Abused, Confused, and Misused Words: A Writer's Guide to Usage, Spelling, Grammar, and Sentence Structure

by Mary Embree

Overview

Have you been putting bullion in your soup? Is incorrect spelling starting to have a negative affect on your term papers? Do you wonder what someone is inferring when they tell you to pick up a dictionary? These are just a few of the commonly misunderstood words discussed and explained in Abused, Confused, and Misused Words, an entertaining and informative look at the ever-changing nature of the English language. An alphabetical list of words that are frequently misspelled or misused is accompanied by a style guide to usage rules that tells you how and why they can be broken. Also included is a collection of 1,000 new and inventive words, and nearly 30,000 more words are discussed in a section dealing with word roots and how they are used in modern language. Anyone who is intrigued by language, who is fascinated by words, or who simply wants to use our language clearly and effectively will enjoy this delightful, eye-opening collection.   

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620879177
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	12/13/2012
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	232
Sales rank:	907,610
File size:	595 KB

About the Author

Mary Embree is an author, literary consultant, editor, public speaker, and writers’ workshop leader. She is the founder of the Small Publishers, Artists, and Writers Network (SPAWN) and the California Literary Arts Society (CLAS), which produced the annual Ventura Book Festival. She has worked with hundreds of authors, and is the author of Starting Your Career as a Freelance Editor (Allworth Press, March 2012) and Abused, Confused&Misused Words (Skyhorse Publishing, January 2013). She lives in Port Hueneme, California.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Word Usage

Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of a style.

— JONATHAN SWIFT [1667–1745]

If you love words, you probably like to read a wide variety of things: novels, nonfiction books, newspapers, magazines, comic books, cereal boxes. If you read a lot, you probably write pretty well because you've seen a lot of writing and have noticed how writers put sentences together. You've seen how words are commonly spelled and observed that most writing has a pattern to it. Most likely, you appreciate the beauty of communicating through the amazing versatility of words and want to use them to the best of your ability yourself.

The artistry of words can pull us inside a story, making us feel what the characters feel. A great novel can carry us off into another dimension, into a fantasy so engrossing that we forget all our earthly cares. A magnificent book is almost orgasmic. We want it to go on and on.

Word appreciation is similar to music appreciation. The more we learn about words and music, the more we enjoy them in all of their forms: from magazines to novels, from popular music to classical. Whether it's words or music, it is communication and I believe that the better we are at it, the happier we will be. As Alexander Pope said, "True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, as those move easiest who have learned to dance."

Learning to write well is not so different from learning to dance well. It is much more fun when we learn the steps. Although we were taught the basics in school and have been writing most of our lives, sometimes it helps to be reminded of some of the "steps" involved in expressing ourselves through words.

Because communication can be formal or informal, the setting or field in which one is working generally determines its nature. Formal writing is usually used for scientific and scholarly papers, technical and business reports, and legal briefs, to name just a few. Those cases call for the current professionally accepted rules of writing.

Informal writing is more suitable for commercial messages, scripts, poetry, novels, personal letters, notes, e-mail, and many other types of written communication. In such everyday writing, we might want to relax the rules a little and write more from our hearts than from our heads. That doesn't mean that we needn't be concerned with spelling and sentence structure at all. Our written communications are extensions of ourselves, which project an image of who we are. E-mail doesn't give us license to throw all the rules out the window. Business e-mail should be as well composed as a hard copy we send through the mail. Sloppy writing is okay only in very personal messages.

THE PARTS OF SPEECH

Whether writing is formal or informal, our ideas come across with greater clarity when we use words appropriately in a sentence. An incorrect word can change the meaning, sometimes drastically. Consider the frequently confused Words enervate and energize. If you were to say, "His words enervate me," it would mean they make you tired. If you say they energize you, you would be saying that they give you vigor. These are opposite meanings.

Sentences have four purposes: to state, to question, to command, and to express surprise or other strong emotion (exclamatory). A sentence that states is called a declarative sentence. It makes a statement: I am going to the movies. A sentence that asks is an interrogative sentence: Are you going to watch the games on TV all day? A sentence that expresses a command is called an imperative sentence: Get off that couch and come with me! That's outrageous! is an example of an exclamatory sentence.

Words are classified according to their functions in sentences. It is generally agreed that there are eight parts of speech: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.

There are also articles. The definite article is the. The specifies something or someone in particular: The person you need to see is Mr. Jones. The cat is black and white. Indefinite articles are a and an. A is used before words beginning with a consonant sound, and an is used before a vowel sound. So it's a pear, a car, a child, but it's an orange, an automobile, an orphan. Some vowels have a consonant sound and when they do you should use a: a union, a European. Some consonants have a vowel sound so you would use an: an hour, an honest person, an herb.

