Common Errors in English - Part 2

BACK/FORWARD/UP IN TIME

For most people you move an event forward by scheduling it to happen sooner, but other people imagine the event being moved forward into the future, postponed. This is what most­­but not all­­people mean by saying they want to move an event back­­later. Usage is also split on whether moving an event up means making it happen sooner (most common) or later (less common). The result is widespread confusion. When using these expressions make clear your meaning by the context in which you use them. "We need to move the meeting forward" is ambiguous; "we need to move the meeting forward to an earlier date" is not.

Just to confuse things further, when you move the clock ahead in the spring for daylight saving time, you make it later; but when you move a meeting ahead, you make it sooner. Isn't English wonderful?

BACKSLASH/SLASH

This is a slash: /. Because the top of it leans forward, it is sometimes called a "forward slash."

This is a backslash: \. Notice the way it leans back, distinguishing it from the regular slash.

Slashes are often used to indicate directories and subdirectories in computer systems such as Unix and in World Wide Web addresses. Unfortunately, many people, assuming "backslash" is some sort of technical term for the regular slash, use the term incorrectly, which risks confusing those who know enough to distinguish between the two but not enough to realize that Web addresses rarely contain backslashes.

BACKWARD/BACKWARDS

As an adverb, either word will do: "put the shirt on backward" or "put the shirt on backwards." However, as an adjective, only "backward" will do: "a backward glance." When in doubt, use "backward."

BAIL/BALE

You bail the boat and bale the hay.

In the expression "bail out" meaning to abandon a position or situation, it is nonstandard in America to use "bale," though that spelling is widely accepted in the UK. The metaphor in the US is to compare oneself when jumping out of a plane to a bucket of water being tossed out of a boat, though that is probably not the origin of the phrase.

BALDFACED, BOLDFACED/BAREFACED

The only one of these spellings recognized by the Oxford English Dictionary as meaning "shameless" is "barefaced." Etymologies often refer to the prevalence of beards among Renaissance Englishmen, but beards were probably too common to be considered as deceptively

 

concealing. It seems more likely that the term derived from the widespread custom at that time among the upper classes of wearing masks to social occasions where one would rather not be recognized.

BALL, BAWL

To "bawl" is to cry out loudly, so when you break down in tears you bawl like a baby and when you reprimand people severely you bawl them out. Don't use "ball" in these sorts of expressions. It has number of meanings, but none of them have to do with shouting and wailing unless you're shouting "play ball!"

BARB WIRE, BOB WIRE/BARBED WIRE

In some parts of the country this prickly stuff is commonly called "barb wire" or even "bob wire." When writing for a general audience, stick with the standard "barbed wire."

BARE/BEAR

There are actually three words here. The simple one is the big growly creature (unless you prefer the Winnie­the­Pooh type). Hardly anyone past the age of ten gets that one wrong. The problem is the other two. Stevedores bear burdens on their backs and mothers bear children. Both mean "carry" (in the case of mothers, the meaning has been extended from carrying the child during pregnancy to actually giving birth). But strippers bare their bodies­­sometimes bare­naked. The confusion between this latter verb and "bear" creates many unintentionally amusing sentences; so if you want to entertain your readers while convincing them that you are a dolt, by all means mix them up. "Bear with me," the standard expression, is a request for forbearance or patience. "Bare with me" would be an invitation to undress. "Bare" has an adjectival form: "The pioneers stripped the forest bare."

BASED AROUND, BASED OFF OF/BASED ON

You can build a structure around a center; but bases go on the bottom of things, so you can't base something around something else.

Similarly, you can build something off of a starting point, but you can't base anything off of anything. Something is always based on something else.

BASICLY/BASICALLY

There are "­ly" words and "­ally" words, and you basically just have to memorize which is which. But "basically" is very much overused and is often better avoided in favor of such expressions as "essentially," "fundamentally," or "at heart."

