More Misused Words E-Book

Giacomo Giammatteo

• Herausgeber: Inferno Publishing Company
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Serie: No Mistakes Grammar
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Seitenzahl: 121

Beschreibung

More Misused Words contains a lot of the same words that Misused Words I and II did, but so much more. In More Misused Words, we address even more redundancies, absolutes, capitals, eponyms, flat adverbs (everybody’s favorite), initialisms and acronyms, Latin abbreviations, mispronunciations, a couple of sticklers like lie/lay/laid/lain, and poisonous/venomous, plurals of compound words (is it mothers-in-law or mother-in-laws? Isn’t one sufficient?), time-consuming phrases, and punctuation.
We’ll have fun tackling these words (they’re not that big), and we’ll address more than just words—we’ll hit on eponyms, odd punctuation, and even a few Latin expressions, such as e.g., ergo, etc., and i.e. (Did I just say ‘ergo’? If I do that again, smack me.)

I know you think you are familiar with these, but despite their ubiquitousness (Smack me for that also.), there might be a few odd rules that pertain to using Latin expressions that you’re not familiar with. It’s worthwhile to learn them (especially if you intend to write). 

Leseprobe

No Mistakes Grammar, Volume III

More Misused Words

Giacomo Giammatteo

Inferno Publishing Company

Contents

1.Misused Words

2.Words

3.More Common Redundancies

4.Redundancies

5.Absolutes

6.Words We Don't Need

7.How to Capitalize

8.Eponyms

9.Flat Adverbs

10.Initialisms and Acronyms

11.Latin Abbreviations

12.Words Difficult to Pronounce

13.Lie, Lay, and Laid, and Lain

14.Poisonous or Venomous?

15.Plurals of Compound Words

16.Time-Consuming Words

17.Punctuation, (:!-*%;--@''–#,) and Other Things

18.I'm Afraid of ;;;;;;

19.Closing

About the Author

Acknowledgments

Also by Giacomo Giammatteo

Misused Words

As always, I use this symbol--🐗--to indicate a tip or something important, so when you see that symbol, pay attention. Besides that, it's Dennis, my four-hundred-pound wild boar, and he would be unhappy if you didn't.

In this third edition of No Mistakes Grammar, I have once again spent a little time not only on misused words but also on redundancies, absolutes, eponyms, flat adverbs, acronyms, mispronunciations, and punctuation. I think you'll enjoy the diversity.

And once again, some of the material (such as mispronunciations) is a repeat from previous books, but it's because I felt the lesson was needed. If you feel you have a handle on it, skip that chapter. If not, take a refresher.

Words

Abjure/adjure

Unless you write historical fiction or fantasy books, I doubt you'll have much use for either of these words, but just in case . . .

Abjure--"to renounce or give up under oath."

After the wizard lost his powers, he abjured all titles or claims to power, choosing to hide out in a remote mountain village.

Adjure--"to command sincerely; to make a person swear an oath or threaten them with harm to do something."

During the Spanish Inquisition, the interrogators adjured the people to swear to the truth under penalty of death.

Acute/chronic

Some use acute and chronic interchangeably, but they have distinctly different meanings.

Acute means "sharp," but as in an acute care center, it's where you might take your child for an emergency. If you smash your finger with a hammer, it would cause acute (sharp) pain.

Chronic, on the other hand, means "long-term," as in "He suffered from chronic fatigue (long-term fatigue)." Or chronic back pain or chronic indigestion.

🐗 You might start out with chronic bronchitis and have a chronic cough, but the cough might cause you to break a rib, which would bring acute pain.

Acute can also mean other things, as in the measurement of an angle less than ninety degrees, or keen intellectual perception (especially of subtle distinctions), or acute hearing--the ability to distinguish the slightest sounds.

Adherence/adherents

Adherence--"the act of adhering, or showing allegiance," as in adherence to a political party. Or "stick to," as in adhere to the letter of the law.

Adherents--people who uphold a faction. Glue is an adherent.

The GOP has strong adherents.

Are/our

Are and our(and even hour) are often mixed up--and not just by English-as-a-second-language learners. It may stem from the way many people pronounce the words, though if done properly, there is a distinct difference.

Anyway, to get into the differences, are is a present tense form of the verb "to be." I don't like using grammar to explain grammar, so let's try some examples.

We are going to the mall.

You are her cousin.

Are you coming with us? (It's pronounced similar to the letter r.)

Our is a possessive. It is used to indicate ownership:

That is our car.

We just purchased our first house.

You are our friend.

