What is the Right Word?
 

20 misused English words that make smart people look silly — Quartz

I still often get these wrong.

Nice post, Tal. Even after all these years, I still have to pause with 'farther' and 'further.' My biggest pet peeve, though, is with another form of misused grammar. I cringe when I hear or read nouns being used improperly as verbs - 'impact,' 'partner,' 'party' and so on. I'm just an old fogey, I guess. :)

Thanks for the link, Tal.

Great post, Tal. I have always had trouble with lie and lay. Most of the others I think I understand fairly well.

tq

Those are two that have troubled me as well.

Even in law school where some of the law students were former journalists some of these words caused problems. This was at the University of Minnesota Law School. My First Year Legal Writing Instructor Monica L., asked a group of us about some of these words and none of us could give really good answers. This was before cell phones and quick access to many sites where you could find such information quickly.

What is the Right Word?
 

Tal - my Mom was an English teacher and librarian (medical library). I was drilled with rules, spelling, sentence structure, etc. (Never leave a participle dangling.) Our language has been destroyed by so called journalists who can't spell or use proper sentence structure. And then there is autocorrect - the bane of of our generation. And so called internet dictionaries often misspell words as well

Ok, I have girded my loins against those who will find that I have misspelled a word or used an adverb instead of a noun. I will accept complaints and corrections, but you must diagram your sentences for them to be considered legitimate.

I go to a website that tests your knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, math etc to donate rice to starving peoples. Freerice.com

I have met some of these fussbudget librarians. They are the ones who ssssuuuuuuuusssssshhhhhh you in the library. That rarely happens now as many of the public libraries I have been encourage noise. Not the law libraries though unless these are public law libraries near Court houses.

I had to sssssuuussshhhhhh people while on the Reference Desk at the University of Minnesota Law Library.

Regime and Regimen

Sometimes people who are hawking their wares -- like vitamins or supplements or beauty products -- launch into their spiel and go on and on about their regime -- their "beauty regime" or their "vitamin regime."

I guess if you buy in, some old dictator, who has been deposed and needs something to do, shows up at your house to make sure you are doing exactly what you are supposed to be doing......or else.......

Whatever happened to Noriega? Hmmmmm???

Boomer

Not a girlfriend I would want to keep if she repeatedly corrected my grammar. I had a friend at the University of Nevada, Reno --Tom Snow--who used to correct lady admirers love letters in RED INK and send them back to them. It usually worked with cooling them off a great deal.

Interesting stuff. i thought I was the only one who struggled. Spelling early in life was easy for me and wonderful. Sentence structure not to shabby. I struggle with when to and how to structure a paragraph. I tend to ramble. The proper word to use is a rough one illustrated on I Love Lucy when Rickey was trying to learn the written English language. Remember Through, Threw, Throw? I believe spell check is not good because it will make everyone less sharp over time, but is helpful for speed. Many people did not have to use any spelling in their entire career and now struggle a little texting or typing which I think is perfectly normal. I don't belittle anyone who makes an error. Tedquick, just remember we never try to get lied. Just kidding around.