BAITED BREATH/BATED BREATH

Although the odor of the chocolate truffle you just ate may be

 

irresistible bait to your beloved, the proper expression is "bated breath." "Bated" here means "held, abated." You do something with bated breath when you're so tense you're holding your breath.

BARTER/HAGGLE

When you offer to trade your vintage jeans for a handwoven shirt in Guatemala, you are engaged in barter­­no money is involved. One thing (or service) is traded for another.

But when you offer to buy that shirt for less money than the vendor is asking, you are engaged in haggling or bargaining, not bartering.

BAZAAR/BIZARRE

A "bazaar" is a market where miscellaneous goods are sold. "Bizarre," in contrast, is an adjective meaning "strange," "weird."

BEAUROCRACY/BUREAUCRACY

The French bureaucrats from whom we get this word worked at their bureaus (desks, spelled "bureaux" in French) in what came to be known as bureaucracies.

BEAT/BEAD

In American English when you focus narrowly on something or define it carefully you "get a bead" or "draw a bead" on it. In this expression the term "bead" comes from the former name for the little metal bump on the end of a gun barrel which helped the shooter aim precisely at a target. "Beat" is often mistakenly substituted for "bead" by people who imagine that the expression has something to do with matching the timing of the person or activity being observed, catching up with it.

BECKON CALL/BECK AND CALL

This is a fine example of what linguists call "popular etymology." People don't understand the origins of a word or expression and make one up based on what seems logical to them. "Beck" is just an old shortened version of "beckon." If you are at people's beck and call it means they can summon you whenever they want: either by gesture (beck) or speech (call).

FROM THE BEGINNING OF TIME

Stephen Hawking writes about the beginning of time, but few other people do. People who write "from the beginning of time" or "since time began" are usually being lazy. Their grasp of history is vague, so they resort to these broad, sweeping phrases. Almost never is this usage literally accurate: people have not fallen in love since time began, for instance, because people arrived relatively late on the scene in the cosmic scheme of things. When I visited Ferrara several years ago I was interested to see that the whole population of the old city seemed to use bicycles for transportation, cars being banned from the central area. I asked how

 

long this had been the custom and was told "We've ridden bicycles for centuries." Since the bicycle was invented only in the 1860s, I strongly doubted this (no, Leonardo da Vinci did not invent the bicycle­­he just drew a picture of what one might look like­­and some people think that picture is a modern forgery). If you really don't know the appropriate period from which your subject dates, you could substitute a less silly but still vague phrase such as "for many years," or "for centuries"; but it's better simply to avoid historical statements if you don't know your history.

See "today's modern society."

BEGS THE QUESTION

An argument that improperly assumes as true the very point the speaker is trying to argue for is said in formal logic to "beg the question." Here is an example of a question­begging argument: "This painting is trash because it is obviously worthless." The speaker is simply asserting the worthlessness of the work, not presenting any evidence to demonstrate that this is in fact the case. Since we never use "begs" with this odd meaning ("to improperly take for granted") in any other phrase, most people now suppose the phrase implies something quite different: that the argument demands that a question about it be asked­­raises the question. Although using the expression in its original sense is now rare, using it in the newer sense will cause irritation among traditionaalists.

BEHAVIORS

"Behavior" has always referred to patterns of action, including multiple actions, and did not have a separate plural form until social scientists created it. Unless you are writing in psychology, sociology, anthropology, or a related field, it is better to avoid the use of "behaviors" in your writing.

See also "peoples."

BEING THAT/BECAUSE

Using "being that" to mean "because" is nonstandard, as in "Being that the bank robber was fairly experienced, it was surprising that he showed the teller his ID card when she asked for it." "Being as how" is even worse. If "because" or "since" are too simple for your taste, you could use "given that" or "in that" instead.

BELIEF/BELIEVE

People can't have religious "believes"; they have religious beliefs. If you have it, it's a belief; if you do it, you believe.

BELIEF TOWARD/BELIEF IN

You may have a positive attitude toward an idea, but you have a belief in it.