Hour is a measurement of time equaling sixty minutes.

🐗 The easy way to remember this is that our with the o means ownership.

Attain/obtain

Obtain--"get something, an object, something physical."

Attain--"to reach a goal, put effort into acquiring something abstract."

He attained moral superiority.

She attained her goal of becoming a vice president by the age of thirty.

I've seen disagreement on the finer definitions of these words, with some stating that obtain means "to acquire through effort," but you can obtain anything in any manner. You might obtain a bottle of beer or a pack of cigarettes by buying it, yet it seems as if you must attain something (usually abstract) through hard work.

🐗 Remember that obtain usually refers to an object and that both begin with ob. On the other hand, attain usually refers to something abstract and both begin with a.

Auger/augur

An auger is a tool used to drill or bore holes. It can also be used as a verb, meaning "to drill or bore."

I have an auger on the back of my tractor. It's how I drill holes for fence posts.

Augur--as a noun, "a seer or prophet." As a verb, "to make predictions, usually from omens or signs."

In ancient times, augurs were often consulted before important decisions were made.

🐗 Remember that an augur is a person and that an auger is a tool. So, you consult an augur and use an auger.

Avenge/revenge

Avenge--usually means "to inflict punishment" or "to mete out justice in retribution."

He avenged his son's murder by getting the killer convicted and sentenced to death.

Revenge--"to take vengeance or retaliate for injuries or wrongs that were either real or that you thought were real."

He committed murder to take revenge for his son's death.

Note: The best explanation for the distinction between the two is the quote by Samuel Johnson: "Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged."

Baited/bated

Baited--you can bait a trap or a (fishing) hook, or you can bait a person into a fight or into something illegal (or anything a person wouldn't ordinarily do).

She relentlessly baited him until he finally broke the law.

Bated--"to lessen the force or intensity of."

He waited with bated breath. (Not "He waited with baited breath.")

🐗 Remember that baited has the word bait in it, and you use bait to catch an animal or set a trap.

Bazaar/bizarre

A bazaar is a place where goods are offered for sale (often outdoors).

The church organized a bazaar to raise money for the homeless.

Bizarre--"unusual or not ordinary."

Her lip piercings, combined with her red and blue hair, presented a bizarre sight.

🐗 Remember that bazaar has an a in it, and so does fair. And bizarre has an e and an i and so does weird.

Bit/bitten

I overheard a friend of mine say that his daughter was bit by a dog the other day. It's a shame that the dog bit her, but she wasn't bit; she was bitten.

Without getting too technical, bit is the simple past tense, and bitten is the past participle and is used with an auxiliary verb, i.e., a helping verb. (Note that my intentional use of i.e. was to demonstrate that an auxiliary verb and helping verb are the same. Examples might better serve the point here.)

"The dog bit her." But . . . "She wasbitten by the dog."

🐗 If there is a helping verb in the sentence, the word you are probably looking for is bitten. You can get a full list of helping verbs at wikipedia.com.

Born/borne

Born--"to be birthed or brought into existence."

The baby was born out of wedlock.

Borne--"transmitted by, as in malaria is a mosquito-borne disease." (Used in this sense, borne is part of a hyphenated word.)

Bring and Take/Come and Go

The basics of bring and take are simple. It all depends on location. You bring things here, and you take things there. So if you're at a location and you want something brought to you, you would say "Please bring me some food." But if you wanted to send some food somewhere else, you might say "Please take some food to Margie."

There are a few subtleties you may have to learn, but if you master this, you'll be right 99 percent of the time.

🐗 You bring things here and take things there. You come here and go there. Remember that take and there both start with a t.

Callous/callus

Callous--"being indifferent or not sensitive; a person who shows no feelings toward others."

He was a callous sort and didn't care about his wife's misery.

Callus--a hardened patch of skin (usually on the palm of the hand). Calluses are often the result of hard work.

The callous farmer had calluses on his hands from plowing the fields.

Canon/cannon

Canon--a secular law or rule.

It is against the canons of the church for priests to marry.

Cannon--a piece of artillery (usually using gunpowder) that fires heavy projectiles. Examples of effective weapons are mortars and howitzers, which were used extensively during WWII.

