A large part of our speech and writing is unnecessary and boring which makes reading and conversation a chore. We slog through the repetitions and tarry when we should be moving on. Sometimes we fail to understand what others say.
‘The New York Daily News’ would not have said of a motion picture that it ‘extolled the evils of the advertising business’ if it knew what ‘extolled’ meant. ‘Standard Times’ once ran a headline ‘Tie vote kills bottle bill, but not fatally.’ Whoever who wrote that headline should have known the exact meaning of ‘fatally.
’ On another occasion, the postal service of the United States issued a statement about ‘sortation’ of mail instead of ‘sorting.’ Sometimes we come out with familiar quotations in an incorrect way. A university student once wrote, ‘There is not a reason why, but there is to do or die.
’ Apparently, he was not aware of the original quotation ‘Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die.’ It was originally written by Lord Tennyson. A book of quotations had the following: ‘Discretion is the better part of valour.
’ However, the correct version is ‘The better part of valour is discretion’ attributed to William Shakespeare. In a book of model essays, I found the following quotation: ‘Everything that is good is either immoral or illegal.’ It should have been written as ‘All the things I really like to do are either immoral or illegal.
’ Although Gertrude Stein wrote, ‘Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose,’ some people still write ‘Rose is a rose is a rose.’ Whether you are in a boardroom or classroom, at a job interview or a school meeting, the words you use – and misuse – create a powerful and lasting impression. Some common usage blunders could rob you of the verbal edge.
Very often people say ‘I wish I was rich.’ They should remember the song Tevye sang in ‘Fiddler on the roof’ ‘If I were a rich man?’ He was only expressing a desire he knew was unlikely to be fulfilled. So he used the subjunctive mood which requires you to use the verb ‘to be’ as ‘were’ – even if the subject is singular.
You can use the subjunctive whenever you want to say something that is highly unlikely or contrary to fact. When you want to use ‘as if, as though, if and wish to’ express something contrary to fact, use ‘were,’ not ‘was.’ Myself The word ‘myself’ has been used incorrectly in many schools.
Some teachers and students still write ‘my self’ as two words instead of ‘myself.’ On the other hand, ‘myself’ should not be used as the subject of a sentence. You cannot say ‘Myself and my wife went to the supermarket.
’ You have to say ‘My wife and I went to the supermarket.’ The pronoun ‘myself’ is primarily used in two ways. It can be used as an intensive pronoun as in ‘They say it is a beautiful place, but I myself have never been there.
’ The word ‘myself’ also means ‘alone’ as in ‘I’d like to be myself for a while.’ ‘Myself’ can be used as a reflexive pronoun as in ‘I hurt myself.’ The simple rule to remember is that you should not use ‘myself, yourself, himself or herself’ as the subject of a sentence.
A young girl working in an office told one of her colleagues, “I feel badly.” Without offending her, the colleague said, “Oh! You feel bad.” The grammatical rule is quite simple.
Verbs of the senses – feel, look, smell, sound or taste – when used to express a condition rather than an action, are called connecting or linking verbs. They connect a subject to its modifier, so the modifier must be an adjective as in ‘You sound terrible’ or ‘It smells sweet.’ Most learners of English write the word ‘accommodate’ as ‘acommodate’ or ‘accomodate.
’ This is one of the most commonly misspelled words around. Remember that the word requires two c’s and two m’s. You can always accommodate your friends with the correct spelling.
One of my female colleagues who had been divorced by her husband used to say, ‘I could care less.’ In fact she really meant the opposite ‘I couldn’t care less.’ If you want to make the point that you care not at all then you need to use the negative.
Some people think ‘not’ and ‘less’ create a double negative, but this is not true because the statement ‘I couldn’t care less’ means ‘I could not possibly care any less than I do.’ An advertisement promoting a fizzy drink said, ‘You’ll like it’s taste.’ Whoever who wrote advertisement had made a serious error.
In the above sentence ‘it’s’ does not take an apostrophe, any more than ‘hers, theirs, yours, or ours’ do. However, the word is often confused with the contraction ‘it’s’ which is short for ‘it is.’ If you think that you cannot remember the difference, memorise the following sentence: ‘It’s a happy man who lives life to its fullest.
’ One day, a man addressing a small gathering said, ‘Now I’m going to tell you an amusing antidote about my neighbours.’ At first, I thought that his neighbours were making him sick and he might consider taking an antidote, a medical remedy that counteracts a poison. The prefix ‘anti’ means ‘against.
’ Later, I realised that he wanted to liven up his speech with accounts of his neighbours’ antics by coming out with anecdotes, meaning short stories from his personal experience. While attending a clinic I received a pamphlet which said, ‘You should take a healthy breakfast.’ This is a common mistake on radio and television as well.
The word ‘healthy’ refers to the physical condition of living things. There are healthy men, women, animals and plants around the world. Therefore, the pamphlet should have used the word ‘healthful breakfast.
’ The word ‘healthful’ describes that which gives or promotes good health. For instance, grains, fruits, vegetables, eggs and fish form a healthful diet. Profound impact A recent news item in a local newspaper said, ‘This silent epidemic effects millions.
’ Although ‘affect’ and ‘effect’ sound somewhat alike, they are not interchangeable. ‘Affects’ is a verb meaning ‘to have a profound impact on something’ as in ‘The incident affected her concentration.’ The word can also mean ‘to act out or pretend’ as in ‘She affected an American accent.
’ The word ‘effect’ is a noun meaning ‘result’ as in ‘The incident had a devastating effect on his family.’ The word ‘effect’ is also a verb meaning ‘to bring about’ as in ‘The incident effected a profound change in him.’ Anything that affects you will also have an effect on you and may effect a change in you.
Some of those who work in the media think that the word ‘’media’ is a singular noun. Even some readers say ‘Media is biased.’ However, English is peppered with words such as ‘bacteria, criteria, curricula, data, media and phenomena.
’ All these words are plural and they have their singular counterparts ‘bacterium, criterion, curriculum, datum, medium and phenomenon.’ Unfortunately, some dictionaries allow ‘data’ and ‘media’ to take singular verbs. It is not clear whether we should accept such bastardisation of the English language.
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