SACRED/SCARED
This is one of those silly typos which your spelling checker won't catch: gods are sacred, the damned in Hell are scared.
SACRELIGIOUS/SACRILEGIOUS
Doing something sacrilegious involves committing sacrilege. Don't let the related word "religious" trick you into misspelling the word as "sacreligious."
SAFETY DEPOSIT BOX/SAFE DEPOSIT BOX
Those who prefer "safe deposit box" feel that the box in question is a container for the safe deposit of goods; it is not a box in which to deposit your safety. But manufacturers and dealers in this kind of safe are split in their usage. Just be aware that some people feel that "safety deposit" is an error whereas no one is likely to look down on you for saying "safe deposit box."
SAIL/SALE/SELL
These simple and familiar words are surprisingly often confused in writing. You sail a boat which has a sail of canvas. You sell your old fondue pot at a yard sale.
SALSA SAUCE/SALSA
"Salsa" is Spanish for "sauce," so "salsa sauce" is redundant. Here in the US, where people now spend more on salsa than on ketchup (or catsup, if you prefer), few people are unaware that it's a sauce. Anyone so sheltered as not to be aware of that fact will need a fuller explanation: "chopped tomatoes, onions, chilies and cilantro."
SAME DIFFERENCE
This is a jokey, deliberately illogical slang expression that doesn't belong in formal writing.
SARCASTIC/IRONIC
Not all ironic comments are sarcastic. Sarcasm is meant to mock or wound. Irony can be amusing without being maliciously aimed at hurting anyone.
SATELLITE
Originally a satellite was a follower. Astronomers applied the term to smaller bodies orbiting about planets, like our moon. Then we began launching artificial satellites. Since few people were familiar with the term in its technical meaning, the adjective "artificial" was quickly dropped in popular usage. So far so bad. Then television began to be broadcast via satellite. Much if not all television now wends its way through a satellite at some point, but in the popular imagination only broadcasts received at the viewing site via a dish antenna aimed at a satellite qualify to be called "satellite television." Thus we see motel signs boasting:
AIR CONDITIONING * SATELLITE
People say things like "the fight's going to be shown on satellite." The word has become a pathetic fragment of its former self. The technologically literate speaker will avoid these slovenly abbreviations.
*At least motels have not yet adopted the automobile industry's truncation of "air conditioning" to "air."
SAW/SEEN
In standard English, it's "I've seen" not "I've saw." The helping verb "have" (abbreviated here to "'ve") requires "seen." In the simple past (no helping verb), the expression is "I saw," not "I seen." "I've seen a lot of ugly cars, but when I saw that old beatup Rambler I couldn't believe my eyes."
SAY/TELL
You say "Hello, Mr. Chips" to the teacher, and then tell him about what you did last summer. You can't "tell that" except in expressions like "go tell that to your old girlfriend."
SCEPTIC/SKEPTIC
Believe it or not, the British spellings are "sceptic" and "scepticism"; the American spellings are "skeptic" and "skepticism."
SCHIZOPHRENIC
In popular usage, "schizophrenic" (and the more slangy and now dated "schizoid") indicates "split between two attitudes." This drives people with training in psychiatry crazy. "Schizo" does indeed mean "split," but it is used here to mean "split off from reality." Someone with a JekyllandHyde personality is suffering from "multiple personality disorder" (or, more recently, "dissociative identity disorder"), not "schizophrenia."
SCIFI
"Scifi," the widely used abbreviation for "science fiction," is objectionable to most professional science fiction writers, scholars, and many fans. Some of them scornfully designate alien monster movies and other trivial entertainments "scifi" (which they pronounce "skiffy") to distinguish them from true science fiction. The preferred abbreviation in these circles is "SF." The problem with this abbreviation is that to the general public "SF" means "San Francisco." "The SciFi Channel" has exacerbated the conflict over this term. If you are a reporter approaching a science fiction writer or expert you immediately mark yourself as an outsider by using the term "scifi."
SCONE/SCONCE
If you fling a jamcovered biscuit at the wall and it sticks, the result may be a "wall scone"; but if you are describing a wallmounted light fixture, the word you want is "sconce."
SCOTCH/SCOTS
Scottish people generally refer to themselves as "Scots" or "Scottish"
rather than "Scotch."
SCOTCH FREE/SCOT FREE
Getting away with something "scot free" has nothing to do with the Scots (or Scotch). The scot was a medieval tax; if you evaded paying it you got off scot free. Some people wrongly suppose this phrase alludes to Dred Scott, the American slave who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom. The phrase is "scot free": no H, one T.
SEA CHANGE
In Shakespeare's "Tempest," Ariel deceitfully sings to Ferdinand:
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a seachange
Into something rich and strange.
This rich language has so captivated the ears of generations of writers that they feel compelled to describe as "sea changes" not only alterations that are "rich and strange," but, less appropriately, those that are simply large or sudden. Always popular, this cliche has recently become so pervasive as to make "sea" an almost inextricable companion to "change," whatever its meaning. In its original context, it meant nothing more complex than "a change caused by the sea." Since the phrase is almost always improperly used and is greatly overused, it has suffered a swamp change into something dull and tiresome. Avoid the phrase; otherwise you will irritate those who know it and puzzle those who do not.
SEAM/SEEM
"Seem" is the verb, "seam" the noun. Use "seam" only for things like the line produced when two pieces of cloth are sewn together or a thread of coal in a geological formation.
SECOND OF ALL/SECOND
"First of all" makes sense when you want to emphasize the primacy of the first item in a series, but it should not be followed by "second of all," where the expression serves no such function. And "secondly" is an adverbial form that makes no sense at all in enumeration (neither does "firstly"). As you go through your list, say simply "second," "third," "fourth," etc.
SEGWAY/SEGUE
When you shift to a new topic or activity, you segue. Many people unfamiliar with the unusual Italian spelling of the word misspell it as "segway." This error is being encouraged by the deliberately punning name used by the manufacturers of the Segway Human Transporter.
SELECT/SELECTED
"Select" means "special, chosen because of its outstanding qualities." If you are writing an ad for a furniture store offering low prices on some of its recliners, call them "selected recliners," not "select recliners," unless they are truly outstanding and not just leftovers you're trying to move out of the store.
