Commonly misused/misspelled words and phrases (Part 49)

Here are some more oft-misused words:

Niggardly

Right: He left his waitress a niggardly tip.

Perhaps due to the unfortunate similarity to another word, some people mistakenly assume niggardly is a racial slur of some sort. In fact, it simply means miserly or stingy. Still, due to the potential for confusion, perhaps it’s best to use a synonym instead.

This reminds me of the story of a politician who used dirty tricks in a campaign, by claiming of his opponent that “He has been seen masticating in public and his wife is a known thespian.” The politician evidently counted on the voters possessing poor vocabularies. Similarly, you might enjoy this spoof of a campaign speech by Bill Garvin, published in Mad Magazine in 1970: http://www.mendosa.com/politics.html.

Spaded vs. spayed

Wrong: Have your dogs spaded or neutered.
Right: Have your dogs spayed or neutered.

To spay means to have a female surgically sterilized. Spaded means shoveled as with with a spade. Do you really want to encourage people to shovel their dogs?

More next time.

Mark.

Commonly misused/misspelled words and phrases (Part 48)

More frequently misused words:

Proved vs. proven

Right: He proved his case.
Right: She was proved wrong.
Right: She was proven wrong.
Right: Unless I’m proven wrong, my decision stands.

Proven must be proceeded by a form of the verb “to be” (am/are/is/was/were/will be/will have been/could be/might be, and so on), while proved is correct either with or without a form of to be. In the fourth example, the two words are interchangeable. However, sometimes one sounds better than the other. (Personally, I feel that proved wrong, when spoken, doesn’t flow as well as proven wrong.)

Shear vs. sheer

Wrong: She cried out in shear terror.
Right: She cried out in sheer terror.

Shear means to cut, so unless she’s being menaced by pinking shears, it’s sheer, as in utter.

Please come back for more words next time.

Mark.

Commonly misused/misspelled words and phrases (Part 47)

If you've been following this thread, you know what's coming. Here are some more words many people misuse or misspell:

Dying vs. dyeing

Wrong: I can’t go out with you tonight because I’m dying my hair.
Right: I can’t go out with you tonight because I’m dyeing my hair.

Unless a woman is changing her hair color at the bottom of the ocean, most likely she’s dyeing it, not dying.

Ink pen

Wrong: May I borrow your ink pen?
Right: May I borrow your pen?

Because all writing pens (as opposed to, for example, pig pens) contain ink and only ink, saying ink pen is redundant.

That's all for now. I have plenty more to go, so y'all come back now, y'here?

Mark.

Commonly misused/misspelled words and phrases (Part 46)

These are some frequently confused words, and how to use them correctly:

Disc vs. disk

Wrong: My hard disc crashed.
Right: My hard disk crashed.

Disc and disk are both valid spellings, but are generally used differently. If referring to CDs, then use compact disc. Similarly, DVDs are digital video discs (sometimes called digital versatile discs, because they’re used for more than just videos these days). But when talking about floppies (diskettes) or hard drives, spell it floppy disk drive or hard disk drive.

Singing vs. singeing

Wrong: He says he’s grilling steaks, but what he’s really doing is singing the hair off his arms.
Right: He says he’s grilling steaks, but what he’s really doing is singeing the hair off his arms.

Although it looks odd, singeing is the correct spelling, to distinguish it from the act of making beautiful music via one’s vocal cords—or in some cases, making sounds like a strangled cat.

More next time.

Mark.

Commonly misused/misspelled words and phrases (Part 45)

Continuing this series of blog entries, here are some more words that I see misused from time to time:

Crucifiction vs. Crucifixion

Wrong: This week’s sermon will be about the events leading up to the crucifiction of Christ.
Right: This week’s sermon will be about the events leading up to the crucifixion of Christ.

Crucifiction is a simple misspelling that almost seems to indicate the writer’s lack of faith in the veracity of the Bible.

Columbia vs. Colombia

Wrong: The Columbian drug cartel is believed to be behind the latest attacks.
Right: The Colombian drug cartel is believed to be behind the latest attacks.

The South American country is Colombia, not to be confused with the District of Columbia in the USA.

I have plenty more of these to go, so come back soon.

Mark.

Commonly misused/misspelled words and phrases (Part 44)

And now for even more commonly messed-up words:

Itch vs. scratch

Wrong: I spent all afternoon itching a mosquito bite.
Right: I spent all afternoon scratching a mosquito bite.

You scratch an itch, you don’t itch a bug bite.

Onwee or on-wie vs. ennui

Wrong: He suffered from a bad case of onwee.
Right: He suffered from a bad case of ennui.

It’s not surprising that so many people misspell ennui (which means weariness resulting from boredom; listlessness). It’s borrowed from French and isn’t spelled the way you’d expect an English word pronounced on-WEE to be spelled. But if you’re going to use the word, by all means spell it correctly.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for another thrilling episode, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel....

Mark.

Commonly misused/misspelled words and phrases (Part 43)

Some more commonly misused words for you:

Couple vs. several

I’m constantly amazed when someone says he wants to make a couple of points and then proceeds to enumerate three or four. Remember, just as it takes two to tango, it takes two to make a couple. More than that is a trio, a quartet, a handful, several, a half-dozen, numerous, etc.

That having been said/That being said/That said

Wrong: That having been said, it’s time to act.
Right: Therefore, it’s time to act.

The phrase “that having been said” and its shorter versions, are empty phrases that add nothing to a sentence. Sometimes they’re used as a continuation of the previous sentence (as in the example above), and sometimes they’re used to introduce an opposing argument. (“That being said, I think we need a new approach.”) In fact, this phrase has been so overused as to approach cliché status. Why not use a shorter, clearer alternative, such as “Therefore, it’s time to act.” or “However, I think we need a new approach.”?

More next time.

Mark.

Commonly misused/misspelled words and phrases (Part 42)

Continuing the series, here are some more words that are commonly misused, and how to use them correctly:

Since vs. because

The primary meanings of since involve an aspect of time (from then until now), however there is a secondary meaning equivalent to because. Unfortunately, this can cause confusion in the mind of the reader unless the meaning is clear in context. For example, in a sentence beginning, “Since we joined the club….” there is no way for the reader to know whether the writer meant “Ever since joining the club….” or “Because we’ve joined the club ….” Wouldn’t it be clearer to write it one of those two ways?

Couple vs. couple of

Wrong: I’ve got a couple things to take care of first.
Right: I’ve got a couple of things to take care of first.

Just as you would say “a trio of seagulls” or “a foursome of golfers” you should say “a couple of cookies.” You wouldn’t say “a trio questions,” so why say “a couple questions”?

More next time.

Mark.