 

BELOW TABLE/TABLE BELOW

When calling your readers' attention to an illustration or table further on in a text, the proper word order is not "the below table" but "the table below."

BEMUSE/AMUSE

When you bemuse someone, you confuse them, and not necessarily in an entertaining way. Don't confuse this word with "amuse."

BENEFACTOR/BENEFICIARY

Benefactors give benefits; beneficiaries receive them. We expect to hear of generous benefactors and grateful beneficiaries.

BESIDE/BESIDES

"Besides" can mean "in addition to" as in "besides the puppy chow, Spot scarfed up the filet mignon I was going to serve for dinner." "Beside," in contrast, usually means "next to." "I sat beside Cheryl all evening, but she kept talking to Jerry instead." Using "beside" for "besides," won't usually get you in trouble; but using "besides" when you mean "next to" will.

BETTER

When Chuck says "I better get my research started; the paper's due tomorrow," he means "I had better," abbreviated in speech to "I'd better." The same pattern is followed for "he'd better," "she'd better," and "they'd better."

BETWEEN

"Between 1939 to 1945" is obviously incorrect to most people­­it should be "between 1939 and 1945"­­but the error is not so obvious when it is written thus: "between 1939­1949." In this case, the "between" should be dropped altogether. Also incorrect are expressions like "there were between 15 to 20 people at the party." This should read "between 15 and 20 people."

BETWEEN YOU AND I/BETWEEN YOU AND ME

"Between you and me" is preferred in standard English.

See "I/me/myself."

BEYOND THE PAIL/BEYOND THE PALE

A pale is originally a stake of the kind which might make up a palisade, or enclosure. The uncontrolled territory outside was then "beyond the pale." The expression "beyond the pale" came to mean "bizarre, beyond proper limits"; but people who don't understand the phrase often alter

 

the last word to "pail."

The area of Ireland called "the Pale" inside the Dublin region formerly controlled by the British is often said to have been the inspiration for this expression, but many authorities challenge that explanation.

BIAS/BIASED

A person who is influenced by a bias is biased. The expression is not "they're bias," but "they're biased." Also, many people say someone is "biased toward" something or someone when they mean biased against. To have a bias toward something is to be biased in its favor.

See also "prejudice/prejudiced."

BIBLE

Whether you are referring to the Jewish Bible (the Torah plus the Prophets and the Writings) or the Protestant Bible (the Jewish Bible plus the New Testament), or the Catholic Bible (which contains everything in the Jewish and Protestant Bibles plus several other books and passages mostly written in Greek in its Old Testament), the word "Bible" must be capitalized. Remember that it is the title of a book, and book titles are normally capitalized. An oddity in English usage is, however, that "Bible" and the names of the various parts of the Bible are not italicized or placed between quotation marks.

Even when used metaphorically of other sacred books, as in "The Qur'an is the Bible of the Muslims," the word is usually capitalized; although in secular contexts it is not: "Physicians' Desk Reference is the pharmacists' bible." "Biblical" may be capitalized or not, as you choose (or as your editor chooses).

Those who wish to be sensitive to the Jewish authorship of the Jewish Bible may wish to use "Hebrew Bible" and "Christian Scriptures" instead of the traditionally Christian nomenclature: "Old Testament" and "New Testament." Modern Jewish scholars sometimes use the Hebrew acronym "Tanakh" to refer to their Bible, but this term is not generally understood by others.

BICEP/BICEPS

A biceps is a single muscle with two attaching tendons at one end. Although "bicep" without the S is often used in casual speech, this spelling is frowned on in medical and anatomical contexts.

BIT THE BULLET/BIT THE DUST

Someone of whom it is said "he bit the bullet" has made a tough decision and decided to act on it. The expression is derived from the old practice of having a wounded soldier bite down on a bullet to brace himself against the pain of undergoing an amputation or other painful operation. Some people confuse this with "bit the dust," which means simply "died" (or more often, "was killed").