SELFWORTH/SELFESTEEM
To say that a person has a low sense of selfworth makes sense, though it's inelegant; but people commonly truncate the phrase, saying instead, "He has low selfworth." This would literally mean that he isn't worth much rather than that he has a low opinion of himself. "Selfesteem" sounds much more literate.
SENSE/SINCE
"Sense" is a verb meaning "feel" ("I sense you near me") or a noun meaning "intelligence" ("have some common sense!"). Don't use it when you need the adverb "since" ("since you went away," "since you're up anyway, would you please let the cat out?")
SENSUAL/SENSUOUS
"Sensual" usually relates to physical desires and experiences, and often means "sexy." But "sensuous" is more often used for esthetic pleasures, like "sensuous music." The two words do overlap a good deal. The leather seats in your new car may be sensuous; but if they turn you on, they might be sensual. "Sensual" often has a slightly racy or even judgmental tone lacking in "sensuous."
SENTENCE FRAGMENTS
There are actually many fine uses for sentence fragments. Here's a brief scene from an imaginary Greek tragedy composed entirely of fragments:
Menelaus: Aha! Helen! Helen (startled): Beloved husband! Menelaus: Slut!
Paris (entering, seeing Menelaus): Oops. 'Bye. Menelaus: Not so fast!
(stabs Paris). Paris: Arrggh!
Some people get into trouble by breaking a perfectly good sentence in two: "We did some research in newspapers. Like the National Inquirer." The second phrase belongs in the same sentence with the first, not dangling off on its own.
A more common kind of troublesome fragment is a wouldbe sentence introduced by a word or phrase that suggests it's part of some other sentence: "By picking up the garbage the fraternity had strewn around the street the weekend before got the group a favorable story in the paper." Just lop off "by" to convert this into a proper complete sentence.
SERGEANT OF ARMS/SERGEANT AT ARMS
The officer charged with maintaining order in a meeting is the "sergeant at arms," not "of arms."
SERVICE/SERVE
A mechanic services your car and a stallion services a mare; but most of the time when you want to talk about the goods or services you supply, the word you want is "serve": "Our firm serves the hotel industry."
SET/SIT
In some dialects people say "come on in and set a spell," but in standard English the word is "sit." You set down an object or a child you happen to be carrying; but those seating themselves sit. If you mix
these two up it will not sit well with some people.
SETUP/SET UP
Technical writers sometimes confuse "setup" as a noun ("check the setup") with the phrase "set up" ("set up the experiment").
SHALL/WILL
"Will" has almost entirely replaced "shall" in American English except in legal documents and in questions like "Shall we have red wine with the duck?"
SHEAR/SHEER
You can cut through cloth with a pair of shears, but if the cloth is translucent it's sheer. People who write about a "shear blouse" do so out of sheer ignorance.
SHEATH/SHEAF
If you take your knife out of its sheath (case) you can use it to cut a sheaf (bundle) of wheat to serve as a centerpiece.
SHERBERT/SHERBET
The name for these icy desserts is derived from Turkish/Persian "sorbet," but the "R" in the first syllable seems to seduce many speakers into adding one in the second, where it doesn't belong. A California chain called "Herbert's Sherbets" had me confused on this point for years when I was growing up.
SHIMMY/SHINNY
You shinnyor shin (climb)up a tree or pole; but on the dance floor or in a vibrating vehicle you shimmy (shake).
SHOEIN/SHOOIN
A race horse so fast that you can merely shoo it across the finish line rather than having to urge it on with stronger measures is a "shooin": an easy winner. It is particularly unfortunate when this expression is misspelled "shoein" because to "shoehorn" something in is to squeeze it in with great difficulty.
SHOOK/SHAKEN
Elvis Presley couldn't have very well sung "I'm all shaken up," but that is the grammatically correct form. "Shook" is the simple past tense of "shake," and quite correct in sentences like "I shook my piggy bank but all that came out was a paper clip." But in sentences with a helping verb, you need "shaken": "The quarterback had shaken the champagne bottle before emptying it on the coach."
SHRUNK/SHRANK
The simple past tense form of "shrink" is "shrank" and the past participle is "shrunk"; it should be "Honey, I Shrank the Kids," not "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids." (Thanks a lot, Disney.)
"Honey, I've shrunk the kids" would be standard, and also grammatically acceptable is "Honey, I've shrunken the kids" (though deplorable from a childrearing point of view).
SHUTTER TO THINK/SHUDDER TO THINK
When you are so horrified by a thought that you tremble at it, you shudder to think it.
SICK/SIC
The command given to a dog, "sic 'em," derives from the word "seek." The 1992 punk rock album titled "Sick 'Em" has helped popularize the common misspelling of this phrase. Unless you want to tell how you incited your pit bull to vomit on someone's shoes, don't write "sick 'em" or "sick the dog."
The standard spelling of the ing form of the word is "siccing."
In a different context, the Latin word sic ("thus") inserted into a quotation is an editorial comment calling attention to a misspelling or other error in the original which you do not want to be blamed for but are accurately reproducing: "She acted like a real preMadonna (sic)." When commenting on someone else's faulty writing, you really want to avoid misspelling this word as sick.
Although it's occasionally useful in preventing misunderstanding, "sic" is usually just a way of being snotty about someone else's mistake, largely replaced now by "lol." Sometimes it's appropriate to correct the mistakes in writing you're quoting; and when errors abound, you needn't mark each one with a "sic"your readers will notice.
SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS/SIERRA NEVADAS
Sierra is Spanish for "sawtooth mountain range," so knowledgeable Westerners usually avoid a redundancy by simply referring to "the Sierra Nevadas" or simply "the Sierras." Transplanted weather forecasters often get this wrong.
Some object to the familiar abbreviation "Sierras," but this form, like "Rockies" and "Smokies" is too well established to be considered erroneous.
SIGNALED OUT/SINGLED OUT
When a single individual is separated out from a larger group, usually
by being especially noticed or treated differently, that individual is
being "singled out." This expression has nothing to do with signalling.
SILICON/SILICONE
Silicon is a chemical element, the basic stuff of which microchips are made. Sand is largely silicon. Silicones are plastics and other materials containing silicon, the most commonly discussed example being silicone breast implants. Less used by the general public is "silica": an oxide of silicon.
SIMPLISTIC
"Simplistic" means "overly simple," and is always used negatively. Don't substitute it when you just mean to say "simple" or even "very simple."
