write "Barbara moved,"not "Barbara motioned" (unless Barbara was making wild arm-waving gestures to summon the servers to bring in the lunch). Instead of "I want to make a motion . . ." it's simpler and more direct to say "I want to move. . . ."
MUCH DIFFERENTLY/VERY DIFFERENTLY
Say "We consistently vote very differently," not "much differently." But you can say "My opinion doesn't much differ from yours."
MUSIC/SINGING
After my wife--an accomplished soprano--reported indignantly that a friend of hers had stated that her church had "no music, only singing," I began to notice the same tendency among my students to equate music strictly with instrumental music. I was told by one that "the singing interfered with the music" (i.e., the accompaniment). In the classical realm most listeners seem to prefer instrumental to vocal performances, which is odd given the distinct unpopularity of strictly instrumental popular music. People rejoice at the sound of choral works at Christmas but seldom seek them out at other times of the year. Serious music lovers rightly object to the linguistic sloppiness that denies the label "music" to works by such composers as Palestrina, Schubert, and Verdi. From the Middle Ages to the late eighteenth century, vocal music reigned supreme, and instrumentalists strove to achieve the prized compliment of "sounding like the human voice." The dominance of orchestral works is a comparatively recent phenomenon.In contrast, my students often call instrumental works "songs," being unfamiliar with the terms "composition" and "piece." All singing is music, but not all music is singing.
MUTE POINT/MOOT POINT
"Moot" is a very old word related to "meeting," specifically a meeting where serious matters are discussed. Oddly enough, a moot point can be a point worth discussing at a meeting (or in court)--an unresolved question--or it can be the opposite: a point already settled and not worth discussing further. At any rate, "mute point" is simply wrong.
MYRIAD OF/MYRIAD
Some traditionalists object to the word "of" after "myriad" or an "a" before, though both are fairly common in formal writing. The word is originally Greek, meaning 10,000, but now usually means "a great many."Its main function is as a noun, and the adjective derived from it shows its origins by being reluctant to behave like other nouns expressing amount, like "ton" as in "I've got a ton of work to do." In contrast: "I have myriad tasks to complete at work."
NAUSEATED/NAUSEOUS
Many people say, when sick to their stomachs, that they feel "nauseous"(pronounced "NOSH-uss" or "NOZH-uss") but traditionalists insist that this word should be used to describe something that makes you want to throw up: something nauseating. They hear you as saying that you make people want to vomit, and it tempers their sympathy for your plight. Better to say you are "nauseated," or simply that you feel like throwing up. Note that the English use "sick" exclusively for vomiting; when Americans say they feel sick, the English say they feel ill. Americans visiting Great Britain who tell their hosts they feel sick may cause them to worry needlessly about the carpeting.
NEICE/NIECE
Many people have trouble believing that words with the "ee" sound in them should be spelled with an "IE." The problem is that in English (and only in English), the letter I sounds like "aye" rather than "ee," as it does in the several European languages from which we have borrowed a host of words. If you had studied French in high school you would have learned that this word is pronounced "knee-YES" in that language, and it would be easier to remember. Americans in particular misspell a host of German-Jewish names because they have trouble remembering that in that language IE is pronounced "ee" and EI is pronounced "aye." The possessors of such names are inconsistent about this matter in English. "Wein" changes from "vine" to "ween," but "Klein" remains "kline."
NEVADA
"Nuh-VAH-duh" is a little closer to the original Spanish pronunciation than the way Nevadans pronounce the name of their home state, but the correct middle syllable is the same "A" sound as in "sad." When East Coast broadcasters use the first pronunciation, they mark themselves as outsiders.
NEXT STORE/NEXT DOOR
You can adore the boy next door, but not "next store."
NIEVE/NAIVE
People who spell this French-derived word "nieve" make themselves look naive. In French there is also a masculine form: "naif"; and both words can be nouns meaning "naive person" as well as adjectives. "Nieve" is
actually the Spanish word for "snow." "Naivete" is the French spelling of the related noun in English.If you prefer more nativized spelling, "naivety" is also acceptable.