Nouns

A noun is a word that denotes a thing, place, person, quality, state, or action. It functions in a sentence as the subject or object of an action expressed by a verb. It can also be the object of a preposition. There are proper nouns and common nouns. Proper nouns denote individuals and personifications and are always capitalized: Alice, Thomas, New York, The Associated Press. In the sentence, Tom is from Georgetown, back East, the words Tom, Georgetown, and East are capitalized because they refer to a specific person and specific places. A general name common to all persons, places, or things is called a common noun. In modern English, common nouns are not capitalized: girl, man, city, newspaper. For example: The boy's home is on the east side of town.

There are concrete and abstract nouns. Anything physical that can be perceived by the senses is a concrete noun: Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed (Francis Bacon). An abstract noun is a quality, action, or idea which cannot be perceived by the senses: A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds (Ralph Waldo Emerson).

There are also collective nouns which name a group of individuals as though they were one: jury, committee, family, flock, regiment. And, depending on the purpose it serves, a collective noun can be either singular or plural. In the sentence, The board was unanimous in its decision, meaning it acted as one person, board is a singular form of the collective noun. In The board were arguing over increasing membership dues, the board members were acting as individuals so in this case the board is considered a plural noun.

Pronouns

A pronoun is an identifying word which substitutes for a noun. A pronoun can indicate a noun (such as a person's name) already mentioned to avoid repetition: Charlie is the lead dancer; he is the tall one in the front row. There are several kinds of pronouns: personal, demonstrative, indefinite, relative, interrogative, numerical, reflective, and reciprocal.

A personal pronoun indicates (1) the speaker, (2) the person spoken to, or (3) the person, place, or thing spoken about. The speaker is first person: I, my or mine, me, we, our or ours, us. The person spoken to is second person: you, your, yours. The person, place, or thing spoken about is third person: he, she, it, they, his, her, hers, him, its, their, theirs, them. Here is a sentence that contains all three forms of personal pronouns: I loaned you my sweater but you gave it to her as a present.

Demonstrative pronouns are this, that, these, and those. They indicate a person or thing specifically: This is my sweater. That one is yours. These are my friends. Those are yours.

Indefinite pronouns refer to people or things in general. Some indefinite pronouns are: all, everybody, everything, anyone, another, many, more, several, either, neither, both, each. An example of usage in a sentence is Everybody loves somebody sometime.

A relative pronoun plays two roles, both as a pronoun and as a connective. It is a subject or object in a subordinate part of a sentence, and it joins the subordinate to a more important part of a sentence. Relative pronouns are who, which, that, what, whose, and whom. Example: He is the man whose footsteps I heard. Some compound relative pronouns are whoever, whosoever, whatever, whichever, whatsoever, and whomever.

Interrogative pronouns help ask questions. They are who, which, what, whom, and whose. Whose sweater is this? Which one of you borrowed it? Who will return it to me?

Reflective pronouns are formed by adding self or selves to the personal pronoun. They are myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves. This kind of pronoun can be used as an object referring to the same person as the subject: She lives by herself.

A reciprocal pronoun represents two or more people or things interchanging the action of the verb: They love each other.

Verbs

Verbs express an action, state of being, occurrence, or a relation between two things. Inflection or conjugation of a verb involves changes of form according to person and number, tense, voice (active and passive), and mood. Person and number refer to who and how many performed the action. Tense indicates the action performed. Present tense, for example, would be know; past tense would be knew; past participle would be known. I know you can dance. I knew you danced. I have known for a long time that you could dance. Voice indicates whether the subject of the verb performed (active) or received (passive) the action: Jim kicked the ball (active). The ball was kicked by Jim (passive). Mood indicates the frame of mind of the performer. Verbs have three moods: the indicative, which expresses actuality: I dance; the subjunctive, which expresses contingency: I might dance; and the imperative, which expresses command: Dance!

Adverbs

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs or adverbial phrases, clauses, and sentences, and alter their meaning in some way. For example, in the sentence She moves slowly, the adverb slowly modifies the verb moves. In She moves in a very slow manner, the adverb very modifies the adjective slow. In She moves very slowly, the adverb very modifies the adverb slowly. Adverbs may indicate place or direction (where, there), time (today, tomorrow), degree (nearly, completely), manner (carefully, slowly), belief or doubt (surely, maybe), and how often (never, always).

Adverbs are classified as simple or conjunctive depending on their use. A simple adverb alters the meaning of a single word. A conjunctive adverb modifies the sentence or clause it appears in.

Adjectives

An adjective modifies a noun or pronoun by limiting, qualifying, or describing it in one of three forms of degree: positive (happy, beautiful), comparative (happier, more beautiful), or superlative (happiest, most beautiful). Adjectives are distinguished by having endings like -er and -est, as in big, bigger, biggest. An adjective usually precedes the noun it directly modifies: blue dress, heavy book, beautiful child.