SINGLE QUOTATION MARKS
In standard American writing, the only use for single quotation marks is to designate a quotation within a quotation. Students are exposed by Penguin Books and other publishers to the British practice of using single quotes for normal quotations and become confused. Some strange folkloric process has convinced many people that while entire sentences and long phrases are surrounded by conventional double quotation marks, single words and short phrases take single quotation marks. "Wrong," I insist.
SISTERINLAWS/SISTERSINLAW
Your spouse's female siblings are not your sisterinlaws, but your sistersinlaw. The same pattern applies to brothersinlaw, fathersinlaw, and mothersinlaw.
SKIDDISH/SKITTISH
If you nervously avoid something you are not "skiddish" about it; the word is "skittish."
SLIGHT OF HAND/SLEIGHT OF HAND
"Sleight" is an old word meaning "cleverness, skill," and the proper expression is "sleight of hand." it's easy to understand why it's confused with "slight" since the two words are pronounced in exactly the same way.
SLOG IT OUT/SLUG IT OUT
Slogging is a slow, messy business, typically tramping through sticky mud or metaphorically struggling with other difficult tasks. You might slog through a pile of receipts to do your taxes. If you are engaged in a fierce battle with an adversary, however, you slug it out, like boxers slugging each other. There is no such expression as "slog it out."
SLOW GIN/SLOE GIN
A small European plum named a "sloe" is used to flavor the liqueur
called "sloe gin." You should probably sip it slowly, but that has nothing to do with its name.
SLUFF OFF/SLOUGH OFF
You use a loofah to slough off dead skin.
SNUCK/SNEAKED
In American English "snuck" has become increasingly common as the past tense of "sneak." This is one of many cases in which people's humorously selfconscious use of dialect has influenced others to adopt it as standard and it is now often seen even in sophisticated writing in the US But it is safer to use the traditional form: "sneaked."
SOMETIME/SOME TIME
"Let's get together sometime." When you use the oneword form, it suggests some indefinite time in the future. "Some time" is not wrong in this sort of context, but it is required when being more specific: "Choose some time that fits in your schedule." "Some" is an adjective here modifying "time." The same pattern applies to "someday" (vague) and "some day" (specific).
SO/VERY
Originally people said things like "I was so delighted with the wrapping that I couldn't bring myself to open the package." But then they began to lazily say "You made me so happy," no longer explaining just how happy that was. This pattern of using "so" as a simple intensifier meaning "very" is now standard in casual speech, but is out of place in formal writing, where "very" or another intensifier works better. Without vocal emphasis, the "so" conveys little in print.
SO FUN/SO MUCH FUN
Strictly a young person's usage: "That party was so fun!" If you don't want to be perceived as a gumchewing airhead, say "so much fun."
SOAR/SORE
By far the more common word is "sore" which refers to aches, pains and wounds: sore feet, sore backs, sores on your skin. The more unusual word used to describe the act of gliding through the air or swooping up toward the heavens is spelled "soar." This second word is often used metaphorically: eagles, spirits, and prices can all soar. If you know your parts of speech, just keep in mind that "soar" is always a verb, and "sore" can be either a noun ("running sore") or an adjective ("sore loser") but never a verb. In archaic English "sore" could also be an adverb meaning "sorely" or "severely": "they were sore afraid."
SOCIAL/SOCIETAL
"Societal" as an adjective has been in existence for a couple of
centuries, but has become widely used only in the recent past. People who imagine that "social" has too many frivolous connotations of mere partying often resort to it to make their language more serious and impressive. It is best used by social scientists and others in referring to the influence of societies: "societal patterns among the Ibo of eastern Nigeria." Used in place of "social" in ordinary speech and writing it sounds pretentious.
SOJOURN/JOURNEY
Although the spelling of this word confuses many people into thinking it means "journey," a sojourn is actually a temporary stay in one place. If you're constantly on the move, you're not engaged in a sojourn.
SOLE/SOUL
The bottom of your foot is your sole; your spirit is your soul.
SOMEWHAT OF A/SOMEWHAT, SOMETHING OF A
This error is the result of confusing two perfectly good usages: "She is somewhat awkward," and "He is something of a klutz." Use one or the other instead.
SOME WHERE/SOMEWHERE
"Somewhere," like "anywhere" and "nowhere," is always one word.
SONG/WORK OR COMPOSITION
When you're writing that cultural event report based on last night's symphony concert, don't call the music performed "songs." Songs are strictly pieces of music which are sungby singers. Instrumental numbers may be called "works," "compositions," or even "pieces." Be careful, though: a single piece may have several different movements; and it would be wrong to refer to the Adagio of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata as a "piece." It's just a piece of a piece.
See also music/singing.
SOONER/RATHER
"I'd sooner starve than eat what they serve in the cafeteria" is less formal than "I'd rather starve."
SOONER THAN LATER/SOONER RATHER THAN LATER
The traditional expression "sooner rather than later" is now commonly abbreviated to the less logical "sooner than later." The shorter form is very popular, but is more likely to cause raised eybrows than the similarly abbreviated expression "long story short."
See "long story short."
SOUP DU JOUR OF THE DAY/SOUP OF THE DAY
"Soupe du jour" (note the "E" on the end of "soupe") means "soup of the day." If you're going to use French to be pretentious on a menu, it's important to learn the meaning of the words you're using. Often what is offered is potage, anyway. Keep it simple, keep it in English, and you can't go wrong.
SORT AFTER/SOUGHT AFTER
Something popular which many people are searching for is "sought after". If you are sorting a thing, you've presumably already found it. When this phrase precedes a noun or noun phrase which it modifies, it has to be hyphenated: "Action Comics #1 is a much soughtafter comic book because it was the first to feature Superman."
SOUR GRAPES
In a famous fable by Aesop, a fox declared that he didn't care that he could not reach an attractive bunch of grapes because he imagined they were probably sour anyway. You express sour grapes when you put down something you can't get: "winning the lottery is just a big headache anyway." The phrase is misused in all sorts of ways by people who don't know the original story and imagine it means something more general like "bitterness" or "resentment."
SOWCOW/SALCHOW
There's a fancy turning jump in ice skating named after Swedish figure skater Ulrich Salchow; but every Winter Olympics millions of people think they hear the commentators saying "sowcow" and that's how they proceed to misspell it.