EIGHTEEN HUNDREDS/NINETEENTH CENTURY
"Eighteen hundreds," "sixteen hundreds" and so forth are not exactly errors; the problem is that they are used almost exclusively by people who are nervous about saying "nineteenth century" when, after all, the years in that century begin with the number eighteen. This should be simple: few people are unclear about the fact that this is the twenty-first century even though our dates begin with twenty. Just be consistent about adding one to the second digit in a year and you've got the number of its century. It took a hundred years to get to the year 100, so the next hundred years, which are named "101," "102," etc. were in the second century. This also works BC. The four hundreds BC are the fifth century BC. Using phrases like "eighteen hundreds" is a signal to your readers that you are weak in math and history alike.
NO SOONER WHEN/NO SOONER THAN
The phrase, "No sooner had Paula stopped petting the cat when it began to yowl" should be instead, "No sooner had Paula stopped petting the cat than it began to yowl."
NOT HARDLY/NOT AT ALL
"Not hardly" is slang, fine when you want to be casual--but in a formal document? Not hardly!
NONPLUSSED
"Nonplussed" means to be stuck, often in a puzzling or embarrassing way, unable to go further ("non"="no" + "plus"="further"). It does not mean, as many people seem to think, "calm, in control."
NOONE/NO ONE
Shall we meet at Ye Olde Sandwyche Shoppe at Noone? "No one" is always two separate words, unlike "anyone" and "someone."
NOTORIOUS
"Notorious" means famous in a bad way, as in "Nero was notorious for giving long recitals of his tedious poetry." Occasionally writers deliberately use it in a positive sense to suggest irony or wit, but this is a very feeble and tired device. Nothing admirable should be called "notorious."
NUCLEAR
This isn't a writing problem, but a pronunciation error. President Eisenhower used to consistently insert a "U" sound between the first and second syllables, leading many journalists to imitate him and say "nuk-yuh-lar" instead of the correct "nuk-lee-ar." The confusion extends also to "nucleus." Many people can't even hear the mistake when they make it, and only scientists and a few others will catch the mispronunciation; but you lose credibility if you are an anti-nuclear protester who doesn't know how to pronounce "nuclear." Here's one way to remember: we need a new, clear understanding of the issues; let's stop saying "Nuke you!"
NUMBER OF VERB
In long, complicated sentences, people often lose track of whether the subject is singular or plural and use the wrong sort of verb. "The ultimate effect of all of these phone calls to the detectives were to make them suspicious of the callers" is an error because "effect," which is singular, is the subject. If you are uncertain about whether to go with singular or plural condense the sentence down to its skeleton: "The effect . . . was to make them suspicious."Another situation that creates confusion is the use of interjections like "along with," "as well as," and "together with," where they are often treated improperly as if they meant simply "and." "Aunt Hilda, as well as her pet dachshund, is coming to the party" (not "are coming").
NUMBERS
If your writing contains numbers, the general rule is to spell out in letters all the numbers from zero to nine and use numerals for larger numbers; but there are exceptions. If what you're writing is full of numbers and you're doing math with them, stick with numerals. Approximations like "about thirty days ago" and catch-phrases like "his first thousand days" are spelled out. Large round numbers are often rendered thus: "50 billion sold." With measurements, use numerals: "4 inches long." Never start a sentence with a numeral. Either spell out
the number involved or rearrange the sentence to move the number to a later position.See also "50's."
NUPTUAL/NUPTIAL
"Nuptial" is usually a pretentious substitute for "wedding," but if you're going to use it, be sure to spell it properly.
OF
"Of" is often shoved in where it doesn't belong in phrases like "not that big of a deal," and "not that great of a writer." Just leave it out.
OF ___'S
Phrases combining "of" with a noun followed by "'S" may seem redundant,since both indicate possession; nevertheless, "a friend of Karen's" is standard English, just as "a friend of Karen" or "Karen's friend" are.
OFFENSE/OFFENCE
In the US "offense" is standard; in the U.K. use "offence." The sports pronunciation accenting the first syllable should not be used when discussing military, legal, or other sorts of offense.
OFTEN
People striving for sophistication often pronounce the "T" in this word, but true sophisticates know that the masses are correct in saying "offen."
OK/OKAY
This may be the most universal word in existence; it seems to have spread to most of the world's languages. Etymologists now generally agree that it began as a humorous misspelling of "all correct": "oll korrect." "OK" without periods is the most common form in written American English now, though "okay" is not incorrect.
OLD FASHION/OLD-FASHIONED
Although "old fashion" appears in advertising a good deal, the traditional spelling is "old-fashioned."
