Top 25 grammar and language mistakes
By Daphne Gray-Grant | Posted: January
5, 2012
Source: PR Daily News
My mother was from the East Coast, and she
had a bevy of funny expressions. A short person was “two jam-pots high.” No one
was ever just big; he or she was “great big huge.” But my favorite expression
was, “Wouldn’t that just rot your socks?” It expressed good-humored annoyance
with something or someone (often me!).
One of the things that rots my socks is the
misuse of the English language. I’m no grammar zealot and I’ve been known to
make my own mistakes (usually the result of poor proofreading), but at least
I care about words. While it’s true that corporate communicators need
to aim at colloquial language—we don’t want to be so colloquial that we assault
our readers’ eyes with errors. Here are 25 of the most common ones you should
watch out for:
Spelling
1. Writing “then” when you mean “than.” The
first is a description of time—“I wrote the sales letter and then I
wrote the advertisement”—while the other is used when making a comparison—“I am
more sick of this picky client than you are!”
2. Misspelling “bated breath.” If you
write baited breath, everyone will suspect fishing is your favorite
hobby. The word should be spelled bated, which comes from abated,
meaning held.
3. Using “accidently” instead of
“accidentally.” There are quite a few words with -ally suffixes
(“incidentally”), and these should not be confused with words having -ly
suffixes (“independently”).Accidently makes it into some dictionaries but
it’s regarded as a variant. It’s wise to avoid variants if you can, because
some people will become more concerned about your spelling than what you’re
selling.
4. Writing that something has “peaked
your interest.” We’re not talking mountain climbing here. The correct word
is piqued.
5. Confusing “racked” with “wracked.” If
you are racked with nerves, you are feeling as if you are being
stretched on the torture device, the rack. You rack your brain when
you try to write difficult stories. Wrack, on the other hand, has to
do with ruinous accidents. With luck, this won’t apply to your writing, but it
might just apply to the stock market, which has been wracked by
recession.
Word usage
6. Confusing “into” with “in to.” The
word into is a preposition (a linking word) that answers the
question, where? “Donna walked into her office before noticing her CEO was
sitting at her desk.” Note that the “where” needn’t always be a physical
place—Donna could also “go into business” or “go into graduate school.” But, on
those occasions where in and to just happen to end up
beside each other, they must remain separate words. For example, “Peter walked
in to see his supervisor.”
7. Misusing “literally.” If your boss
said, “I literally felt like firing the entire department,” would you think she
really meant that? No! She meant it metaphorically. Small comfort, I
know, but help her retain at least a few well-trained staff by stopping her
from ever using literally unless it’s the actual (literal) truth.
8. Confusing “edition” with “addition.”
I know both words sound alike, but they mean totally different things. An edition is
the form in which a text (usually a book) is printed, an issue of a newspaper
or magazine or a version of something that’s a little different from the
ordinary (for example, an experimental edition of a play). Addition, on
the other hand, is what you do when you add up numbers (1 + 1 = 2), when there
is an increase (“there was an addition to our taxes this year”) or when you
expand your house (“the addition of the deck increased the value of our house
significantly”).
9. Saying you made a 360-degree turn, when
you changed direction. I’ve had many (otherwise bright) bosses say they
made a 360-degree turn when they meant that they turned around completely. But
think about it: If you turn around so that you’re facing in the oppositedirection,
you’ve actually made a 180-degree turn.
10. Being redundant. Repeat after
me: PIN stands for personal identification number. Therefore, you cannot say
PIN number without being redundant. Similarly, CD-ROM stands for
“compact disc, read-only memory,” DVD stands for digital video disc or digital
versatile disc and ATM stands for automated teller machine. Thus, don’t repeat
the word disc or machine. Furthermore, never describe your
“favorite pet peeve.” Stick with “pet peeve” alone. “Personal favorite” is
another noxious phrase. Can you ever imagine an impersonal favorite?