SPACES AFTER A PERIOD
In the old days of typewriters using only monospaced fonts in which a period occupied as much horizontal space as any other letter, it was standard to doublespace after each one to clearly separate out each sentence from the following one. However, when justified, variablewidth type is set for printing it has always been standard to use only one space between sentences. Modern computers produce type that is more like print, and most modern styles call for only one space after a period. This is especially important if you are preparing a text for publication which will be laid out from your electronic copy. If you find it difficult to adopt the onespace pattern, when you are finished writing you can do a global searchandreplace to find all double spaces and replace them with single spaces.
SPADED/SPAYED
If you have neutered your dog, you've spayed it; save the spading until it dies.
SPECIALLY/ESPECIALLY
In most contexts "specially" is more common than "especially," but when you mean "particularly" "especially" works better: "I am not especially excited about inheriting my grandmother's neurotic Siamese cat."
"Especial" in the place of "special" is very formal and rather oldfashioned.
SPECIE/SPECIES
In both the original Latin and in English "species" is the spelling of both the singular and plural forms. Amphiprion ocellaris is one species of clownfish. Many species of fish are endangered by overfishing.
Specie is a technical term referring to the physical form of money, particularly coins.
SPICKET/SPIGOT
A faucet is a "spigot," not a "spicket."
SPICY
"Spicy" has two different meanings: intensely flavored and peppery. Someone who asks for food that is not spicy intending to avoid only pepper may get bland, flavorless food instead. It's good to be specific about what you dislike. South Asian cooks asked to avoid pepper have been known to omit only seed pepper and use a free hand with chopped green or red chilies. If you are such a cook, be aware that timid American diners mean by "pepper" all biting, hot spices and they will probably not enjoy chili peppers or large amounts of ginger, though they may love cardamom, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, etc.
When you see the word "chilli" on an Indian menu, the spelling being used is that of the British.
SPAN/SPUN
Don't say "the demon span her head around." The past tense of "spin" in this sense is "spun."
SPARE OF THE MOMENT/SPUR OF THE MOMENT
You don't see people wearing spurs much any more, which may explain why some are vague about the significance of metaphorical spurs. Anything that prompts you to do something can be a spur to action. We say of people that are prompted in this way that they are "spurred on" by fear, ambition, greed, or some other cause.
So a momentary impulse which causes you to act without advance planning can result in a decision made "on the spur of the moment."
Then there is the expression "spare moment": "Sorry, Honey, when I was getting the kids ready for school I couldn't spare a moment to clean up
the mess the dog made in the kitchen."
This latter pattern seems to lead some people to mistakenly imagine that the expression is "on the spare of the moment."
SPIRITUALISM/SPIRITUALITY
The most common meaning of "spiritualism" is belief in the possibility of communication with the spirits of the dead.
A better term for other religious beliefs and activities is "spirituality," as in "I'm going to the ashram to explore my spirituality."
SPOKE/SAID
Novice writers of fictional dialogue sometimes become wary of repeating "said" too often, resulting in odd constructions like this: "'You've got gravy on your shirt,' she spoke."
You can speak a language or speak with someone, but you can't speak a speech.
If you get tired of "said" you could have your characters whisper, shout, hiss, or grumble; but you shouldn't be afraid of having them simply say things. It won't bore your readers; they won't even notice.
SPREE
It used to be that a spree was mainly understood as a wild drinking carouse, with the emphasis on spontaneity and abandon. Then it was used metaphorically, as in a "shopping spree."
American journalists began to write of "killing sprees" by murderers recklessly killing people at random ("spree" fits so nicely in headlines).
But they go too far when they refer to terrorist bombing sprees. Targeted, purposeful acts like these lack the element of spontaneity and disorder that characterize a spree. Do they mean perhaps a "spate"?
STAID/STAYED
"Staid" is an adjective often used to label somebody who is rather stodgy and dull, a stickinthe mud." But in modern English the past tense of the verb "stay" is "stayed": "I stayed at the office late hoping to impress my boss."
STAND/STANCE
When you courageously resist opposing forces, you takeor makea stand. The metaphor is a military one, with the defending forces refusing to flee from the attacker. Your stance, on the other hand, is just your positionliteral or figurativewhich may not be particularly
militant. A golfer wanting to improve her drives may adopt a different stance, or your stance on cojack may be that it doesn't belong on a gourmet cheese platter; but if you organize a group to force the neighbors to get rid of the hippo they've tethered in their front yard, you're taking a stand.
STATES/COUNTRIES
Citizens of the United States, where states are smaller subdivisions of the country, are sometimes surprised to see "states" referring instead to foreign countries. Note that the US Department of State deals with foreign affairs, not those of US states. Clearly distinguish these two uses of "state" in your writing.
STATIONARY/STATIONERY
When something is standing still, it's stationary. That piece of paper you write a letter on is stationery. Let the "E" in "stationery" remind you of "envelope."
STINT/STENT
When the time to work comes, you've got to do your stint; but the medical device installed to keep an artery open is a "stent." Even people in the medical profession who should know better often use "stint" when they mean "stent."
STEREO
"Stereo" refers properly to a means of reproducing sound in two or more discrete channels to create a solid, apparently threedimensional sound. Because in the early days only fanciers of high fidelity (or hifi) equipment could afford stereophonic sound, "stereo" came to be used as a substitute for "high fidelity," and even "record player." Stereo equipment (for instance a cheap portable cassette player) is not necessarily high fidelity equipment. Visual technology creating a sense of depth by using two different lenses can also use the root "stereo" as in "stereoscope."
STOMP/STAMP
"Stomp" is colloquial, casual. A professional wrestler stomps his opponent. In more formal contexts "stamp" is preferred. But you will probably not be able to stamp out the spread of "stomp."
STRAIGHT/STRAIT
If something is not crooked or curved it's straight.
If it is a narrow passageway beween two bodies of water, it's a strait. Place names like "Bering Strait" are almost always spelled "strait."
STRAIGHTJACKET/STRAITJACKET
The old word "strait" ("narrow, tight") has survived only as a noun in geography referring to a narrow body of water ("the Bering Strait") and in a few adjectival uses such as "straitjacket" (a narrowly confining garment) and "straitlaced" (literally laced up tightly, but usually meaning narrowminded). Its unfamiliarity causes many people to mistakenly substitute the more common "straight."
STATUE OF LIMITATIONS/STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS
What would a statue of limitations look like? A cop stopping traffic? The Venus de Milo? Her missing arms would definitely limit her ability to scratch what itches. The legal phrase limiting the period after which an offense can no longer be prosecuted is the statute (law) of limitations.