OLD-TIMER'S DISEASE/ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE
I've always thought that "old-timer's disease" was a clever if tasteless pun on "Alzheimer's Disease"; but many people have assured me that this is a common and quite unintentional error.
ON ACCIDENT/BY ACCIDENT
Although you can do things on purpose, you do them by accident.
ONCE AND A WHILE/ONCE IN A WHILE
The expression is "once in a while."
ONE OF THE (SINGULAR)
In phrases like "pistachio is one of the few flavors that appeals to me," use the singular form for the verb "appeals" because its subject is "one," not "flavors."
ONE-DIMENSIONAL/TWO-DIMENSIONAL
Once upon a time most folks knew that "three-dimensional" characters or ideas were rounded, fleshed out, and complex and "two-dimensional" ones were flat and uninteresting. It seems that the knowledge of basic geometry has declined in recent years, because today we hear uninteresting characters and ideas described as "one-dimensional."According to Euclid, no object can be one-dimensional (of course, according to modern physics, even two-dimensionality is only an abstract concept). If you are still bothered by the notion that two dimensions are one too many, just use "flat."
ONE IN THE SAME/ONE AND THE SAME
The old expression "they are one and the same" is now often mangled into the roughly phonetic equivalent "one in the same." The use of "one" here to mean "identical with each other" is familiar from phrases like "Jane and John act as one." They are one, they are the same.
ONE OF THE ONLY/ONE OF THE FEW
"Only" has its root in "one," as should be obvious from looking at it. But we lose sight of this because of phrases like "only a few" and "only some," which lead in turn to the mistaken "one of the only." "The only" always refers to just one item, so the correct expression is "one of the few." Compare this with the similarly mistaken "very unique."
ONLY
Writers often inadvertently create confusion by placing "only" incorrectly in a sentence. It should go immediately before the word or phrase it modifies. "I lost my only shirt" means that I had but one to begin with. "I lost only my shirt" means I didn't lose anything else. "Only I lost my shirt" means that I was the only person in my group to lose a shirt. Strictly speaking, "I only lost my shirt" should mean I didn't destroy it or have it stolen--I just lost it; but in common speech this is usually understood as being identical with "I lost only my shirt." Scrutinize your uses of "only" to make sure you are not creating unwanted ambiguities.
ONTO/ON TO
"Onto" and "on to" are often interchangeable, but not always. Consider the effect created by wrongly using "onto" in the following sentence when "on to" is meant: "We're having hors d'oeuvres in the garden, and for dinner moving onto the house." If the "on" is part of an expression like "moving on" it can't be shoved together with a "to" that just happens to follow it.
OPPRESS/REPRESS
Dictators commonly oppress their citizens and repress dissent, but these words don't mean exactly the same thing. "Repress" just means "keep under control." Sometimes repression is a good thing: "During the job interview, repress the temptation to tell Mr. Brown that he has toilet paper stuck to his shoe." Oppression is always bad, and implies serious persecution.
ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE
Many pretentious writers have begun to use the expression "orders of magnitude" without understanding what it means. The concept derives from the scientific notation of very large numbers in which each order of magnitude is ten times the previous one. When the bacteria in a flask have multiplied from some hundreds to some thousands, it is very handy to say that their numbers have increased by an order of magnitude, and when they have increased to some millions, that their numbers have increased by four orders of magnitude.Number language generally confuses people. Many seem to suppose that a 100% increase must be pretty much the same as an increase by an order of magnitude, but in fact such an increase represents merely a doubling of quantity. A "hundredfold increase" is even bigger: one hundred times as much. If you don't have a firm grasp on such concepts, it's best to avoid the expression altogether. After all, "Our audience is ten times as big now as when the show opened" makes the same point more clearly than "Our audience has increased by an order of magnitude."Compare with "quantum leap."
ORDINANCE/ORDNANCE
A law is an ordinance, but a gun is a piece of ordnance.
OREGON
Oregon natives and other Westerners pronounce the state name's last syllable to sound like "gun," not "gone."
