Although I am now retired from Washington State University, that doesn’t mean I spend a lot of time doing e-mail. I check it once or twice a day when I am not traveling; but I am not constantly sitting in front of the computer. I also have hand problems that prevent me from typing at long stretches at a time, so if you receive a very short reply to a long note, that’s probably the reason. I’m not trying to be impolite, but I simply can’t engage in lengthy e-mail exchanges.
And although I appreciate good prose (with real capital letters), don’t be afraid I’ll nitpick your letter for writing flaws. I don’t normally critique other people’s writing unless I’m hired to.
I also receive many suggestions for additions. These are usually welcome, and I adopt many of them; but at least half my mail involves points I have already covered in one way or another. If you would be so kind, please go through the following checklist before writing me.
Add “would of”
Look under “C” for “could of/should of/would of.”
Add “intensive purposes.”
“For all intensive purposes” is listed under “F.”
You shouldn’t end a sentence with a preposition.
Nonsense. See the second item under “Non-Errors.”
You should say “Write to me” rather than “Write me.”
Some people following the British tradition object to this usage; it’s standard in the US The expression probably evolved in analogy to expressions like “call me,” “phone me” and “tell me.” In the US, “write me” will do just fine in informal writing such as I use on this site.
The word is “pernickety,” not “persnickety.”
The original Scottish dialect form was indeed “pernickety,” but Americans changed it to “persnickety” a century ago, and “pernickety” is generally unknown in the US The Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary calls “pernickety” obsolete, but judging from my correspondence, it’s still in wide use across the Atlantic.
Americans have it all wrong, the correct usage is English (Canadian, Australian, etc.).
Read my page called “The President’s English.” Note that it was titled during the Clinton era, is just a joke referring to the phrase “the Queen’s English,” and has no connection with any particular president. And before writing to tell me that I should not claim that American English is THE international standard, go back and read again what I’ve written; I do not claim that.
A name which ends in an S needs an additional S after the apostrophe when it is made possessive, e.g., “Paul Brians’s Page.”
Some styles call for the extra S, some don’t. I was forced by the publisher of my second book to follow this rule and I swore I would never do it again. I think it’s ugly.
Let me explain to you why “steep learning curve” makes perfect sense.
By now I think I’ve heard every possible rationale for this expression, and I’m convinced those who object to my entry don’t really understand it. I’m not answering any more mail on this topic. You just need to know this: some mathematicians will sneer at you if you use this expression, some other people will think you sound dorky, and the rest will think it’s just fine.
Please add [some particularly obscure word].
This site is concerned with common errors in English, not bizarre or esoteric ones, although I often enjoy reading about them. I admit to discussing some not-so-common errors if I find them amusing enough.
What is the correct spelling of _________?
Please try a dictionary first. The best on-line one is the WWWebster Dictionary (Merriam-Webster)
You’ve misspelled the title of an article.
When an item involves misspelling, the misspelled form is the one used for the title of the entry and for the name of the page. This helps people who don’t know the correct spelling to find the entry. Remember this is a list of errors.
I was always taught X but all the authorities I’ve looked in say Y. What’s happening to the English language?
It’s changing—always has changed, and always will. When you reach the point that nobody seems to agree with your standard of usage any more, you may have simply been left behind. There is no ultimate authority in language—certainly not me—nor any measure of absolute “correctness.” The best guide is the usage of literate and careful speakers and writers, and when they differ among themselves one has to make a choice as to which one prefers. My goal is to keep my readers’ writing and speech from being laughed at or groaned over by average literate people.
How can you possibly approve of ___________? Your effrontery in caving in to this ignorant nonsense is appalling [ranting, raving, foaming at the mouth . . .].
It’s odd how some people with high standards of correctness seem to have no notion of manners at all. You and I both know that I am not the most conservative of commentators on usage. If you want to make a logical case for a rule I don’t accept, please do so politely.
You should add more information about this word; it has other meanings than the ones you discuss.
My goal is to keep the entries as compact as possible, focusing only on those aspects of the words discussed which lend themselves to error. The sort of detailed discussion an unabridged dictionary provides is inappropriate here.
Your list of terms would be easier to read if it were arranged in a bulleted list.
Indeed it was when I had it arranged that way; but the list was extremely difficult to navigate because when users returned to it from an individual page they had to scroll up or down a long distance to find where they had left off or wanted to go next. I could arrange the terms in a table, but since I am constantly adding to the list it would create an impossible amount of work for me. I have resisted inserting breaks after each item to promote compactness. It’s a struggle to balance between legibility and navigational ease. I have made the list of terms alphabetical to make navigation a bit easier. Note that you can always download and print off the entire site as a single text document to peruse at your leisure.
It would be easier to read through your site if you put navigational links on each page back to where the reader left off in the list of errors.
This site is designed for purposeful searches (use the Google Custom Search engine just above the alphabetical list of errors or just look down the list for the
appropriate place in the alphabet) and casual browsing. Few people set out to read their way in order through all the entries. But if you want to do this, I have provided a separate version of the site all on one page which is much more suitable for this purpose and will keep you from having to click through over a thousand pages. Click on the link called “The whole site on one page” to go to errors.txt.
Your site shows ugly gibberish wherever it should display quotation marks and apostrophes.
This site uses special codes to create properly curled quotation marks and apostrophes, and real dashes. Some browsers ignore the code and render the curled marks as straight ones, but other, older ones display the code itself. There are two solutions: 1) upgrade to a more recent version of your favorite browser, or 2) use the all-text version of the site which lacks the problem characters.
Note that with thousands of instances to be changed I had to use automatic global search-and-replace routines to curl these marks, and sometimes they misfired. I’ve tried hard to find the errors that resulted (typically a right quotation mark and a space where an apostrophe should be), but whenever I think I’ve found the last one somebody points out another. Keep ’em coming: I do really want to get all of these fixed.
Why don't you say when you last updated your site?
You’ll find the latest revision date at the bottom of the all-text version of the site.
You should refer your readers to the on-line versions of Strunk and Fowler.
Well, I just did, didn’t I? But not with enthusiasm. Because of copyright restrictions these are both very early editions (1918 and 1908!). If you’re looking for confirmation of your views you may find solace, but the average reader has no way of knowing whether their advice still makes sense today. Would you use a 1908 dictionary to determine the meaning of a word now?
You left out one of my pet peeves!
I may simply not have gotten around to it yet, but remember to try the Search field before writing.
Still want to write? My address is paulbrians@gmail.com. Please don’t call me “Brian.” My name is Paul Brians.