Troublesome Words

1
Troublesome Words

• An abridgement of Bill Brysons A Dictionary of
  Troublesome Words.

2
Affect/Effect

• Affect as verb to influence. "Smoking may
  affect your health."
• Affect as noun to adopt a pose or manner. "She
  affected ignorance."

3

• Effect as verb to accomplish, to bring about.
  "The prisoners effected an escape."
• Effect as noun something brought about by a
  change or cause. "The damaging effects of war."
• (also means property, as in "personal effects)

4

• In common use affect is more often used as a
  verb, effect is more often used as a noun.

5
all right vs. alright

• All right is the correct use.
• Two separate words.

6
basically

• Basically, leave it out

7
besides

• Means also or in addition to, not alternatively.
• Incorrect "The wound must have been made by
  something besides the handle of the gear lever."
• Correct "The wound must have been made by
  something other than the handle of the gear
  lever."
• Correct use of besides "Besides the Greeks, the
  Romans also fought over the island of Sicily."

8
can vs. may

• Possible vs. permissible.
• You can drive your car on the wrong side of the
  street, but you may not.

9
close proximity

• Inescapably tautological.
• Use "near" or "close to."
• Incorrect "The knife was in close proximity to
  the spoon."
• Correct "The knife was close to the spoon."

10
collision

• Used to describe two moving objects coming
  together.
• Not for a moving object and a stationary one.
• A car does not collide with a tree.

11
comparatively

• Only to be used when making comparisons.
• Incorrect "Comparatively little progress was
  made in the talks yesterday."
• Compared to what?

12
compliment vs. complement

• Compliment to praise. "I complimented her
  attire."
• Complement to fill out or make whole. "Roses in
  the silver bowl complemented the table."

13
conceived

• Refers to a single event.
• Incorrect "Last week, twenty-five years after it
  was first conceived..."
• Correct "Last week, twenty-five years after it
  was conceived."
• Also, be wary of "initially conceived" and
  "originally conceived."

14
couldn't of

• Should be couldn't have.
• Comes from an often-spoken double contraction
  couldn't've

15
current, currently

• For contrasting the present with the past.
• Unnecessary in phrases like "Oil prices are
  currently 44 a barrel."
• Why not just "Oil prices are 44 a barrel?"

16
cut back

• "We had to cut back wheat production."
• Do you need the "back" here?

17
decimate

• Literally, to reduce by a tenth.
• Maybe.
• Should not be used to denote total destruction.

18
diagnosis vs. prognosis

• diagnosis to identify and define a problem.
• prognosis A projection of the course and likely
  outcome of a problem.

19
different

• Sometimes unecessary "Shakespeare wrote
  thirty-seven different plays."

20
Dilemma

• Applies when someone is faced with two distinct
  courses of action, of which neither is clearly
  superior.
• Does not refer to just any difficulty or
  predicament.

21
discrete vs. discreet

• Discreet careful, showing good judgement.
• Discrete singular, unattached, unrelated.

22
dos and don'ts

• Note the apostrophe.
• And the lack thereof.

23
Each

• When each is the subject of a sentence, it is
  singular.
• "Each of the pens was red."
• When each modifies a plural subject, the subject
  is still plural.
• "Drivers licenses each have unique identification
  numbers."

24

• Simple rule to decide on the subject
• If each precedes the verb, subsequent nouns and
  pronouns are plural
• "They each are subject to sentences of five
  years"

25

• If each follows the verb, subsequent nouns and
  pronouns are singular
• "They are each subject to a sentence of five
  years."

26
Equally as

• Always wrong.
• Incorrect "This is equally as good."
• Correct "This is as good." Or "This is equally
  good."

27
exception proves the rule

• In modern English, a bewildering statement.
• Comes from the use of "proof" meaning to prove or
  to test.

28
fewer vs less

• Fewer refers to discrete numbers.
• Less refers to quantities.
• Fewer people.
• Less water.

29
gender vs. sex

• Gender originally only used in a grammatical
  context, became a euphemism for sex in the
  nineteenth century.
• Later disdained as old-fashioned and
  overdelicate.
• Now used as a fine distinction in feminist theory
  and transgender politics.

30
indexes vs. indices

• Which is the plural of index?
• Either is acceptable!

31
irregardless

• Stop using this word!

32
last vs. latest

• When referring to a temporal event, both can mean
  most recent.
• When there's confusion, though, use appropriate
  word.

33

• The most recent, but not final, episode of a
  television series? It's the latest episode of
  the series.
• The series finale of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"?
  It's the last episode of the series.

34
most

• Often incorrectly used in speech to replace
  "almost".
• Incorrect "Thai cuisine uses fish sauce to
  flavor most everything."

35
percentage, fraction

• "This drug has proven useful in a percentage of
  cases."
• "Teenage pregnancy rates have dropped to a
  fraction of what they once were."
• Has it proven useful in 1 of cases?
• Have teenage pregnancy rates dropped to
  999/1000ths of what they once were?

36
plan ahead

• Another tautology.
• Would you plan behind?

37
precautionary measure

• Can nearly always be shortened to precaution.

38
quantum leap

• The scientific sense is of a movement or advance
  that is discrete and measurable, but not
  necessarily, or even usually, dramatic.

39
situation

• Can be useful as a noun
• "We advised the president of the situation."
• Or
• "The situation was delicate."

40

• Usually unnecessary as an adjective
• "We hoped to contain the crisis situation."

41
strata, stratum

• A single layer is a stratum.
• Strata signifies more than one.

42
That vs. which

• Used in restrictive or nonrestrictive clauses.
• Non-restrictive (you want to describe a tree,
  and whether it has leaves or not is incidental)
  "The tree, which had no leaves, was a birch.
• (The sentence could read coherently without the
  center clause. )

43

• Restrictive (you want to identify which of
  several trees is a birch)
• "The tree that had no leaves was a birch.
• (Refers to a specific tree, does not mean the
  same thing without the "that" clause.)

44
toward vs. towards

• Both are grammatically correct.
• Toward is preferred in American English.
• Towards is preferred in British English.