ORGANIC
The word "organic" is used in all sorts of contexts, often in a highly metaphorical manner; the subject here is its use in the phrase "organic foods" in claims of superior healthfulness. Various jurisdictions have various standards for "organic" food, but generally the label is applied to foods that have been grown without artificial chemicals or pesticides. Literally, of course, the term is a redundancy: all food is composed of organic chemicals (complex chemicals containing carbon).There is no such thing as an inorganic food (unless you count water as a food). Natural fertilizers and pesticides may or may not be superior to artificial ones, but the proper distinction is not between organic and inorganic. Many nitrogen-fixing plants like peas do a great job of fertilizing the soil with plain old inorganic atmospheric nitrogen.When it comes to nutrition, people tend to generalize rashly from a narrow scientific basis. After a few preservatives were revealed to have harmful effects in some consumers, many products were proudly labeled "No Preservatives!" I don't want harmful preservatives in my food, but that label suggests to me a warning: "Deteriorates quickly! May contain mold and other kinds of rot!" Salt is a preservative.
ORIENTAL/ASIAN
"Oriental" is generally considered old-fashioned now, and many find it offensive. "Asian" is preferred, but not "Asiatic." It's better to write the nationality involved, for example "Chinese" or "Indian," if you know it. "Asian" is often taken to mean exclusively "East Asian," which irritates South Asian and Central Asian people.
ORIENTATE/ORIENT
Although some dictionaries have now begun to accept it, "orientate" was mistakenly formed from "orientation." The proper verb form is simply "orient." Similarly, "disorientated" is an error for "disoriented."
OSTENSIVELY/OSTENSIBLY
This word, meaning "apparently,"is spelled "ostensibly."
OVER-EXAGGERATED/EXAGGERATED
"Over-exaggerated" is a redundancy. If something is exaggerated, it's already overstressed.
OVERDO/OVERDUE
If you overdo the cocktails after work you may be overdue for your daughter's soccer game at 6:00.
OVERSEE/OVERLOOK
When you oversee the preparation of dinner, you take control and manage the operation closely. But if you overlook the preparation of dinner you forget to prepare the meal entirely--better order pizza.

PAIR (NUMBER)
"This is a left-handed pair of scissors." "There is a pair of glasses on the mantelpiece." "Pair" is singular in this sort of expression. Note that we say "that is a nice pair of pants" even though we also say "those are nice pants."
PALATE/PALETTE/PALLET
Your "palate" is the roof of your mouth, and by extension, your sense of taste. A "palette" is the flat board an artist mixes paint on (or by extension, a range of colors). A "pallet" is either a bed (now rare) or a flat platform onto which goods are loaded.
PARALLEL/SYMBOL
Beginning literature students often write sentences like this: "He uses the rose as a parallel for her beauty" when they mean "a symbol for her beauty." If you are taking a literature class, it's good to master the distinctions between several related terms relating to symbolism. An eagle clutching a bundle of arrows and an olive branch is a symbol of the U.S. government in war and peace.Students often misuse the word "analogy" in the same way. An analogy has to be specifically spelled out by the writer, not simply referred to:"My mother's attempts to find her keys in the morning were like early expeditions to the South Pole: prolonged and mostly futile."A metaphor is a kind of symbolism common in literature. When Shakespeare writes "That time of year thou mayst in me behold/When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang/Upon those boughs which shake against the cold" he is comparing his aging self to a tree in late autumn, perhaps even specifically suggesting that he is going bald by referring to the tree shedding its leaves. This autumnal tree is a metaphor for the human aging process.A simile resembles a metaphor except that "like" or "as" or something similar is used to make the comparison explicitly. Byron admires a dark-haired woman by saying of her "She walks in beauty, like the night/Of cloudless climes and starry skies." Her darkness is said to be like that of the night.An allegory is a symbolic narrative in which characters may stand for abstract ideas, and the story convey a philosophy. Allegories are no longer popular, but the most commonly read one in school is Dante's Divine Comedy in which the poet Virgil is a symbol for human wisdom, Dante's beloved Beatrice is a symbol of divine grace, and the whole poem tries to teach the reader how to avoid damnation. Aslan in C. S. Lewis' Narnia tales is an allegorical figure meant to symbolize Christ: dying to save others and rising again ("aslan" is Turkish for "lion").
PARALLELLED/PARALLELED
In British English two pairs of parallel "L"s are a handy spelling reminder, but in American English the spelling of the past tense of "parallel" is "paralleled." The same pattern holds for British "parallelling" and American "paralleling."