 

BIWEEKLY/SEMIWEEKLY

Technically, a biweekly meeting occurs every two weeks and a semiweekly one occurs twice a week; but so few people get this straight that your club is liable to disintegrate unless you avoid these words in the newsletter and stick with "every other week" or "twice weekly." The same is true of "bimonthly" and" semimonthly," though "biennial" and "semi­annual" are less often confused with each other.

BLATANT

The classic meaning of "blatant" is "noisily conspicuous," but it has long been extended to any objectionable obviousness. A person engaging in blatant behavior is usually behaving in a highly objectionable manner, being brazen. Unfortunately, many people nowadays think that "blatant" simply means "obvious" and use it in a positive sense, as in "Kim wrote a blatantly brilliant paper." Use "blatant" or "blatantly" only when you think the people you are talking about should be ashamed of themselves.

BOARDERS/BORDERS

Boarders are residents in a boarding house or school paying for their room and board (food), fighters who board ships, or more recently, people who go snowboarding a lot. You can also board animals, though usually only people are called "boarders." All of these have some connection with boards: hunks of wood (the planks of a table, the deck of a ship, a snowboard).

All uses having to do with boundaries and edges are spelled "border": border collies, Doctors Without Borders, borderline disorders, border guard.

BONAFIED/BONA FIDE

"Bona fide" is a Latin phrase meaning "in good faith," most often used to mean "genuine" today. It is often misspelled as if it were the past tense of an imaginary verb: "bonafy."

BORED OF/BORED WITH

When you get tired of something you are bored with it (not of it).

BORN/BORNE

This distinction is a bit tricky. When birth is being discussed, the past tense of "bear" is usually "born": "I was born in a trailer­­but it was an Airstream." Note that the form used here is passive: you are the one somebody else­­your mother­­bore. But if the form is active, you need an "E" on the end, as in "Midnight has borne another litter of kittens in Dad's old fishing hat" (Midnight did the bearing).

But in other meanings not having to do with birth, "borne" is always the

 

past tense of "bear": "My brother's constant teasing about my green hair was more than could be borne."

BORN OUT OF/BORN OF

Write "my love of dance was born of my viewing old Ginger Rogers­Fred Astaire movies," not "born out of." The latter expression is probably substituted because of confusion with the expression "borne out" as in "my concerns about having another office party were borne out when Mr. Peabody spilled his beer into the fax machine." The only correct (if antiquated) use of "born out of" is in the phrase "born out of wedlock."

BORROW/LOAN

In some dialects it is common to substitute "borrow" for "loan" or "lend," as in "borrow me that hammer of yours, will you, Jeb?" In standard English the person providing an item can loan it; but the person receiving it borrows it.

For "loan" vs. "lend, see "Non­Errors."

BORROW OFF/BORROW FROM

In some dialects you can borrow five dollars off a friend; but in standard English you borrow the money from a friend.

BOTH/EACH

There are times when it is important to use "each" instead of "both." Few people will be confused if you say "I gave both of the boys a baseball glove," meaning "I gave both of the boys baseball gloves" because it is unlikely that two boys would be expected to share one glove; but you risk confusion if you say "I gave both of the boys $50." It is possible to construe this sentence as meaning that the boys shared the same $50 gift. "I gave each of the boys $50" is clearer.

BOUGHTEN/BOUGHT

"Bought, " not "boughten" is the past tense of "buy." "Store­bought," a colloquial expression for "not home­made," is already not formal English; but it is not improved by being turned into "store­boughten."

BOUNCE/BOUNDS

A leaky ball may be out of bounce, but when it crosses the boundary line off the basketball court or football field it goes out of bounds. Similarly, any action or speech that goes beyond proper limits can be called "out of bounds": "Mark thought that it was out of bounds for his wife to go spelunking with Tristan, her old boyfriend."