Catalog/catalogue

This is one of the easy ones. Catalog is the US usage, while catalogue is

🐗 If you can't remember it any other way, try to remember that the e at the end of catalogue stands for

Continual/continuous

These words have similar meanings. Continual is regular but with the possibility of interruption, whereas continuous is with no

Some people claim electronics technology has made continuous improvement, while others claim it has only been

Continual noise often makes for a continuous

🐗 A swift-flowing river might be said to have continuous motion, while a small creek might only be continual, such as when it

Convince/persuade

Convince: to cause someone to believe that something is

The drugs he found in his son's room convinced the father he had a

He persuaded his son to go into rehab, after the boy's second

🐗 Remember that you persuade someone to do something, and you convince that person of something. Persuade is for action, convince is only to make up their

He might be persuaded to do that, but he will have to be convinced first.

Note: This word distinction is quickly falling by the wayside. Most people don't know the difference, and of those that do know, most don't care. If you're interested, learn it and stick with it. If you're not, I wouldn't worry about it.

🐗 Remember, you convince with facts and you persuade people. (Another one I use is "Scientists convince and salesmen

Decimate

This is another word people seem to confuse. There are sides for and against the use of the word.

Many modern linguists support its meaning "to destroy/kill a larger portion of something." Other, more strict, linguists continue to use it only in the sense of "to kill one in ten," citing etymological reasons (the Latin root of decimate). Supposedly, an old punishment in Rome was to "decimate" a legion for a wrongdoing, in other words, to kill one in ten of them.

You are less likely to draw ire if you stick with the more classical meaning; however, there is probably enough evidence to support either position.

Decry/descry

Decry--"to criticize or condemn; to rail against something."

He wrote an opinion piece railing against (decrying) the new immigration policy.

Descry--"to detect something by looking or listening closely."

He descried a hidden agenda in the proposed bill, something he decried.

🐗 Remember that the s in descry stands for "see."

Note: This is not a set of words most people will confuse, simply because most people don't use them; however, if you're tempted to use either of these words, make certain you're using them correctly.

Drank/drunk

Many people confuse the use of these two verbs, especially if they drank a lot of liquor. Drunk, which can also be a noun, is easily identified when used as a noun. The confusion arises when people search for the proper past tense of drink.

Drunk can be used as a verb, adjective, or noun. Few people confuse it when used as an adjective or noun, as in "He's a drunk" or "She associates with drunk people."

But confusion sets in when we attempt to use it as a verb: "I drank the wine" and "He has drunk too much" are both correct. If you use the verb "to have" in any of its forms, use drunk. If it's the simple past tense of "to drink," use drank, as in "I drank beer after dinner" or "He drank all of the wine." But "I have drunk every drop."

🐗 Same as bit and bitten and got and gotten. If you use have, had, etc., use drunk.

Eminent/immanent/imminent/preeminent

Eminent--"used to describe a well-respected and renowned person, especially in a particular field of interest."

The eminent Dr. Henry Wells, a renowned biologist, will be speaking tonight.

Immanent--"restricted entirely to the mind; subjective" (American Heritage Dictionary).

Imminent--"something that will happen no matter what you do."

The attack was imminent.

Preeminent--"leading the field, ahead of the pack, superior."

He is the preeminent candidate.

🐗 Way to remember: "If someone is trying to appear eminent and uses the word immanent, you can rest assured it is imminent I will kick his preeminent ass." (This pneumonic device puts the words in alphabetical order.)

Enormity

Originally, enormity meant "of great evil--something wicked and bad;" however, it has evolved and is now commonly used to compare something great in size or scope--such as "the enormity of the project."

Many grammarians find fault with this, but it is more and more frequently used in this manner, so they (the grammar nerds) probably need to learn to accept it, as language is ever-changing.

Fervent/fervid

Though some grammarians say that there is a subtle difference, common usage doesn't bear that out. Both mean "with great passion" or "passionate" and are used interchangeably.

Neither word is used often, but when they are, you will be hard-pressed to identify a difference. So, if you have an inclination to use one, go ahead and do it. Either will work.

Flout/flaunt

This is one a lot of people mix up. You flaunt the new car you purchased, but you flout the law by running a stop sign with that new car.

🐗 Even after you learn the difference, it's difficult to keep it straight. I try to remember by using the "aunt" in flaunt. I pretend it represents an aunt who left me her wealth I'm now "flaunting."

🐗 The other way to remember it is to think of the "lout" in flout as a person who might "flout" the law.

Got/gotten

This is a pair of little words that causes a great deal of problems.

Got is the past tense of get, and get means so many things it's almost ridiculous. I've listed samples from dictionary.com.

Definitions for got (the definitions were from dictionary.com's website, but I selectively chose examples, which is why the numbering is odd.)

verb (used with object), got or (archaic) gat; got or got·ten; get·ting.

1. to receive or come to have possession, use, or enjoyment of: to get a birthday present; to get a pension.