I’ve been meaning to do a post on grammar for a while. But, man, grammar is just so boring. Copyblogger found a way to jazz it up a little with the Inigo Montoya Guide to 27 Commonly Misused Words. I highly recommend checking it out. And a few of my own to add:
*lightening vs. lightning - Lightening makes something lighter. Lightning is the flash in the sky; there is no e. Ever.
*vise vs. vice – A vise squeezes something (i.e. a viselike grip). A vice is an unhealthy habit. I saw a heroine “in the vice of fear” in a book I was reading on the subway this morning and it completely pulled me out of the story.
*Then is not a conjunction like and and but. If you have two complete sentences on each side, you need to make them two separate sentences or put in a semicolon.
*Wrong: I will go to the store, then I will make dinner.
*Right: I will go to the store. Then I will make dinner.
or: I will go to the store, then make dinner
In small doses, grammar isn’t so bad, right?
December 18, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Hi, Leah! Ritual abuse of the adverb “then” also makes me cringe. Glad I’m not the only one.
December 18, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Another cringe-maker is the use of “irregardless” rather than “regardless”
December 18, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Oh, good stuff!
You know what bothers me? Conversate. I don’t care what the online Merriam-Webster says. You may converse, you may participate in a conversation, but you can’t conversate. It inspires throat hugs.
December 26, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Something else that complicates matters is the British/American differences. For instance, in British English vice is the correct spelling for squeezes something. I am still regularly tripped up by the Brit/US differences.
December 29, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Recently read about a nation being under the “yolk” of an oppressor.