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Troublesome Words

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Troublesome Words. An abridgement of Bill Bryson's 'A Dictionary of ... to adopt a pose or manner. ' She affected ignorance. ... (also means property, as in ' ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Troublesome Words


1
Troublesome Words
  • An abridgement of Bill Brysons A Dictionary of
    Troublesome Words.

2
Affect/Effect
  • Affect as verb to influence. "Smoking may
    affect your health."
  • Affect as noun to adopt a pose or manner. "She
    affected ignorance."

3
  • Effect as verb to accomplish, to bring about.
    "The prisoners effected an escape."
  • Effect as noun something brought about by a
    change or cause. "The damaging effects of war."
  • (also means property, as in "personal effects)

4
  • In common use affect is more often used as a
    verb, effect is more often used as a noun.

5
all right vs. alright
  • All right is the correct use.
  • Two separate words.

6
basically
  • Basically, leave it out

7
besides
  • Means also or in addition to, not alternatively.
  • Incorrect "The wound must have been made by
    something besides the handle of the gear lever."
  • Correct "The wound must have been made by
    something other than the handle of the gear
    lever."
  • Correct use of besides "Besides the Greeks, the
    Romans also fought over the island of Sicily."

8
can vs. may
  • Possible vs. permissible.
  • You can drive your car on the wrong side of the
    street, but you may not.

9
close proximity
  • Inescapably tautological.
  • Use "near" or "close to."
  • Incorrect "The knife was in close proximity to
    the spoon."
  • Correct "The knife was close to the spoon."

10
collision
  • Used to describe two moving objects coming
    together.
  • Not for a moving object and a stationary one.
  • A car does not collide with a tree.

11
comparatively
  • Only to be used when making comparisons.
  • Incorrect "Comparatively little progress was
    made in the talks yesterday."
  • Compared to what?

12
compliment vs. complement
  • Compliment to praise. "I complimented her
    attire."
  • Complement to fill out or make whole. "Roses in
    the silver bowl complemented the table."

13
conceived
  • Refers to a single event.
  • Incorrect "Last week, twenty-five years after it
    was first conceived..."
  • Correct "Last week, twenty-five years after it
    was conceived."
  • Also, be wary of "initially conceived" and
    "originally conceived."

14
couldn't of
  • Should be couldn't have.
  • Comes from an often-spoken double contraction
    couldn't've

15
current, currently
  • For contrasting the present with the past.
  • Unnecessary in phrases like "Oil prices are
    currently 44 a barrel."
  • Why not just "Oil prices are 44 a barrel?"

16
cut back
  • "We had to cut back wheat production."
  • Do you need the "back" here?

17
decimate
  • Literally, to reduce by a tenth.
  • Maybe.
  • Should not be used to denote total destruction.

18
diagnosis vs. prognosis
  • diagnosis to identify and define a problem.
  • prognosis A projection of the course and likely
    outcome of a problem.

19
different
  • Sometimes unecessary "Shakespeare wrote
    thirty-seven different plays."

20
Dilemma
  • Applies when someone is faced with two distinct
    courses of action, of which neither is clearly
    superior.
  • Does not refer to just any difficulty or
    predicament.

21
discrete vs. discreet
  • Discreet careful, showing good judgement.
  • Discrete singular, unattached, unrelated.

22
dos and don'ts
  • Note the apostrophe.
  • And the lack thereof.

23
Each
  • When each is the subject of a sentence, it is
    singular.
  • "Each of the pens was red."
  • When each modifies a plural subject, the subject
    is still plural.
  • "Drivers licenses each have unique identification
    numbers."

24
  • Simple rule to decide on the subject
  • If each precedes the verb, subsequent nouns and
    pronouns are plural
  • "They each are subject to sentences of five
    years"

25
  • If each follows the verb, subsequent nouns and
    pronouns are singular
  • "They are each subject to a sentence of five
    years."

26
Equally as
  • Always wrong.
  • Incorrect "This is equally as good."
  • Correct "This is as good." Or "This is equally
    good."

27
exception proves the rule
  • In modern English, a bewildering statement.
  • Comes from the use of "proof" meaning to prove or
    to test.

28
fewer vs less
  • Fewer refers to discrete numbers.
  • Less refers to quantities.
  • Fewer people.
  • Less water.

29
gender vs. sex
  • Gender originally only used in a grammatical
    context, became a euphemism for sex in the
    nineteenth century.
  • Later disdained as old-fashioned and
    overdelicate.
  • Now used as a fine distinction in feminist theory
    and transgender politics.

30
indexes vs. indices
  • Which is the plural of index?
  • Either is acceptable!

31
irregardless
  • Stop using this word!

32
last vs. latest
  • When referring to a temporal event, both can mean
    most recent.
  • When there's confusion, though, use appropriate
    word.

33
  • The most recent, but not final, episode of a
    television series? It's the latest episode of
    the series.
  • The series finale of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"?
    It's the last episode of the series.

34
most
  • Often incorrectly used in speech to replace
    "almost".
  • Incorrect "Thai cuisine uses fish sauce to
    flavor most everything."

35
percentage, fraction
  • "This drug has proven useful in a percentage of
    cases."
  • "Teenage pregnancy rates have dropped to a
    fraction of what they once were."
  • Has it proven useful in 1 of cases?
  • Have teenage pregnancy rates dropped to
    999/1000ths of what they once were?

36
plan ahead
  • Another tautology.
  • Would you plan behind?

37
precautionary measure
  • Can nearly always be shortened to precaution.

38
quantum leap
  • The scientific sense is of a movement or advance
    that is discrete and measurable, but not
    necessarily, or even usually, dramatic.

39
situation
  • Can be useful as a noun
  • "We advised the president of the situation."
  • Or
  • "The situation was delicate."

40
  • Usually unnecessary as an adjective
  • "We hoped to contain the crisis situation."

41
strata, stratum
  • A single layer is a stratum.
  • Strata signifies more than one.

42
That vs. which
  • Used in restrictive or nonrestrictive clauses.
  • Non-restrictive (you want to describe a tree,
    and whether it has leaves or not is incidental)
    "The tree, which had no leaves, was a birch.
  • (The sentence could read coherently without the
    center clause. )

43
  • Restrictive (you want to identify which of
    several trees is a birch)
  • "The tree that had no leaves was a birch.
  • (Refers to a specific tree, does not mean the
    same thing without the "that" clause.)

44
toward vs. towards
  • Both are grammatically correct.
  • Toward is preferred in American English.
  • Towards is preferred in British English.
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