11. Failing to understand the difference
between “hone” and “home.” To hone is to sharpen. You can hone a
point but you home in on a target. This is why they don’t call those
birds “honing pigeons!”
12. Saying something is a “mute point”
instead of “moot.” Moot means open to discussion or debatable. Mute means
silent. Much as we all might appreciate more mute points, they’re not only
ineffective, they’re also incorrect.
13. Using “centered around.” Think
about that phrase for a second. How could anything be centered around something
else? The correct phrase is “centered on.”
14. The inability to distinguish between
“e.g.” and “i.e.” The abbreviation e.g. is Latin for “exempli
gratia” meaning “for example”. The abbreviation i.e., on the other hand,
stands for the Latin “id est” meaning “that is to say.” So, you might write,
“We like vegetables—e.g., broccoli, green beans and cauliflower.” Or you might
write, “We like all vegetables—i.e., we’re healthy eaters.”
15. Misusing the word “penultimate.” This
word means second to last: November is the penultimate month of the year. It
does not mean “super-ultimate” (e.g., “He’s the penultimate father”
is incorrect).
16. Using “irregardless.” While irregardless does
appear in some dictionaries, it’s always listed as “non-standard.” That’s
because it’s meaningless. The “ir” cancels out the “regardless.” Stick with
plain old regardless.
17. Confusing “flush it out” with “flesh it
out.” To flesh out an idea is to give it substance. But if
you’re trying to drive a criminal, an injustice or bad behavior out into the
open, you want to flush it out.
Grammar
18. Using“could of,” “would of,” “should
of.” These are all 100 percent wrong, born of our sloppy speaking
styles—could’ve, would’ve, should’ve. What you want to write is could
have, would have, should have. We all coulda, woulda, shoulda become
better at grammar.
19. Using “me and somebody.” I tell my
children that it’s common courtesy to put the other person first. Thus you
should always say, “Fred and I went to the gym together,” or “Suzie and I saw
that movie.”
20. Using “that” instead of “who” (and vice
versa). If you’re writing about people, always usewho. If a company
president says, “employees that are affected by layoffs will be
greatly missed,” no one is likely to believe him because he’s treating them as
objects by using the word that.
21. Using “they” when referring to a
business. “Starbucks said they would give everyone a free latte
today.” Although this might sound right, the correct sentence is: “Starbucks
said it would give everyone a free latte today.” And if that grates
on your ears, then rewrite the sentence to avoid the problem: “Starbucks is
offering everyone a free latte today.”
Style
22. Using “orient” and “orientate” in the
same piece of text. Both words are correct, meaning to determine one’s
position with reference to another point or to familiarize (someone) with new
surroundings or circumstances. That said, the latter choice is British and
widely considered “incorrect” in the U.S.
23. Using “toward” and “towards”
interchangeably. Both words are correct, but again, the latter is British
and the former is American. Which you choose depends on your audience. And
whatever you do, be consistent.
Apostrophes
24. Using “it’s” when you mean “its.” This
is a mistake I see every day—whether on the Web or in print. The rule is so
breathtakingly simple that everyone should learn it’s stands
for it is. The possessive version, “The dog chewed on its bone,”
somehow prompts people to throw in an errant apostrophe. Whenever I see it’s, I always reread
the sentence to ensure the correct meaning is it is.And when I see its,
I reread the sentence to ensure it doesn’t mean it is.
25. Using a random apostrophe. Is
there a worse mistake than “The photo’s are for sale at 50 percent off”?
Remember, apostrophes are used only in two cases: to signify a letter has been
omitted (in “it’s” it represents the missing “i” from the word “is”) and to
signify possession (“The dog’s dish of water was spilled by the anxious
owner”).
Don’t use random apostrophes—or make any of
these other mistakes—or you’ll be rotting your readers’ socks.
A former daily newspaper editor, Daphne
Gray-Grant is a writing and editing coach and the author of 8½
Steps to Writing Faster, Better. She offers a free weekly newsletter
on her Web site, the Publication
Coach.This story first appeared on Ragan.com.
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