BOURGEOIS

In the original French, a bourgeois was originally merely a free inhabitant of a "bourg," or town. Through a natural evolution it became

 

the label for members of the property­owning class, then of the middle class. As an adjective it is used with contempt by bohemians and Marxists to label conservatives whose views are not sufficiently revolutionary. The class made up of bourgeois (which is both the singular and the plural form) is the bourgeoisie. Shaky spellers are prone to leave out the "E" from the middle because "eoi" is not a natural combination in English; but these words have remarkably enough retained their French pronunciation: boorzhwah and boorzhwazee. The feminine form, "bourgeoise," is rarely encountered in English.

BOUYANT/BUOYANT

Buoys are buoyant. In the older pronunciation of "buoyant" as "bwoyant" this unusual spelling made more sense. Now that the pronunciation has shifted to "boyant" we have to keep reminding ourselves that the U comes before the O. The root noun, however, though often pronounced "boy" is more traditionally pronounced "BOO­ee."

BRAINCHILD

Some people misuse "brainchild," as in "Steve Jobs is the brainchild behind the iPhone." A brainchild is not a person, but the child (product) of someone's brain. So the iPhone is the brainchild of Steve Jobs.

BRAND NAMES

Popular usage frequently converts brand names into generic ones, with the generic name falling into disuse. Few people call gelatin dessert mix anything other than "Jell­O," which helps to explain why it's hard to find Nabisco's Royal Gelatin on the grocery shelves. All facial tissues are "Kleenex" to the masses, all photocopies "Xeroxes." Such commercial fame is, however, a two­edged sword: sales may be lost as well as gained from such over­familiarity. Few people care whether their "Frisbee" is the genuine Wham­O brand original or an imitation. Some of these terms lack staying power: "Hoover" used to be synonymous with "vacuum cleaner," and the brand name was even transmuted into a verb: "to hoover" (these uses are still common in the UK). Most of the time this sort of thing is fairly harmless, but if you are a motel operator offering a different brand of whirlpool bath in your rooms, better not call it a "Jacuzzi."

BRANG, BRUNG/BROUGHT

In some dialects the past tense of "bring" is "brang" and "brung" is the past participle; but in standard English both are "brought."

BREACH/BREECH

Substitute a K for the CH in "breach" to remind you that the word has to do with breakage: you can breach (break through) a dam or breach (violate the terms of) a contract. As a noun, a breach is something broken off or open, as in a breach in a military line during combat.

 

"Breech" however, refers to rear ends, as in "breeches" (slang spelling "britches"). Thus "breech cloth," "breech birth," or "breech­loading gun."

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends," means "let's charge into the gap in the enemy's defenses," not "let's reach into our pants again."

BRAKE/BREAK

You brake to slow down; if your brakes fail and you drive through a plate­glass window, you will break it.

BREATH/BREATHE

When you need to breathe, you take a breath. "Breathe" is the verb, "breath" the noun.

BRING/TAKE

When you are viewing the movement of something from the point of arrival, use "bring": "When you come to the potluck, please bring a green salad." Viewing things from the point of departure, you should use "take": "When you go to the potluck, take a bottle of wine."

BRITAIN/BRITON

A British person is a Briton; only the country can be referred to as "Britain."

BRITISH/ENGLISH

Americans tend to use the terms "British" and "English" interchangeably, but Great Britain is made up of England plus Scotland and Wales. If you are referring to this larger entity, the word you want is "British." Britons not from England resent being referred to as "English."

BROACH/BROOCH

A decorative pin is a "brooch" even though it sounds like "broach"­­a quite different word. Although some dictionaries now accept the latter spelling for jewelry, you risk looking ignorant to many readers if you use it.

BROKE/BROKEN

When you break something, it's broken, not "broke," though a person or organization which has run out of money can be said in informal speech to be "broke." Otherwise, use "broke" only as the simple past tense of "break," without a helping verb: "Azfar broke the record," but "The record was broken by Azfar."

