As or Like? In the best college writing and in all commercial writing, the distinction between these two words must never be confused. "Like" should rarely be used in place of as, as if or as though. "As" can be used as a conjunction and as a preposition. (In the previous sentence, "as" is used twice as a preposition.)
The word "like" can be several parts of speech, but usually it should not be used as a conjunction to introduce a clause. "He paints his house like an artist paints a still-life" is wrong because "like" introduces a clause. The conjunction should be "as." "It looks like it's going to snow" and "It looks like the parade will not happen" use "like" to mean as if and as though, and they follow like with a clause. These two uses of "like" are sometimes acceptable because of the use of the impersonal it and because constructions with the impersonal it are highly idiomatic.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Monday, December 22, 2008
Mixed Words Up
One of the areas that I see lots of abuse or mistakes is when two (or more) words sound alike, but have different meanings, and the wrong one is used in the sentence.
Examples that I see a lot (by the way, this is one example: "a lot" vs. "allot") include:
* Insure vs. ensure vs. assure. The first one ("insure") is to issue a formal policy of coverage mitigating the risk on an object, event or other asset. The next ("ensure") is to make certain that something happens. The third one ("assure") is to ease or comfort or to provide confidence, among other definitions.
"You insure your home against a loss (fire, tornado, etc.), and you ensure that you have enough coverage to replace the loss, and then you can rest easy at night because you are assured of being covered in the event of a loss."
* Another is affect vs. effect. The affect of something is the result of something occurring, while to effect something is to make a change or have an impact or cause to happen.
"If we effect (bring about) that change to the design plans, then the effect (consequence) will be that the building will be uglier." That will have an affect (feeling) on me that I don't want.
* The aforementioned "a lot" vs. "allot" is a common mistake. Another complete mistake is "alot," which is not a word at all - it is supposed to be two words. "A lot" is a large quantity of something, while "allot" is to parcel out (allocate) various things to categories or positions, for example.
"If we allot tickets at the rate of one per person, then we will have a lot of people a the party."
* Some of the most common mistakes are between words like you're and your (Paris Hilton's famous t-shirt with the slogan "I'm hot, your not"). Their, they're and there are very often mixed up; "They're not going to their house there at the beach."
Examples that I see a lot (by the way, this is one example: "a lot" vs. "allot") include:
* Insure vs. ensure vs. assure. The first one ("insure") is to issue a formal policy of coverage mitigating the risk on an object, event or other asset. The next ("ensure") is to make certain that something happens. The third one ("assure") is to ease or comfort or to provide confidence, among other definitions.
"You insure your home against a loss (fire, tornado, etc.), and you ensure that you have enough coverage to replace the loss, and then you can rest easy at night because you are assured of being covered in the event of a loss."
* Another is affect vs. effect. The affect of something is the result of something occurring, while to effect something is to make a change or have an impact or cause to happen.
"If we effect (bring about) that change to the design plans, then the effect (consequence) will be that the building will be uglier." That will have an affect (feeling) on me that I don't want.
* The aforementioned "a lot" vs. "allot" is a common mistake. Another complete mistake is "alot," which is not a word at all - it is supposed to be two words. "A lot" is a large quantity of something, while "allot" is to parcel out (allocate) various things to categories or positions, for example.
"If we allot tickets at the rate of one per person, then we will have a lot of people a the party."
* Some of the most common mistakes are between words like you're and your (Paris Hilton's famous t-shirt with the slogan "I'm hot, your not"). Their, they're and there are very often mixed up; "They're not going to their house there at the beach."
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Hyphenation information, Part 2
Some people are confused on when to hyphenate verbs. I think this is a little more of a grey area because the rules are not as clear on it. And generally people understand the phrase with or without the hyphen. But, I think in some cases, hyphenating a verb that has a modifier is appropriate. Examples that come to mind would be:
"Voice-activate your smartphone" vs. "voice activate your smartphone." While either one is acceptable, the "voice-activate" is clearer. Here, the modifying word "voice" is a noun, so it should be attached to the verb to make the entire phrase a verb.
"You should slow-drive your car in the police chase" vs. "You should slow drive your car in the police chase." Here the hyphen is needed, because "drive" is the verb, and "slow" modifies it, but without the hyphen, the context of this being a "slow-drive" is less clear. While this sentence may be awkward to start with, it is grammatically correct to use "slow-drive" as the verb. In this case, "slow" is an adverb, so the sentence could also be written "You should drive slow in the police chase."
