Abused, Confused, and Misused Words A Writers Guide to Usage, Spelling, Grammar, and Sentence Structure

Chapter Two
O ld R ule s , N e w R ule s
Fashion, though folly’s child, and guide of fools,
Rules e’en the wisest, and in learning rules.
–GEORGE CRABB [1754-1832]
THE TREND IN WORD USAGE is toward less formality. There is no longer a great distinction between the
way one speaks and the way one writes. Both have become more casual. When people in the same
profession such as law, medicine, psychology, or other fields communicate with each other, jargon is
okay because they understand their specialized vocabulary. However, when they are writing or
speaking to a layperson, it’s best to use words that are familiar to the general public.
Over the past fifty years, Americans have become less formal in many ways. Rules about dress
have become relaxed for both men and women. The rules of etiquette have become more relaxed, too.
I have mixed feelings about the relaxation of the rules when it comes to language, yet I much prefer a
casual style to a stilted, formal way of communicating. It puts the reader or listener at ease. And I
really think it’s a good thing that we no longer have to worry about ending a sentence with a
preposition, or dangling a participle, or misplacing a modifier. What matters is that our meaning is
clear.
Language changes constantly. So does spelling. So do the rules. It has been said, “rules are made to
be broken.” I don’t know about that, but I do believe in letting go of the rules when they get in the way
of what you want to say.
If you choose to break the rules, however, it is probably a good idea to know what the rules (and
their exceptions) are so that you can make a conscious, educated decision about which ones to follow
and which ones to ignore.
In gathering qualified, up-to-date material for this book, I have consulted several recently
published dictionaries as well as The Chicago Manual of Style. Generally, they were in agreement as
to word definitions and rules. When they differed, I chose the ones that seemed most logical to me.
Included in the following are some examples of changes that have occurred over the past thirty or
forty years. You will find more of these rules and usage changes in the misused words list (chapter 4).
Who or Whom
The old rules stated that the choice of who or whom must be determined by the grammar of the clause
within which this pronoun occurs. Who is the appropriate form for the subject of a sentence or clause:
Who is he? He’s the man who wants the key. Whom is the objective form: Whom did he say he was?
He’s a man whom I know well.
Those distinctions are rarely observed anymore. Because who or whom frequently occur at the
beginning of a sentence or clause, there is a tendency to choose who no matter what the word’s
function is. According to Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary (1996), “Even in edited
prose, who occurs at least ten times as often as whom regardless of grammatical function. Only when
it directly follows a preposition is whom more likely to occur than who.” This juxtaposition is usually
avoided now both in speech and writing, particularly in questions: Who is the letter from? Sometimes
it’s avoided by omitting the pronoun altogether: All patients you have had contact with.
The word whom has gone almost completely out of style. And good riddance. Most people use it
incorrectly anyway. According to Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 3.0, “The notion
that ‘whom’ is somehow more ‘correct’ or elegant than ‘who’ leads some speakers to hypercorrect uses
of ‘whom’: Whom are you? The person whom is in charge of the office has left the building.” That
sounds so yesterday.
The new rules seem to indicate that it’s best (and most natural) to use whom only after a
preposition: to whom it may concern; to whom are you speaking? For formal writing, check your
dictionary if you aren’t sure when to use whom because there are still sticklers for the “proper” use of
this practically archaic word and it’s best to use it correctly. Your college English professor and
certain periodicals, such as TIME magazine, will not accept the less for-mal who when whom is
technically correct. However, if your main concern is clarity and you don’t care who you impress,
just use who and don’t worry about it.
Absolutes
Certain words are absolutes, which means that they are complete, unconditional, and unqualifiable.
Thus, according to many usage guides, one should not use comparison words with them. However,
it’s done all the time.
Perfect is a good example of an absolute. It means excellent or complete beyond practical or
theoretical improvement. Perfect cannot exist in varying degrees. But since the thirteenth century, the
word perfect has often been qualified: the most perfect day we’ve had. A famous misuse is in the
United States Constitution: “in order to form a more perfect union.”
Another absolute is the word unique. Unique means existing as the only one or as the sole example.
How can something be very one-of-a-kind? When it first entered the English language in the 1600s,
its meaning was single, sole, having no equal. Unique developed the wider meaning of not typical and
unusual by the mid-nineteenth century. Some examples are: He is more unique than anyone else and It
was a very unique day.
According to the dictionaries I checked, using so-called absolutes in senses that are not absolute
has become standard in most forms of speech and writing. Even so, I still choose not to use qualifiers
with absolutes because, once you do that, the word is no longer an absolute.
Old and New Plurals
The plurals of some words often depend on whether they are used in a scholarly work or in more
casual writing. Examples of these (noting the informal word first) are appendixes and appendices,
memorandums and memoranda, millenniums and millennia, symposiums and symposia. Most
dictionaries list the less formal as the preferred usage. The same word may have different plurals
depending on its definition. A book could have two indexes while a mathematical expression might
have two indices.
None Is vs. None Are
Because none means “not one” and “not any,” some believe that the word should always be treated as
singular and followed by a singular verb. However, since the ninth century none has been used with
both singular and plural verbs. When it is used to mean “not any,” the plural verb is generally used:
We dove for coins but none were found. When it is intended to mean “not one,” it is followed by a
singular verb: In spite of all the prophecies, none has come true. Currently, none is usually seen with a
plural verb. So if you can’t remember the subtle differences, you can use either a plural or a singular
verb and probably no one will even notice–or care.