Prepositions

A preposition is a word that combines with a noun or pronoun to form a phrase. It expresses the relationship between words: from here to there; one after another; water under the bridge. Examples of prepositions are to, through, in, into, for, on, at, with, about, along, after, before, during, between, among, and from. In casual speech, it's no longer a crime to end a sentence with a preposition. It's now perfectly all right to say, That's where she came from; He's the man she gave her heart to; They're the couple everybody is talking about.

Conjunctions

Conjunctions, such as and, or, but, though, if, unless, however, and because connect sentences, clauses, phrases, or words. There are two kinds of conjunctions: coordinate and subordinate. Coordinate conjunctions join words, independent clauses, or parts of a sentence that are of the same rank or order: Virtue is bold and goodness never fearful (Shakespeare). Examples of these are and, but, or, yet; conjunctive adverbs however, nevertheless; and correlative conjunctions neither/nor. Subordinate conjunctions introduce subordinate clauses. Where, when, after, while, if, unless, since, because, although, and whether are subordinate conjunctions: I will go when I am ready. He won't stay unless he's invited to dinner. Subordinate conjunctions may also function as prepositions.

It is no longer considered wrong to begin a sentence with a conjunction. And I do that frequently.

Interjections

Interjections are usually used to express an emotional reaction: Oh! Ow! Yipes! Hurrah! They are also used for emphasis: Aha! The interjection has no grammatical relation to the other parts of the sentence.

There are a few other principles of word usage that are worthy of conside-ration, such as the following.

[] In most cases, use the active rather than the passive voice: I'd love for you to come to my party, not Your presence is requested.

[] Write clearly. Simplifying your writing is not dumbing it down. It is making it available to readers who don't want to struggle with trying to figure out what you mean. According to Walter Savage Landor, "Clear writers, like fountains, do not seem so deep as they are; the turbid look the most profound."

[] Be concise. Long sentences and strings of polysyllabic words tend to muddy your meaning. Sprinkling a lot of arcane words throughout your writing makes it difficult for those with less than a genius IQ to read and understand. Not all authors agree with this principle. William Faulkner said of Ernest Hemingway, "He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." Hemingway responded, "Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?"

[] Get rid of unnecessary words and avoid redundancies. Superfluous words are everywhere, on broadcast news, in newspapers and magazines, in movies and television. It's hard to understand why anyone needs to say enter into an agreement. You can't enter out of anything. And why say dropped down as though it were possible to drop up? Cops never make that mistake. It's much quicker to say, "Drop the gun!" Time is of the essence. There are so many other redundancies littering our language: revert back, reiterate again, previous history, and follow behind. If a word doesn't add information, why use it?

Because language is in a constant state of flux, common usage alters the meaning and proper usage of a word. So-called correct word usage is a temporary thing. When a word is so frequently misused that its meaning changes, its new usage becomes standard and it is no longer wrong.

We often think of a dictionary as an authority, but it doesn't dictate proper word usage. It is merely a guide to the current standard in word definitions. And, have you noticed, all dictionaries don't agree with each other regarding definitions?

CHAPTER 2

Old Rules, New Rules

Fashion, though folly's child, and guide of fools, Rules e'en the wisest, and in learning rules.

— GEORGE CRABB [1754–1832]

The trend in word usage is toward less formality. There is no longer a great distinction between the way one speaks and the way one writes. Both have become more casual. When people in the same profession such as law, medicine, psychology, or other fields communicate with each other, jargon is okay because they understand their specialized vocabulary. However, when they are writing or speaking to a layperson, it's best to use words that are familiar to the general public.

Over the past fifty years, Americans have become less formal in many ways. Rules about dress have become relaxed for both men and women. The rules of etiquette have become more relaxed, too. I have mixed feelings about the relaxation of the rules when it comes to language, yet I much prefer a casual style to a stilted, formal way of communicating. It puts the reader or listener at ease. And I really think it's a good thing that we no longer have to worry about ending a sentence with a preposition, or dangling a participle, or misplacing a modifier. What matters is that our meaning is clear.

Language changes constantly. So does spelling. So do the rules. It has been said, "rules are made to be broken." I don't know about that, but I do believe in letting go of the rules when they get in the way of what you want to say.

If you choose to break the rules, however, it is probably a good idea to know what the rules (and their exceptions) are so that you can make a conscious, educated decision about which ones to follow and which ones to ignore.

In gathering qualified, up-to-date material for this book, I have consulted several recently published dictionaries as well as The Chicago Manual of Style. Generally, they were in agreement as to word definitions and rules. When they differed, I chose the ones that seemed most logical to me.

(Continues…)

---

Excerpted from "Abused, Confused, and Misused Words"
by .
Copyright © 2013 Mary Embree.
Excerpted by permission of Skyhorse Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Table of Contents

Introduction,
Chapter One: Word Usage,
Chapter Two: Old Rules, New Rules,
Chapter Three: Word Roots,
Chapter Four: Frequently Misused Words,
Chapter Five: Frequently Misspelled Words,
Chapter Six: New Words and Phrases,
Author Bio,