If the modifying word the verb is a noun, you have almost no choice but to attach the noun to the verb with a hyphen, so that entire word becomes a verb. Other examples would be:
To Self-perpetuate
To Self-administer
To Hand-carry
To Table-hop
To Carpet-crawl
To Hand-write
etc.
Please give me some additional examples of noun-modified verbs that need to be hyphenated. Are there any that don't need to be hyphenated?
Another area of mistakes in hyphenation is with adverbs that end in -ly. When words end in -ly, and are used as an adverb, they should NOT be hyphenated. An example would be thus:
"The slow-moving car" compared to "the slowly moving car." Don't hyphenate the "slowly moving" phrase, because the -ly extension essentially IS the hyphen. If you did hyphenate it, it would be "the slowly-moving car" and that would not been correct.
"Voice-activate your smartphone" vs. "voice activate your smartphone." While either one is acceptable, the "voice-activate" is clearer. Here, the modifying word "voice" is a noun, so it should be attached to the verb to make the entire phrase a verb.
"You should slow-drive your car in the police chase" vs. "You should slow drive your car in the police chase." Here the hyphen is needed, because "drive" is the verb, and "slow" modifies it, but without the hyphen, the context of this being a "slow-drive" is less clear. While this sentence may be awkward to start with, it is grammatically correct to use "slow-drive" as the verb. In this case, "slow" is an adverb, so the sentence could also be written "You should drive slow in the police chase."
If the modifying word the verb is a noun, you have almost no choice but to attach the noun to the verb with a hyphen, so that entire word becomes a verb. Other examples would be:
To Self-perpetuate
To Self-administer
To Hand-carry
To Table-hop
To Carpet-crawl
To Hand-write
etc.
Please give me some additional examples of noun-modified verbs that need to be hyphenated. Are there any that don't need to be hyphenated?
Another area of mistakes in hyphenation is with adverbs that end in -ly. When words end in -ly, and are used as an adverb, they should NOT be hyphenated. An example would be thus:
"The slow-moving car" compared to "the slowly moving car." Don't hyphenate the "slowly moving" phrase, because the -ly extension essentially IS the hyphen. If you did hyphenate it, it would be "the slowly-moving car" and that would not been correct.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Hyphenation information
Another area that I see as being totally abused is in the area of hyphenating words. I'll go over this in a series of posts, but first has to do with hyphenated adjectives. For example:
New York-based company
Red-colored car
Heaven-sent gift
Slow-burning fire
30-page letter.
These all need to be hyphenated because the two adjective words, not separated, would make the sentence unclear. How would these phrases sound and what would they mean if they were not hyphenated?
New York based company
Red colored car
Heaven sent gift
Slow burning fire
30 page letter.
While many readers might understand what's being described, it can be unclear to some readers, and when embedded in the rest of the sentence and paragraph, context issues could make the phrase very unclear. "Heaven sent gift" could be thought of as a misspelled sentence - missing an "a" before "gift," making it "Heaven sent a gift."
A "slow burning fire" could imply that the fire is migrating somewhere, slowly, whereas a slow-burning fire clearly means a fire that is in one place, and is slowly burning.
We'll discuss more examples of hyphenated adjectives, and also discuss hyphenated verbs, hyphenated nouns, and other situations when hyphens should and should not be used.
New York-based company
Red-colored car
Heaven-sent gift
Slow-burning fire
30-page letter.
These all need to be hyphenated because the two adjective words, not separated, would make the sentence unclear. How would these phrases sound and what would they mean if they were not hyphenated?
New York based company
Red colored car
Heaven sent gift
Slow burning fire
30 page letter.
While many readers might understand what's being described, it can be unclear to some readers, and when embedded in the rest of the sentence and paragraph, context issues could make the phrase very unclear. "Heaven sent gift" could be thought of as a misspelled sentence - missing an "a" before "gift," making it "Heaven sent a gift."
A "slow burning fire" could imply that the fire is migrating somewhere, slowly, whereas a slow-burning fire clearly means a fire that is in one place, and is slowly burning.
We'll discuss more examples of hyphenated adjectives, and also discuss hyphenated verbs, hyphenated nouns, and other situations when hyphens should and should not be used.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
ABCs
One of the areas that really gets confusing is in the pluralization of abbreviations. Even more confusing is when the abbreviation has a possession.