BOUGHT/BROUGHT

 

If you pay for something, you've bought it; if you bring something you've brought it. These two words are probably interchanged most often out of mere carelessness. A spelling checker won't catch the switch, so watch out for it.

BRUNT/BUTT

A person who is the target of jokers is the butt of their humor (from an old meaning of the word "butt": target for shooting at). But the object of this joking has to bear the brunt of the mockery (from an old word meaning a sharp blow or attack). A person is never a brunt. The person being attacked receives the brunt of it.

BRUSSEL SPROUT/BRUSSELS SPROUT

These tiny cabbage­like vegetables are named after the Belgian city of Brussels, which has an "S" on the end. The correct spelling is "Brussels sprout."

BUILD OFF OF/BUILD ON

You build "on" your earlier achievements, you don't build "off of" them.

BULLION/BOUILLON

Gold bricks are bullion. Boil down meat stock to get bouillon. It's an expensive mistake to confuse bullion with bouillon in a recipe.

BULLY PULPIT

We occasionally still use the old positive meaning of the word "bully" when congratulating somebody (sincerely or sarcastically) by saying "Bully for you!" A century ago "bully" meant "good," "great."

That's why Theodore Roosevelt called the American presidency a "bully pulpit," meaning that it provided him an outstanding platform from which to preach his ideas. The expression is often misused by writers who mistakenly think it has something to do with preaching at people in a bullying way.

BUMRUSH/BUM'S RUSH

A 1987 recording by the rap group Public Enemy popularized the slang term "bumrush" as a verb meaning "to crash into a show hoping to see it for free," evidently by analogy with an earlier usage in which it meant "a police raid." In the hip­hop world to be "bumrushed" (also spelled as two words) has evolved a secondary meaning, "to get beaten up by a group of lowlifes, or "bums." However, older people are likely to take all of these as mistakes for the traditional expression "bum's rush," as in "Give that guy the bum's rush," i.e. throw him out unceremoniously, treating him like an unwanted bum. It was traditionally the bum being rushed, whereas in the newer expressions the bums are doing the rushing. It's good to be aware of your audience when you use slang expressions like this, to avoid baffling listeners.

 

Side note: Britons laughed themselves silly when they saw Americans wandering around in sportswear with "B.U.M." plastered in huge letters across their chests. "Bum" means "rear end" in the UK

BUTT NAKED/BUCK NAKED

The standard expression is "buck naked," and the contemporary "butt naked" is an error that will get you laughed at in some circles. However, it might be just as well if the new form were to triumph. Originally a "buck" was a dandy, a pretentious, overdressed show­off of a man. Condescendingly applied in the US to Native Americans and black slaves, it quickly acquired negative connotations. To the historically aware speaker, "buck naked" conjures up stereotypical images of naked "savages" or­­worse­­slaves laboring naked on plantations. Consider using the alternative expression "stark naked."

BUTTOX/BUTTOCKS

The popular phonetic spelling "buttox" ignores the fact that "buttocks" (the traditional spelling) is a plural: one buttock, two buttocks.

BY/'BYE/BUY

These are probably confused with each other more often through haste than through actual ignorance, but "by" is the common preposition in phrases like "you should know by now." It can also serve a number of other functions, but the main point here is not to confuse "by" with the other two spellings: "'bye" is an abbreviated form of "goodbye" (preferably with an apostrophe before it to indicate the missing syllable), and "buy" is the verb meaning "purchase." "Buy" can also be a noun, as in "that was a great buy." The term for the position of a competitor who advances to the next level of a tournament without playing is a "bye." All others are "by."

BY FAR AND AWAY/BY FAR, FAR AND AWAY

You could say that Halloween is by far your favorite holiday, or you can say that it's far and away your favorite holiday; but if you combine the two expressions and say "by far and away" you'll annoy some people and puzzle others who can't figure out why it doesn't sound quite right.

(Common Errors in English by Paul Brians)