PARALLELISM IN A SERIES
Phrases in a series separated by commas or conjunctions must all have the same grammatical form. "They loved mountain-climbing, to gather wild mushrooms, and first aid practice" should be corrected to something like this: "They loved to climb mountains, gather wild mushrooms, and practice first aid" (all three verbs are dependent on that initial "to"). Fear of being repetitious often leads writers into awkward inconsistencies when creating such series.
PARALYZATION/PARALYSIS
Some people derive the noun "paralyzation" from the verb "paralyze," but the proper term is "paralysis."
PARAMETERS/PERIMETERS
When parameters were spoken of only by mathematicians and scientists, the term caused few problems; but now that it has become widely adopted by other speakers, it is constantly confused with "perimeters." A parameter is a quantity or constant that varies depending on the instance being examined. The parameters of distance between the axles of a car and its turning radius are related. The perimeter of something is its boundary. The two words shade into each other because we often speak of factors of an issue or problem being parameters, simultaneously thinking of them as limits; but this is to confuse two distinct, if related ideas. A safe rule is to avoid using "parameters" altogether unless you are confident you know what it means.
PARENTHESES
The most common error in using parenthesis marks (besides using them too much) is to forget to enclose the parenthetical material with a final, closing parenthesis mark. The second most common is to place concluding punctuation incorrectly. The simplest sort of example is one in which the entire sentence is enclosed in parentheses. (Most people understand that the final punctuation must remain inside the closing parenthesis mark, like this.) More troublesome are sentences in which only a clause or phrase is enclosed in parentheses. Normally a sentence's final punctuation mark--whether period, exclamation point, or question mark--goes outside such a parenthesis (like this). However, if the material inside the parenthesis requires a concluding punctuation mark like an exclamation point or question mark (but not a period!), that mark is placed inside the closing mark even though another mark is outside it. This latter sort of thing is awkward, however, and best avoided if you can help it.For some reason, many writers have begun to omit the space before a parenthetic page citation, like this:(p. 17). Always preserve the space, like this: (p. 17).
PARLIMENT/PARLIAMENT
Americans unfamiliar with parliamentary systems often mistakenly leave the second "A" out of "parliament" and "parliamentary."
PASSED/PAST
If you are referring to time or distance, use "past": "the team performed well in the past," "the police car drove past the suspect's house." If you are referring to the action of passing, however, you need to use "passed": "when John passed the gravy, he spilled it on his lap," "the teacher was astonished that none of the students had passed the test."
PASSIVE VOICE
There are legitimate uses for the passive voice: "this absurd regulation was of course written by a committee." But it's true that you can make your prose more lively and readable by using the active voice much more often. "the victim was attacked by three men in ski masks" isn't nearly as striking as "three men in ski masks attacked the victim." The passive voice is often used to avoid taking responsibility for an action: "my term paper was accidentally deleted" avoids stating the truth: "I accidentally deleted my term paper." Over-use of passive constructions is irritating, though not necessarily erroneous. But it does lead to real clumsiness when passive constructions get piled on top of each other: "no exception in the no-pets rule was sought to be created so that angora rabbits could be raised in the apartment" can be made clearer by shifting to the active voice: "the landlord refused to make an exception to the no-pets rule to allow Eliza to raise angora rabbits in the apartment."
PAST TIME/PASTIME
An agreeable activity like knitting with which you pass the time is your pastime. Spell it as one word, with one "S" and one "T."
PEACE/PIECE
It's hard to believe many people really confuse the meaning of these words; but the spellings are frequently swapped, probably out of sheer carelessness. "Piece" has the word "pie" buried in it, which should remind you of the familiar phrase, "a piece of pie." You can meditate to find peace of mind, or you can get angry and give someone a piece of your mind. Classical scholars will note that "pax" is the Latin word for peace, suggesting the need for an "A" in the latter word.
PEAK/PEEK/PIQUE
It is tempting to think that your attention might be aroused to a high point by "peaking" your curiosity; but in fact, "pique" is a French word meaning "prick," in the sense of "stimulate." The expression has nothing to do with "peek," either. Therefore the expression is "my curiosity was piqued."
PEASANT/PHEASANT
When I visited the former Soviet Union I was astonished to learn that farmworkers were still called "peasants" there. In English-speaking countries we tend to think of the term as belonging strictly to the feudal era. However you use it, don't confuse it with "pheasant," a favorite game bird. Use the sound of the beginning consonants to remind you of the difference: pheasants are food, peasants are people.