STEEP LEARNING CURVE
The phrase "steep learning curve" to describe a difficulttomaster skill is mathematical nonsense. If the horizontal axis of the graph represents time, then the vertical axis is probably supposed to represent effort expended. If a task begins by being very difficult and continues being so for a long time, then the curve would begin high above the zero point on the vertical axis and descend very gradually, producing a shallow learning curve, not a steep one.
Most people imagine a steep learning curve as describing a sharply inclined slope beginning at zero; but logically that sort of curve would describe a task that begins by being very easy and which rapidly becomes harder and hardernot what people mean. The confusion is caused by people's tendency to think of the curve as if it were a hill to be climbed.
An alternative way of understanding this phrase would be to imagine that the vertical axis represents degree of mastery; but in that case a difficult task would begin at zero and rise very slowly over timeagain a shallow curve, not a steep one.
The problem is that most people's interpretation begins with the vertical axis measuring mastery achieved (zero to begin with), but as they move along the horizontal axis in time they unconsciously switch to its opposite: remaining mastery needed (a lot, right away). This makes no sense. The line needs to stand for the same variable along its whole length to make a sensible chart.
There's little hope of abolishing this ubiquitous bit of pretentious jargon, but you should avoid using it around mathematically sophisticated people.
STOCK AND TRADE/STOCK IN TRADE
In this context, "trade" means "business." The items a business trades in are its stock in trade. Metaphorically, the stuff needed by people to carry on their activities can also be called their stock in trade: "Bushy eyebrows, cigars, and quips were Groucho's stock in trade." This
expression has nothing to do with trading stock, as on a stock exchange, and it should not be transformed into "stock and trade."
STRESS ON/FEEL STRESS
"Stress on" is commonly misused used to mean "to experience stress" as in "I'm stressing on the term paper I have to do." Still informal, but better, is "I'm stressed about. . . ." In a more formal context you could express the same idea by saying "I'm anxious about. . . ."
It is perfectly fine, however, to say that you place stress on something, with "stress" being a noun rather than a verb.
STRICKEN/STRUCK
Most of the time the past participle of "strike" is "struck." The exceptions are that you can be stricken with guilt, a misfortune, a wound or a disease; and a passage in a document can be stricken out. The rest of the time, stick with "struck."
STRONG SUITE/STRONG SUIT
"Strong suit" is an expression derived from cardplaying, in which hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades are the suits. When you put your best foot forward your play your strong suit.
SUBMITTAL/SUBMISSION
"Submittal" is the act of submitting; it should not be used to describe the thing being submitted, as in "clip a fivedollar bill to your submittal and it will receive our earliest attention." In almost all cases "submission" is clearer and more traditional than "submittal."
SUBSTANCEFREE
An administrator at our university once announced that his goal was a "substancefree" campus, which I suppose fit in with the fad of the period for "virtual education." What he really meant was, of course, a campus free of illegal drugs and alcohol, designated "controlled substances" in the law. This is a very silly expression, but if he'd just said "sober and straight" he would have sounded too censorious. How about "drug and alcoholfree"?
SUBSTITUTE WITH/SUBSTITUTE FOR
You can substitute pecans for the walnuts in a brownie recipe, but many people mistakenly say "substitute with" instead, perhaps influenced by the related expression "replace with." it's always "substitute for."
SUFFER WITH/SUFFER FROM
Although technical medical usage sometimes differs, in normal speech we say that a person suffers from a disease rather than suffering with it.
SUIT/SUITE
Your bedroom suite consists of the bed, the nightstand, and whatever other furniture goes with it. Your pajamas would be your bedroom suit.
SULKING/SKULKING
That guy sneaking furtively around the neighborhood is skulking around; that teenager brooding in his bedroom because he got grounded is sulking. "Sulking around" is not a traditional phrase.
SUMMARY/SUMMERY
When the weather is warm and summery and you don't feel like spending a lot of time reading that long report from the restructuring committee, just read the summary.
SUPED UP/SOUPED UP
The car you've souped up may be super, but it's not "suped up."
SUPERCEDE/SUPERSEDE
"Supersede," meaning to replace, originally meant "to sit higher" than, from Latin sedere, "to sit." In the 18th century, rich people were often carried about as they sat in sedan chairs. Don't be misled by the fact that this word rhymes with words having quite different roots, such as "intercede."
SUPPOSABLY, SUPPOSINGLY, SUPPOSIVELY/SUPPOSEDLY
"Supposedly" is the standard form. "Supposably" can be used only when the meaning is "capable of being supposed," and then only in the US You won't get into trouble if you stick with "supposedly."
SUPPOSE TO/SUPPOSED TO
Because the D and the T are blended into a single consonant when this phrase is pronounced, many writers are unaware that the D is even present and omit it in writing. You're supposed to get this one right if you want to earn the respect of your readers. See also "use to."
SUPREMIST/SUPREMICIST
A neoNazi is a white supremacist, not "supremist."
SUSPECT/SUSPICIOUS
If your boss thinks you may have dipped into petty cash to pay your gambling debts, you may be suspect (or "a suspect"). But if you think somebody else did it, you are suspicious of them. Confusingly, if the police suspect you of a crime, you can be described as a "suspicious person" and if you constantly suspect others of crimes, you can also be
called "suspicious."
But "suspect" is not so flexible. A suspect is a person somebody is suspicious of, never the person who is doing the suspecting. It never makes sense to say "I am suspect that. . . ."
SURFING THE INTERNET
"Channelsurfing" developed as an ironic term to denote the very unathletic activity of randomly changing channels on a television set with a remote control. Its only similarity to surfboarding on real surf has to do with the esthetic of "going with the flow." The Internet could be a fearsomely difficult place to navigate until the World Wide Web was invented; casual clicking on Web links was naturally quickly compared to channelsurfing, so the expression "surfing the Web" was a natural extension of the earlier expression. But the Web is only one aspect of the Internet, and you label yourself as terminally uncool if you say "surfing the Internet." (Cool people say "Net" anyway.) It makes no sense to refer to targeted, purposeful searches for information as "surfing"; for that reason I call my classes on Internet research techniques "scubadiving the Internet."
However, Jean Armour Polly, who claims to have originated the phrase "surfing the Internet" in 1992, maintains that she intended it to have exactly the connotations it now has. See her page on the history of the term: (http://www.netmom.com/about/surfing_main.htm).
