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    Misused Words and Then Some
    Misused Words and Then Some
    Misused Words and Then Some
    Ebook229 pages1 hour

    Misused Words and Then Some

    By Giacomo Giammatteo

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    About this ebook

    This is the final book in the No Mistakes Grammar series, so be prepared to learn. We cover a lot of territory in this book. Things like: count nouns (data and media), linking verbs, comma usage, hyphenation, sayings and proverbs, appositives, more mispronunciations, words from other languages, and more.

    There should be enough in here to keep you busy for a while. And I guarantee it will improve your grammar in an easy-to-understand style.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGiacomo Giammatteo
    Release dateApr 4, 2018
    ISBN9781940313733
    Misused Words and Then Some
    Author

    Giacomo Giammatteo

    Giacomo Giammatteo lives in Texas, where he and his wife run an animal sanctuary and take care of 41 loving rescues. By day, he works as a headhunter in the medical device industry, and at night, he writes.

    Read more from Giacomo Giammatteo

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      Book preview

      Misused Words and Then Some - Giacomo Giammatteo

      Introduction

      Before we start this book, let me assume that you have an interest in the language, and for that, more power to you. It seems as if fewer people than ever do. I think it's important to keep the language fresh by introducing new words as we progress—especially technologically—but it's just as important to refrain from adding too many, or allowing too many changes.

      Think back to the sixteenth century and the time of Shakespeare. Yes, his plays were good, but they are damn near impossible to understand. Most of us can't sit down and read through one of his works (unless they've been adapted) without struggling, and that's a shame.

      I don't want the same to happen again. I don't want my great grandchildren to be reading one of my books and not know what it says.

      So let's do our best to keep the language as pure as we can and free from unnecessary change.

      With that said, I'll introduce you to Misused Words and More, No Mistakes Grammar, Volume V.

      It's volume V because volume IV was taken up by the Visual Grammar book, which was basically a combination of volumes I–III, with about two hundred pictures added as well as a small amount of text. I've made this volume a Visual Grammar book also. I hope you like it.

      The Words

      Ala mode —à la mode in fashion, style

      In English, this means with ice cream, an apparent reference to a time when ice cream on pie was the fashionable way to eat it, but in it's day it meant much more than ice cream. Now, you'd be looked at oddly if you tried to use it that way.

      Aline or align

      I'm glad we started with an easy one. Aline is not a word; it is simply a variant of align, which means to form a line or make a line, or to straighten objects into a line, as in Align those pictures please. They don't look good that way.

      Attaché—attached

      A person assigned to a diplomatic post or a military attaché.

      Ax or axe

      I don’t think anyone will mistake what you mean whether you write ax or axe, however, if you want to be correct, ax (without the e) is predominant in American usage. And axe (with the e) is British.

      Berth/birth

      Berth: a bunk or place to sleep on a ship or a train.

      Birth: giving birth to something, a new baby or animal. Even something inanimate, like he gave birth to an idea.

      Catalog or catalogue

      This is another US/UK confusion.

      Catalog is used in the US.

      Catalogue is used in the UK.

      🐗 Like the others, the one with the e is England.

      Cave or cavern

      Definition of cave (from Merriam-Webster)

      1: a natural chamber or series of chambers in the earth or in the side of a hill or cliff.

      Cave is technically a noun, but it has recently come to be used as a verb also, as in to cave in, which means to fall down or inward. Or we need to keep the walls from caving in.

      In an informal sense: to stop trying to resist or oppose something: to give in or submit to pressure. He caved in to pressure from his wife and kids.

      While cave has other uses, such as listed above, I don't know of any for cavern. You don't cavern in, or the walls didn't cavern in.

      Many people use them interchangeably, but according to Cavern Geology, there is a difference.

      "A cave is any cavity in the ground that is large enough that some portion of it will not receive direct sunlight. There are many types of caves. A cavern is a specific type of cave, naturally formed in soluble rock with the ability to grow speleothems (stalagmites and stalactites).

      🐗 The bottom line is that all caverns are caves, but not all caves are caverns.

      Censure/censor

      Censor: a person who bans a book or parts thereof, or a film or musical piece.

      Censure: the act of criticizing strongly or banning books/film/music.

      Cereal/serial

      Cereal: a grass producing an edible grain, like oats; a breakfast food made from grains.

      Serial: happening in a series, such as a series of movies or books. Or a television series.

      Chord/cord

      Chord: a group of musical notes.

      Cord: a length of string or piece of rope. Can also refer to a cord-like body part.

      Compare to or Compare With

      I was going to write something specific for these words, but then I thought it may be better just to copy a blog post I had written about the comparison. So with no further fuss, here it is.

      Some authors claim that compare to and compare with mean essentially the same thing, but this is not supported by actual data. The verb compare has several different meanings, some of which take the preposition to, while the others take with.

      Compare A to B to claim that A and B are similar.

      Compare A with B to claim that A and B are different.

      To compare to is to point out or imply resemblances between people or things. So if you want to cite the similarities, use compare to.

      To compare with is mainly to point out differences between people or things. So if you want to point out differences use compare with.

      The below examples will give you an idea of each. (I hope.)

      The above (or previous page) picture shows the well-known apples and oranges comparison (with a few other fruits thrown in). While they are both fruits, and they are round, and they both grow on trees, there are numerous differences, hence the saying that You can't compare apples to oranges.

      In fact, Merriam-Webster likens it to comparing large trucks to compact cars.

      If We're Going to Compare to and Compare With...

      ...let's Look at Another Example

      President A was passive, thoughtful, and an excellent orator. He is often compared to President Lincoln, who exhibited many of the same traits.

      Or...

      President A was passive, thoughtful, and an excellent orator. Compare that with President B, who is antagonistic, impulsive, and needs a lot of help with his speeches.

      So in the first example, we used President B to show how different the two were, and in the second example, we used President Lincoln to show how similar they were.

      Would people have known what you were talking about if you mixed them up? I'm sure they would. But there would also be a certain percentage of those people who would recognize that you did mix them up.

      It's important to note, though, that the differences between compare to and compare with are largely ignored; in fact, common usage statistics show that in the US, compare to is used more than compare with, and it is the preferred choice for all comparisons when speaking of common usage.

      I have to admit, I'm probably guilty of misusing this as much as anyone, but now that I know the distinction, I'll work hard to get it right.

      Confident, confidant or confidante

      Confident—confident is an adjective. To be confident is to be self-assured, sure of an outcome.

      Confidant—confidant on the other hand is a noun, and means someone to be trusted or confided in, as in He was a trusted confidant of the CEO.

      Confidante—confidante is the same as confidant and can be used interchangeably, however, some people still cling to the French origins and use it as a form of gender classification, meaning the word ending in e should be reserved for females and the one without the e for males. Much like blond/blonde and brunet/brunette.

      I think either way is fine, but if you know that the person you're speaking of is male, then use confidant. And if you know the person is female, use confidante. It surely can't hurt.

      Currant/current

      Currant: a dried grape

      Current: happening now, currently; a flow of water, usually referred to as a swift current or an air current, or an electrical current.

      Demur or demure

      Demur is primarily a verb meaning...

      to object, or take exception to.

      to hesitate because of doubt.

      In this form, it is often used with

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