For example, the three major networks, ABC, CBS and NBC are each the same kind of name -- three-letter abbreviations for a TV network. The plural of these should be ABCs, NBCs, and CBSs. The possessive of these should be ABC's, NBC's, and CBS's. Yet invariably, with CBS, writers will use CBS's for the plural and CBS' for the possessive.
My argument is that CBS is an entity, and the "S" in CBS is not the "s" indicating possession or plurality, but is the first letter of the last word (System). Therefore, CBS should be treated exactly the same as ABC and NBC with regards to the way possession and plurality are indicated. Why should CBS be treated differently than the other two? It shouldn't be and therefore, CBS's (possession) and CBSs (plurality) are the correct ways of writing those words.
Sports fans may recognize that some media refer to the baseball statistic Runs Batted In (RBI) as: "Josh Hamilton had 4 RBIs in the game last night," whereas other media would say "Josh Hamilton had 4 RBI in the game last night." I think that USA Today was the first newspaper to use the "RBI" phrase rather than "RBIs." Just like ERA (Earned Run Average), you can refer to pitchers' ERAs and to batters' RBIs; the statistics' abbreviations are entities unto themselves. I don't think referring to a batter's 4 RBI in a game makes sense, even though the plural word "Runs" is embedded within the abbreviation. I can understand what is trying to be accomplished, but I argue that "RBI" is a "word" unto itself and should be plural on its own.
For example, the three major networks, ABC, CBS and NBC are each the same kind of name -- three-letter abbreviations for a TV network. The plural of these should be ABCs, NBCs, and CBSs. The possessive of these should be ABC's, NBC's, and CBS's. Yet invariably, with CBS, writers will use CBS's for the plural and CBS' for the possessive.
My argument is that CBS is an entity, and the "S" in CBS is not the "s" indicating possession or plurality, but is the first letter of the last word (System). Therefore, CBS should be treated exactly the same as ABC and NBC with regards to the way possession and plurality are indicated. Why should CBS be treated differently than the other two? It shouldn't be and therefore, CBS's (possession) and CBSs (plurality) are the correct ways of writing those words.
Sports fans may recognize that some media refer to the baseball statistic Runs Batted In (RBI) as: "Josh Hamilton had 4 RBIs in the game last night," whereas other media would say "Josh Hamilton had 4 RBI in the game last night." I think that USA Today was the first newspaper to use the "RBI" phrase rather than "RBIs." Just like ERA (Earned Run Average), you can refer to pitchers' ERAs and to batters' RBIs; the statistics' abbreviations are entities unto themselves. I don't think referring to a batter's 4 RBI in a game makes sense, even though the plural word "Runs" is embedded within the abbreviation. I can understand what is trying to be accomplished, but I argue that "RBI" is a "word" unto itself and should be plural on its own.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Welcome
I have grown tired of the terrible punctuation, grammar and misspellings (spelled with two s's) that accompany so much of the material we see every day, regardless (not "irregardless") of the medium that we see it in. I am not perfect on this subject, and I am not an expert, but I classify myself as one of the 5% of people who understands most of the nuances of the English language.
Let's (not "lets") be open and honest and try to help people to write better than they do now.
For example, I want to crack down on things like:
"Dear Soccer Parent's."
"Apple's for Sale."
"light-red box" vs. "light red box."
"The Brook's house" vs. "the Brooks' house" vs. "the Brookses' house" vs. "the Brooks house."
"The car is ten-years-old" vs. "The car is ten years old," vs. "The ten-year-old car."
"The slowly-moving car" vs. "The slowly moving car."
"Heros" vs. "heroes."
And so on.
I invite everyone to share their pet peeves in these areas, send me your pictures, tell me your stories, give me second opinions and suggestions, or correct me where I am wrong. Let's make it fun and entertaining and informative.
Let's (not "lets") be open and honest and try to help people to write better than they do now.
For example, I want to crack down on things like:
"Dear Soccer Parent's."
"Apple's for Sale."
"light-red box" vs. "light red box."
"The Brook's house" vs. "the Brooks' house" vs. "the Brookses' house" vs. "the Brooks house."
"The car is ten-years-old" vs. "The car is ten years old," vs. "The ten-year-old car."
"The slowly-moving car" vs. "The slowly moving car."
"Heros" vs. "heroes."
And so on.
I invite everyone to share their pet peeves in these areas, send me your pictures, tell me your stories, give me second opinions and suggestions, or correct me where I am wrong. Let's make it fun and entertaining and informative.
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