Each
The adjective each is always followed by a singular noun: each person, each book. When the adjective
follows a plural subject, the verb agrees with the subject: the children each have many books. When
the pronoun each comes immediately before the verb, it takes a singular verb: Each lives in a
different neighborhood. When the pronoun is followed by a phrase containing a plural noun, the verb
can be plural: Each of them have lovely homes.
Anyone, anybody, everyone, everybody, no one, someone, and somebody follow the same general
patterns of pronoun agreement as each and none. However, these are not hard and fast rules anymore
but guidelines for formal writing. For dialogue or other forms of casual writing, it is not necessary
to concern yourself with these rules.
An Historical or A Historical
Is it an historical study or a historical study? The current rule is, if the h is pronounced, you use a; if
it is not, you use an. So it’s a historical study, but it’s an honor and an heir. The same is true of a
pronounced long u or eu: a union, a euphemism, and an o when it is pronounced like a w: a one-room
house.
Different From or Different Than
Some believe that different should be followed only by from and never by than. But that is not the
case, at least not anymore. From is more common in introducing a phrase: My opinions are different
from yours. Than is used to introduce a clause: The prisoner ran in a different direction than the
bystanders indicated. If you were to use from in a sentence like this, you would have to add a few
words: The prisoner ran in a different direction from the one that the bystanders indicated.
If you find it hard to remember these distinctions, don’t worry because this is another case where it
really doesn’t matter which word you use. No matter how the sentence is constructed, both from and
than are now standard usage after different. In fact, both have been used for at least three hundred
years. And that makes it okay.
That vs. Who
The general rule is: a person is a who; a thing is a that. You would say: Is this the chair that has a
broken leg? and Is he the man who has a broken leg? An anonymous animal is a that but an animal
with a name is a who. For example: Was it Fifi who bit the mailman? but Was it a stray dog that bit the
mailman?
It has now become acceptable to use that when referring to a person. However, using who often
helps the understanding of a sentence that contains both a person and a thing. It makes it easier to
understand to whom (or to which) you are referring.
Compare To or Compare With
Compare means to examine two or more things in order to note similarities and differences: to
compare two styles of shoes. Compare should be followed by to when it points out similarities between
two apparently dissimilar things: He compared her hairdo to a string mop.
Compare should be followed by with when it points out similarities or differences between two
entities of the same general class: The diner compared the creme brulee with custard pudding.
This is another rule that is so frequently broken that it doesn’t really matter anymore whether you
use compare to or compare with.
A few words about punctuation. It is not possible to cover all instances of proper punctuation so I’ll
cover only a few of the more frequent challenges. Most writers overuse commas, sprinkling them all
over their manuscripts like confetti. The modern trend is to use as few commas as you can without
muddying the meaning of a sentence. We no longer write: My sister, Alice, looks great in red. Instead
it is: My sister Alice looks great in red. No commas are needed in that sentence for it to be clear.
According to The Chicago Manual of Style, “In a series consisting of three or more elements, the
elements are separated by commas. When a conjunction joins the last two elements in a series, a
comma is used before the conjunction.” Example: Would you like coffee, tea, milk, or hot chocolate?
Before computers, we used to space twice after the period at the end of a sentence. But that was way
back when we used typewriters (remember those?). Separating sentences with two spaces is no longer
necessary because computers space the text more uniformly. Now we hit the space bar only once
between sentences.
In American English, periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks. Colons are used to
introduce a statement, as in: The rule is this: Lights out at 10 p.m., period! A colon is also used to
introduce a speech in dialogue:
MARY: May I introduce my friend?
JOHN: We’ve already met.
A colon should go outside quotation marks and parentheses. There are two reasons not to take a
small child to see the movie “Babel”: it is violent and it is very disturbing. I was concerned about one
of the girls standing in the hot sun (the blonde): she looked like she was going to faint.
Semicolons are used less frequently than in the past. The current practice is to use a comma if it’s a
brief pause. Otherwise, use a period. In a series where each item includes a comma, a semicolon is
used to separate them. For example: Those who attended the meeting were Sam Cooke, President;
Richard Jones, Secretary; and Alice Smith, Treasurer.
A semicolon should be placed outside quotation marks or parentheses.
Exclamation points are to be used very sparingly. Here are two examples of when not to use one:
“What a game!” he exclaimed, and, “I was absolutely astounded!” With these kinds of sentences, an
exclamation point is redundant. If the sentence is written so that the emphasis is clear, no exclamation
point is necessary. In her bestselling book, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynn Truss writes that “in
humorous writing, the exclamation mark is the equivalent of canned laughter.”
Place the exclamation point inside quotation marks, parentheses, or brackets when it is part of the
quotation or parenthetical expression. Otherwise, place it outside.
Question marks aren’t always at the end of a sentence and can be used to indicate a question within
a sentence, such as: Is he looking at me? she wondered. Place a question mark inside quotation marks,
parentheses, or brackets when it belongs to the quoted or parenthetical matter.
British and American punctuation rules are not the same. For example, in the United States, a
period always goes inside quotation marks. In England, it depends on the sentence. In fact, they don’t
seem to have a hard and fast rule for that.
British English is also different from American English when it comes to word usage, spelling,
and many other things. Some of the same words and phrases have entirely different meanings. In
England, knock up means to wake up or call; in America, it means to make pregnant.
The most comprehensive publishing reference work, of course, is The Chicago Manual of Style. I
recommend that you use it as your authority when you write.