A reader of the post on the uses of the past participle wonders, How did English come to require helping verbs? Isn’t that unusual among languages? Helping verbs are not unique to English. Also called “auxiliary verbs,” helping verbs are common in analytical languages like English. (An analytical language has lost most of its inflexions.) … Read more
All three words, tortuous, torturous, and tortious derive from the Latin verb torquere, “to twist.” Pronunciation: tortuous [TOR-choo-us] torturous [TOR-chur-us] tortious [TOR-shus] The Latin adjective tortuosus means “full of twists or turns.” The Latin noun tortura means twisting, but it can also mean torment or torture; torturing a person often involves twisting body parts. The … Read more
Some usage errors are so widespread that readers begin to wonder if they’re mistaken about the correct form. horde/hoard A reader came across the phrase “hoards of databases” used to mean “many databases.” He thought the usage was incorrect, but as the usage was printed in “a best selling book from quite a famous publisher,” … Read more
Pointing out that some languages, like Russian, have only one verb to express the meanings of English make and do, a reader requests a little guidance: Please could you explain the difference between the verbs “to do” and “to make.” Is there some kind of formula or method? Would that I could postulate some foolproof … Read more
The combination from…to is often used to express a range of extremes, for example, “the prices ranged from $1 to $20.” A “true range” requires a set of objects, persons, topics, or attributes in a limited set. Here are examples of the words from…to used to express measurable ranges: McDowell Mountain Regional Park has more … Read more
Speaking of a murderer who was apprehended in 1998, a law enforcement officer was quoted as saying: When all this happened, if I wasn’t there, he may have gotten away with it. As the speaker was there in the past and the murderer did not get away, standard usage calls for this construction: When all … Read more
According to a story in the NY Times, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh studied the 279 most popular songs from 2005 looking for references to drugs and alcohol. I’d like to see a study that tracks the repetition rate of nonstandard English in popular music. The Pennsylvania study found that some genres mention drugs … Read more
One post often leads to another. When I wrote about the word steampunk, I learned things about the word punk that I hadn’t known before. Three meanings I’ve always attached to the word punk are: 1. punk (noun): a smart-alecky, no-account adolescent boy. Leo [Gorcey] was the filmic prototype of the young punk. Justin Bieber is … Read more
Thanks to a two-week run of rain in my part of the country, a local announcer’s repeated prediction of showers has finally driven me to write a post on his use of what to my ears is unidiomatic usage: “a chance for” in the context of weather. The established weather idiom is “a chance of,” … Read more
A reader asks, Could you please do a post on possessives versus plurals? I’m seeing this mistake more and more, to the point where I saw someone use an apostrophe for a plural on a billboard. That wretched, wretched apostrophe! Why can’t we get it straight? The answer is complicated. In this post I’ll explain … Read more
Corporate-speak takes many forms, but especially mysterious is the practice of taking a familiar English word commonly understood to have one meaning and using it with a less familiar meaning. Here are five examples. 1. actionable common meaning: “giving cause for legal action.” Example: Disrespect in the workplace may constitute actionable behavior. corporate usage: able … Read more
A reader wonders about the difference between saying, “I’m good in English” and “I’m good at English”: I always felt that there’s a different nuance there when I’m saying it. I just can’t pinpoint it exactly. One of the numerous meanings of good is “competent, skillful, clever at or in a certain action or pursuit.” … Read more