SWAM/SWUM
The regular past tense of "swim" is "swam": "I swam to the island." However, when the word is preceded by a helping verb, it changes to "swum": "I've swum to the island every day." The "'ve" stands for "have," a helping verb.
TABLE
In the UK if you table an issue you place it on the table for discussion; but in the US the phrase means the opposite: you indefinitely postpone discussing the issue.
TAD BIT/TAD, BIT
A "tad" was originally a small boy, but this word evolved into the expression "a tad" meaning "very small" or "very slightly": "The movie was a tad long for my taste."
Some people combine this with the equivalent expression "a bit" and say "a tad bit." This is redundant. Just say "a bit" or "a tad."
TAKE A DIFFERENT TACT/TAKE A DIFFERENT TACK
This expression has nothing to do with tactfulness and everything to do with sailing, in which it is a direction taken as one tacksabruptly turnsa boat. To "take a different tack" is to try another approach.
TAKEN BACK/TAKEN ABACK
When you're startled by something, you're taken aback by it. When you're reminded of something from your past, you're taken back to that time.
TWO TO TANGLE/TWO TO TANGO
A 1952 song popularized the phrase "it takes two to tango"; and it was quickly applied to everything that required two parties, from romance to fighting. Later, people baffled by hearing the phrase used of conflicts imagined that the proper word must be "tangle." Perhaps if they had thought of the fierce choreography of Parisian apache dancing they would not have been so confused. "It takes two to tangle" will seem the normal phrase to some people, a clever variation to a few, and an embarrassing mistake to many people you might want to impress.
TATTLETAIL/TATTLETALE
Somebody who reveals secretstattling, telling talesis a tattletale, often spelled as one word: "tattletale."
TAUGHT/TAUT
Students are taught, ropes are pulled taut.
TAUNT/TAUT/TOUT
I am told that medical personnel often mistakenly refer to a patient's abdomen as "taunt" rather than the correct "taut." "Taunt" ("tease" or "mock") can be a verb or noun, but never an adjective. "Taut" means "tight, distended," and is always an adjective.
Don't confuse "taunt" with "tout," which means "promote," as in "Senator Bilgewater has been touted as a Presidential candidate." You tout somebody you admire and taunt someone that you don't.
TENANT/TENET
These two words come from the same Latin root, "tenere," meaning "to hold"; but they have very different meanings. "Tenet" is the rarer of the two, meaning a belief that a person holds: "Avoiding pork is a tenet of the Muslim faith." In contrast, the person leasing an apartment from you is your tenant. (She holds the lease.)
TENDER HOOKS/TENTERHOOKS
A "tenter" is a canvasstretcher, and to be "on tenterhooks" means to be as tense with anticipation as a canvas stretched on one.
TENTATIVE
Often alltootentatively pronounced "tennative." Sound all three "T's."
THAN/THEN
When comparing one thing with another you may find that one is more appealing "than" another. "Than" is the word you want when doing comparisons. But if you are talking about time, choose "then": "First you separate the eggs; then you beat the whites." Alexis is smarter than I, not "then I."
THANKS GOD
I suppose if you wanted to express your gratitude directly to the deity you might appropriately say "Thanks, God, for helping our team win the big game." More appropriate is something more formal, like "Thank you, God." In any case, the general expression when it's not specifically meant as a prayer is not "thanks God," but "thank God." Not "Thanks God Emily hit a homer in this last inning," but "thank God" she did.
THANKYOU/THANK YOU, THANKYOU
When you are grateful to someone, tell them "thank you." Thanks are often called "thankyous," and you can write "thankyou notes." But the expression should never be written as a single unhyphenated word.
THAT/THAN
People surprisingly often write "that" when they mean "than" in various standard phrases. Examples: "harder that I thought," "better safe that sorry," and "closer that they appear." In all these cases, "that" should be "than."
THAT/WHICH
I must confess that I do not myself observe the distinction between "that" and "which." Furthermore, there is little evidence that this distinction is or has ever been regularly made in past centuries by careful writers of English. However, a small but impassioned group of authorities has urged the distinction; so here is the information you will need to pacify them.
If you are defining something by distinguishing it from a larger class of which it is a member, use "that": "I chose the lettuce that had the fewest wilted leaves." When the general class is not being limited or defined in some way, then "which" is appropriate: "He made an iceberg lettuce Caesar salad, which didn't taste right." Note that "which" is normally preceded by a comma, but "that" is not.
THAT KIND/THAT KIND OF
Although expressions like "that kind thing" are common in some dialects, standard English requires "of" in this kind of phrase.
THE BOTH OF THEM/BOTH OF THEM
You can say "the two of them," as in "the two of them make an
interesting couple"; but normally "the" is not used before "both," as in "both of them have purple hair."
THEIRSELVES/THEMSELVES
There is no such word as "theirselves" (and you certainly can't spell it "theirselfs" or "thierselves"); it's "themselves." And there is no correct singular form of this nonword; instead of "theirself" use "himself" or "herself."
THEM/THOSE
One use of "them" for "those" has become a standard catch phrase: "how do you like them apples?" This is deliberate dialectical humor. But "I like them little canapes with the shrimp on top" is gauche; say instead "I like those little canapes."
THEORY
In ordinary speech, a theory is just a speculation. The police inspector in a Miss Marple mystery always has a theory about who committed the murder which turns out to be wrong.
But in science the word "theory" plays a very different role. What most of us call "theories" are termed "hypotheses" until enough evidence has been accumulated to validate them and allow them to assume the status of theories: scientifically acceptable explanations of phenomena. Examples: the theory of gravity, the wave theory of light, chaos theory.
Foes of
evolutionary
science often insist
that the theory of evolution
is invalid because it is "only a theory."
This merely demonstrates their
lack of
knowledge of
scientific usage and
hence will not impress any
scientifically literate person.
THEREFOR/THEREFORE
The form without a final "E" is an archaic bit of legal terminology meaning "for." The word most people want is "therefore."
THERE'S
People often forget that "there's" is a contraction of "there is" and mistakenly say "there's three burrs caught in your hair" when they mean "there're" ("there are"). Use "there's" only when referring to one item.
Remember if you don't contract "there is" that it also can only be used with something singular following. It's not "There is many mistakes in this paper" but "there are many mistakes in this paper."
