Pardon My Common Errors!

Wow—spring already, and I’m just getting back to blogging. I’ve been perusing (not skimming or scanning) a handy and enjoyable book, “Common Errors in English Usage,” by Paul Brians. Indeed, the English language can be quirky and confusing, with words so easy to mishear and interpret wrongly.

Some words are so close in sound and meaning, they are susceptible to wrong usage.
Examples: Purposely and purposefully; besides and beside; credible and credulous.
A writer must be careful to choose (and spell correctly) the exact word to carry the meaning and tone. So Brians’s book has been helpful and enlightening to me.

Here are some gleanings from the first fifty pages I felt especially applicable to me. And I hope you will pardon my common errors in the past, possibly some of the following:

“Alright” has become common, but traditionalists prefer the actually correct two-word form, “all right.”

“Anchors away” certainly seems right and makes sense for a boat or ship moving away from shore. But the correct expression, according to Brians, is “anchors aweigh,” as the anchors are pulled up (weighed) by chains.

One vowel makes a difference between “auger” as a tool for digging holes, and “augur” meaning “foretell.”

It’s a difference between ears and mouth that differentiate the homophones “aural” (hearing) and “oral” (relating to the mouth.)

Here’s one I’ve definitely misused: It’s not “baited breath” despite your fragrant toothpaste. It’s “bated breath,” meaning “held” or “abated.”

I always have to check this one: “Capitol” is always a building. Cities and all other uses are “capital.” Maybe I can remember with Brians’s tip: Congress—with an o—always meets in the Capitol—with an o. But Congress doesn’t meet in state capitols! So perhaps I'll have to remember there is an o in dome on a building.

I don’t usually write about “card sharps” except maybe once—in that story about Las Vegas. I mistakenly would have used “card sharks” because they do seem stealthy.

I should have remembered this one from my civil engineer husband: “Cement” is the gray powder that needs mixing with sand, water, and gravel to become the “concrete” surface we drive and walk on.

I had to check my novel to make sure I hadn’t used “chaise lounge” instead of the correct French term “chaise longue” (pronounced shez-long, with a hard g on the end.)

“Chomp at the bit” is slangy. It’s correctly “champ at the bit,” meaning “gnash.”

Did you know someone cannot make a “concerted effort” alone? In concert means with a group. A person can make a “concentrated effort.”

A “continual action” can be interrupted. A “continuous action” cannot.

In addition to word usage, Brians also gives handy guidelines for punctuation. As for commas, colons, and semi-colons, one of those is required if a sentence or phrase needs a pause. Brians advises how to choose the correct punctuation mark.

I hope you’re interested in this blog on usage and not feeling like you “could NOT care less.” I will continue this review of Brians’s book in future blogs, so I hope my readers “can care less,” which means you DO care, at least somewhat.

Thanks for reading and commenting. And I hope caring!