PENULTIMATE/NEXT TO LAST
To confuse your readers, use the term "penultimate," which means "next to last," but which most people assume means "the very last." And if you really want to baffle them, use "antepenultimate" to mean "third from the end."Many people also mistakenly use "penultimate" when they mean "quintessential" or "archetypical."
PEOPLES
In the Middle Ages "peoples" was not an uncommon word, but later writers grew wary of it because "people" has a collective, plural meaning which seemed to make "peoples" superfluous. It lived on in the sense of "nations" ("the peoples of the world") and from this social scientists (anthropologists in particular) derived the extended meaning "ethnic groups" ("the peoples of the upper Amazon Basin"). However, in ordinary usage "people" is usually understood to be plural, so much so that in the bad old days when dialect humor was popular having a speaker refer to "you peoples" indicated illiteracy. If you are not referring to national or ethnic groups, it is better to avoid "peoples" and use "people."See also "behaviors."
PER/ACCORDING TO
Using "per" to mean "according to" as in "ship the widgets as per the instructions of the customer" is rather old-fashioned business jargon, and is not welcome in other contexts. "Per" is fine when used in phrases involving figures like "miles per gallon."
PERCENT DECREASE
When something has been reduced by one hundred percent, it's all gone(or if the reduction was in its price, it's free). You can't properly speak of reducing anything by more than a hundred percent (unless it's a deficit or debt, in which case you wind up with a surplus).
PERNICKETY/PERSNICKETY
The original Scottish dialect form was "pernickety," but Americans changed it to "persnickety" a century ago. "Pernickety" is generally unknown in the U.S. though it's still in wide use across the Atlantic.

PEROGATIVE/PREROGATIVE
"Prerogative" is frequently both mispronounced and misspelled as "perogative." It may help to remember that the word is associated with PRivileges of PRecedence.
PERPETUATE/PERPETRATE
"Perpetrate" is something criminals do (criminals are sometimes called "perps" in cop slang). When you seek to continue something you are trying to perpetuate it.
PERSE/PER SE
This legal term meaning "in, of, or by itself") is a bit pretentious, but you gain little respect if you misspell per se as a single word.Worse is the mistaken "per say."
PERSONAL/PERSONNEL
Employees are personnel, but private individuals considered separately from their jobs have personal lives.
PERSPECTIVE/PROSPECTIVE
"Perspective" has to do with sight, as in painting, and is usually a noun. "Prospective" generally has to do with the future (compare with "What are your prospects, young man?") and is usually an adjective. But beware: there is also a rather old-fashioned but fairly common meaning of the word "prospect" that has to do with sight: "as he climbed the mountain, a vast prospect opened up before him."
PERSECUTE/PROSECUTE
When you persecute someone, you're treating them badly, whether they deserve it or not; but only legal officers can prosecute someone for a crime.
PERSONALITY
In show business personalities are people famous for being famous(mostly popular actors and singers); people with more substantial accomplishments like distinguished heads of state and Nobel Prize winners should not be referred to as "personalities" even when they appear on the Tonight Show.
PERUSE
This word, which means "examine thoroughly" is often misused to mean "glance over hastily." Although some dictionaries accept the latter meaning, it is not traditional.
PHENOMENA/PHENOMENON
There are several words with Latin or Greek roots whose plural forms ending in "A" are constantly mistaken for singular ones. See, for instance, "criteria" and "media" and "data." It's "this phenomenon," but "these phenomena."
PHILIPPINES/FILIPINOS
The people of the Philippines are called "Filipinos." Don't switch the initial letters of these two words.
PHYSICAL/FISCAL
In budget matters, it's the fiscal year, relating to finances with an "F."
PICARESQUE/PICTURESQUE
"Picaresque" is a technical literary term you are unlikely to have a use for. It labels a sort of literature involving a picaro (Spanish), a lovable rogue who roams the land having colorful adventures. A landscape that looks as lovely as a picture is picturesque.
PICTURE
The pronunciation of "picture" as if it were "pitcher" is common in some dialects, but not standard. The first syllable should sound like "pick."
PIN number/PIN
Those who object to "PIN number" on the grounds that the N in "PIN" stands for "number" in the phrase "personal identification number" are quite right, but it may be difficult to get people to say anything else."PIN" was invented to meet the objection that a "password" consisting of nothing but numbers is not a word.