See also "THERE'S."
THESE ARE THEM/THESE ARE THEY
Although only the pickiest listeners will cringe when you say "these are
them," the traditionally correct phrase is "these are they," because "they" is the predicate nominative of "these." However, if people around you seem more comfortable with "it's me" than "it's I," you might as well stick with "these are them."
THESE KIND/THIS KIND
In a sentence like "I love this kind of chocolates," "this" modifies "kind" (singular) and not "chocolates" (plural), so it would be incorrect to change it to "I love these kind of chocolates." Only if "kind" itself is pluralized into "kinds" should "this" shift to "these": "You keep making these kinds of mistakes!"
THESE ONES/THESE
By itself, there's nothing wrong with the word "ones" as a plural: "surrounded by her loved ones." However, "this one" should not be pluralized to "these ones." Just say "these." The same pattern applies to "those."
THEY/THEIR (SINGULAR)
Using the plural pronoun to refer to a single person of unspecified gender is an old and honorable pattern in English, not a newfangled bit of degeneracy or a politically correct plot to avoid sexism (though it often serves the latter purpose). People who insist that "Everyone has brought his own lunch" is the only correct form do not reflect the usage of centuries of fine writers. A good general rule is that only when the singular noun does not specify an individual can it be replaced plausibly with a plural pronoun: "Everybody" is a good example. We know that "everybody" is singular because we say "everybody is here, " not "everybody are here" yet we tend to think of "everybody" as a group of individuals, so we usually say "everybody brought their own grievances to the bargaining table." "Anybody" is treated similarly.
However, in many written sentences the use of singular "their" and "they" creates an irritating clash even when it passes unnoticed in speech. It is wise to shun this popular pattern in formal writing. Often expressions can be pluralized to make the "they" or "their" indisputably proper: "All of them have brought their own lunches." "People" can often be substituted for "each." Americans seldom avail themselves of the otherwise very handy British "one" to avoid specifying gender because it sounds to our ears rather pretentious: "One's hound should retrieve only one's own grouse." If you decide to try "one," don't switch to "they" in midsentence: "One has to be careful about how they speak" sounds absurd because the word "one" so emphatically calls attention to its singleness. The British also quite sensibly treat collective bodies like governmental units and corporations as plural ("Parliament have approved their agenda") whereas Americans insist on treating them as singular.
THEY'RE/THEIR/THERE
Many people are so spooked by apostrophes that a word like "they're" seems to them as if it might mean almost anything. In fact, it's always a contraction of "they are." If you've written "they're," ask yourself whether you can substitute "they are." If not, you've made a mistake. "Their" is a possessive pronoun like "her" or "our": "They eat their hotdogs with sauerkraut." Everything else is "there." "There goes the ball, out of the park! See it? Right there! There aren't very many home runs like that." "Thier" is a common misspelling, but you can avoid it by remembering that "they" and "their" begin with the same three letters. Another hint: "there" has "here" buried inside it to remind you it refers to place, while "their" has "heir" buried in it to remind you that it has to do with possession.
THINK ON/THINK ABOUT
An archaic form that persists in some dialects is seen in statements like "I'll think on it" when most people would say "I'll think about it."
THOUGH/THOUGHT/THROUGH
Although most of us know the differences between these words people often type one of them when they mean another. Spelling checkers won't catch this sort of slip, so look out for it.
THREW/THROUGH
"Threw" is the past tense of the verb "throw": "The pitcher threw a curve ball." "Through" is never a verb: "The ball came through my living room window." Unless your sentence involves someone throwing somethingeven figuratively, as in "she threw out the idea casually" the word you want is "through."
THRONE/THROWN
A throne is that chair a king sits on, at least until he gets thrown out of office.
THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY/IN A MIRROR, DARKLY
Here's an error with a very distinguished heritage.
When in 1 Corinthians 13:12 Paul tries to express the imperfection of mortal understanding, he compares our earthly vision to the dim and wavery view reflected by a typical Romanera polished bronze mirror. Unfortunately, the classic King James translation rendered his metaphor rather confusingly as "For now we see through a glass, darkly." By the time of the Renaissance, mirrors were made of glass and so it was natural for the translators to call the mirror a "glass," though by so doing they obscured Paul's point. Why they should have used "through" rather than the more logical "in" is unclear; but it has made many people think that the image is of looking through some kind of magical glass mirror like that in Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass."
Although most other translations use more accurate phrasing ("as in a mirror," "a blurred image in a mirror," etc.), the King James is so influential that its misleading rendering of the verse is overwhelmingly more popular than the more accurate ones. It's not really an error to quote the KJV, but if you use the image, don't make the mistake of suggesting it has to do with a dirty window rather than a dim mirror.
THROWS OF PASSION/THROES OF PASSION
A dying person's final agony can be called "death throes." The only other common use for this word is "throes of passion." Throws are wrestling moves or those little blankets you drape on the furniture.
THUSFAR/THUS FAR
Some common phrases get fused in people's minds into single words. The phrase "thus far" is frequently misspelled "thusfar." Hardly anybody writes "sofar" instead of "so far"just treat "thus far" in the same way.
THUSLY/THUS
"Thusly" has been around for a long time, but it is widely viewed as nonstandard. It's safer to go with plain old "thus."
TIC/TICK
The word for a spasmodic twitch or habitual quirk of speech or behavior is spelled the French way: "tic." You may have to worry about Lyme disease if you get a bite from a tick on your face, but that spasm in your left cheek whenever the teacher calls on you is a facial tic.
TIMBER/TIMBRE
You can build a house out of timber, but that quality which distinguishes the sound produced by one instrument or voice from others is timbre, usually pronounced "TAMbruh," so the common expression is "vocal timbre."
TIME PERIOD
The only kinds of periods meant by people who use this phrase are periods of time, so it's a redundancy. Simply say "time" or "period."
TIMES SMALLER
Mathematically literate folks object to expressions like "my paycheck is three times smaller than it used to be" because "times" indicates multiplication and should logically apply only to increases in size. Say "one third as large" instead.
TIRIMISU/TIRAMISU
Tiramisu is Italian for "pick me up", and is the name of a popular
modern Italian dessert, commonly mispelled as tirimisu, which gives it a slightly Japanese air. The Japanese love tiramisu; but although they sometimes make it with green tea rather than coffee this misspelling isn't their fault.
TO/TOO/TWO
People seldom mix "two" up with the other two; it obviously belongs with words that also begin with TW, like "twice" and "twenty" that involve the number 2. But the other two are confused all the time. Just remember that the only meanings of "too" are "also" ("I want some ice cream too") and "in excess" ("Your walkman is playing too loudly.") Note that extra O. It should remind you that this word has to do with adding more on to something. "To" is the proper spelling for all the other uses.
TO HOME/AT HOME
In some dialects people say "I stayed to home to wait for the mail," but in standard English the expression is "stayed at home."
TO THE MANOR BORN/TO THE MANNER BORN
Hamlet complains of the drunken carousing at Elsinore to his friend Horatio, who asks "Is it a custom?" Hamlet replies that it is and adds, "but to my mind,though I am native here and to the manner born,it is a custom more honour'd in the breach than the observance."
"As if to the manner born" is used to praise someone's skill: "Reginald drives the Maserati as if to the manner born" (as if he were born with that skill).
"To the Manor Born" was the punning title of a popular BBC comedy, which greatly increased the number of people who mistakenly supposed the original expression had something to do with being born on a manor. Perhaps because of the poetically inverted word order in "manner born" the expression tends to occur in rather snooty contexts. Nevertheless, the correct expression is "to the manner born."
TO WHERE/SO MUCH THAT, TO THE POINT THAT
Complains Fred, "Mac kept borrowing my tools to where I couldn't finish fixing the front porch." This sort of use of "to where" to mean "so much that" or "to the point that" is not standard English. The meaning is more about when than where.
TODAY'S DAY AND AGE/THIS DAY AND AGE
The traditional expression is "in this day and age," meaning "right at this moment and during a considerable stretch of time around this moment." "Today's day" is redundant: "today" already has "day" in it.
TODAY'S MODERN SOCIETY/TODAY
People seeking to be uptotheminute often indulge in such redundancies
as "in today's modern society" or "in the modern society of today." This is empty armwaving which says nothing more than "now" or "today." A reasonable substitute is "contemporary society." Such phrases are usually indulged in by people with a weak grasp of history to substitute for such more precise expressions as "for the past five years" or "this month." See "since the beginning of time."
TOLLED/TOLD
Some people imagine that the expression should be "all tolled" as if items were being ticked off to the tolling of a bell, or involved the paying of a toll; but in fact this goes back to an old meaning of "tell": "to count." You could "tell over" your beads if you were counting them in a rosary. "All told" means "all counted."
This older meaning of "tell" is the reason that people who count money out behind bank windows are called "tellers."
TOOKEN/TOOK/TAKEN
"Hey, Tricia! Ted couldn't find his parrot so he's tooken your toucan to show and tell!" "Tooken" is a nonstandard form of "taken."
In fact, there are two pasttense forms of "take" which shouldn't be mixed up with each other. For the simple past you need "took": "Beau took a course in acoustics." But if a helping verb precedes it, the word you need is "taken": "he has taken some other courses too."
TOUNGE/TONGUE
"Tounge" is a common misspelling of "tongue."
TONGUE AND CHEEK/TONGUE IN CHEEK
When people want to show they are kidding or have just knowingly uttered a falsehood, they stick their tongues in their cheeks, so it's "tongue in cheek," not "tongue and cheek."
TOEHEADED/TOWHEADED
Lightcolored rope is called "tow" and someone with very blond hair is called a "towhead." Towheaded children are cute, but a toeheaded one would be seriously deformed.
TORTUROUS/TORTUOUS
A path with a confusing proliferation of turns is tortuous (from a French root meaning "twisted"). But "torturous" (meaning painful or unpleasant, like torture) is very frequently confused with it. So often has "tortuous logic" (tangled, twisted logic) been misspelled as "torturous logic" that it has given rise to a now independent form with its own meaning, "tortured logic." Few people object to the latter; but if you want to describe your slow progress along a twisting path, the word you want is "tortuous."
TOW THE LINE/TOE THE LINE
"Toe the line" has to do with lining your toes up on a precise mark, not with pulling on a rope.
However if you have to take your kids along when you visit friends, you have them not "in toe," but "in tow."
TOWARD/TOWARDS
These two words are interchangeable, but "toward" is more common in the US and "towards" in the UK
TRACK HOME/TRACT HOME
Commuters from a tract home may well feel that they are engaged in a rat race, but that does not justify them in describing their housing development as a "track." "Tract" here means an area of land on which cheap and uniform houses have been built. Incidentally, note that the phrase is "digestive tract," not "digestive track."
TRADEGY/TRAGEDY
Not only do people often misspell "tragedy" as "tradegy," they mispronounce it that way too. Just remember that the adjective is "tragic" to recall that it's the G that comes after the A.
TRAGEDY/TRAVESTY
"Travesty" has farcical connotations; it's actually related to "transvestite." A disaster that could be described as a farce or a degraded imitation may be called a travesty: "The trialsince the defense lawyer slept through most of itwas a travesty of justice." A tragedy is an altogether more serious matter.
TRITE AND TRUE/TRIED AND TRUE
Ideas that are trite may well be true; but the expression is "tried and true": ideas that have been tried and turned out to be valid.
TROOP/TROUPE
A group of performers is a troupe. Any other group of people, military or otherwise, is a troop. A police officer, member of a mounted military group or similar person is a trooper, but a gungho worker is a real trouper.
Troops are always groups, despite the current vogue among journalists of saying things like "two troops were wounded in the battle" when they mean "two soldiers." "Two troops" would be two groups of soldiers, not two individuals.
TOUCH BASES/TOUCH BASE
Although in baseball a homerun hitter has to touch all four bases while whizzing past, when you propose to linger with someone long enough to compare notes, you do all your chatting at a single base. The expression is "let's touch base."
TRANSITION
People in business, politics, and education love to turn nouns into verbs; but many of their transformations irritate a good number of listeners. High on the list of disliked terms is "transition" as a verb: "Over the next month we are going to transition our payroll system from cash to pizza discount coupons." You can say "make the transition," but often plain "change" works fine.
TRY AND/TRY TO
Although "try and" is common in colloquial speech and will usually pass unremarked there, in writing try to remember to use "try to" instead of "try and."
TUSSLED/TOUSLED
Even if your hair gets messed up in a tussle with a friend, it gets tousled, not tussled.
(Common Errors in English by Paul Brians)
