Five Hundred Mistakes of Daily Occurrence in Speaking, Pronouncing, and Writing the English Language, Corrected, Walton Burgess [short novels to read txt] 📗

354. “The frigate is now in the Yellow Sea, or thereabouts:” say, thereabout. This term is a transposed combination of about there; there is no such word as thereabouts. The same may be said of hereabouts, and whereabouts.

355. “Whether he will or no:” say, not. The reason of this correction is clearly seen by supplying what is needed to complete the sense: Whether he will or will not.

356. “He looked at it first lengthways, then sideways:” say, lengthwise and sidewise. Also, say otherwise instead of otherways. A nobleman said to his fool, “I am wise, and you are otherwise.” “Yes,” replied his jester, “you are wise, and I am another wise.”

357. If you are a landlord, beware of incorrectly using such an expression as in the following: A landed proprietor went to a tenant with a view of increasing his rent, and said to him, “Neighbor, I am going to raise your rent.” “Thank you, sir,” was the reply, “for I am utterly unable to raise it myself.”

358. “Will you accept of this slight testimonial?” Omit of, which is superfluous, and weakens the sentence.

359. “He convinced his opponent by dint of good reasoning:” dint, meaning force or strength, is an obsolete word, and should not now be employed.

360. “The Danube empties into the Black Sea:” say, flows; to empty means to make vacant; no river can properly be called empty, until it is entirely dried up.

361. Such words as bamboozle, topsyturvy, helterskelter, hurlyburly, and pellmell are generally to be avoided. They answer, however, for familiar conversation.

362. Never say seraphims, for the plural of seraph, but seraphim; the same rule holds with cherubims. Cherubs and seraphs are proper plurals, suiting a familiar style of speaking or writing, while cherubim and seraphim are to be used only in more dignified and solemn discourse.

363. “There’s the books you wanted:” say, there are: avoid all abbreviations when they lead to a grammatical error, as in the present instance.

364. “This prisoner has, of all the gang, committed fewer misdemeanors:” say, fewest. We may say fewer than all, but we must say fewest of all.

365. “I esteem you more than the others:” this sentence is equivocal. Does it mean, “I esteem you more than I esteem the others,” or, “I esteem you more than the others esteem you?”

366. “The most eminent scholars will, on some points, differ among one another:” say, among themselves.

367. “He, from that moment, doubled his kindness and caresses of me:” say, “kindness for and caresses of me;” by omitting caresses we have, “He doubled his kindness of me,” which is not good English.

368. To differ from and to differ with: to differ from a man means to have an opinion different from his; to differ with a person signifies a quarrel or rupture.

369. “He barely escaped having one or two broken heads:” a man has but one head, let it be broken or whole. Say, “He once or twice barely escaped having a broken head.”

370. “Whenever I fall into that man’s conversation I am entertained and profited:” say, fall into conversation with that man.

371. “The lecturer spoke to several points:” say, “spoke on several points.” He spoke to his audience.

372. “I shall regard your strictures only so far as concerns my own errors:” say, concern; the phrase when filled out should read, “only so far as they concern my own errors.”

373. “I found him better than I expected to have found him:” say, to find him.

374. “I perceived that he was totally blind with half an eye:” say, “I perceived, with half an eye, that he was totally blind.” Otherwise, to a man totally blind you allot half an eye!

375. The word only is often wrongly placed in the sentence, and made to express an idea which is not designed to be conveyed. “Not only Chinese are superstitious,” implies that others besides the Chinese are superstitious. “Chinese are not only superstitious,” implies that in addition to being superstitious, they have some other characteristics. “Chinese not only are superstitious,” leaves room for something still further to be implied of the Chinese than superstition, and which is not necessarily the predicate of are; as, “Chinese not only are superstitious, but they persecute those who do not put faith in Confucius.”

376. Not the least and nothing less than, sometimes literally convey just the opposite of what is intended. “He has not the least excuse for going,” may mean that he has a great excuse, or none at all. “He seeks nothing less than worldly honor,” may signify that nothing inferior to worldly honor will satisfy his desire; or, on the other hand, it may mean that nothing is less sought by him than worldly honor. Such expressions, therefore, are to be used with caution, else they will mislead.

377. Care should be taken in the use of epithets. For instance, in the sentence, “A wise and good man should be respected,” the words wise and good may properly be applied to the same man; but if the sentence should be altered to read, “An old and young man,” it is obvious that both epithets could not relate to the same person.

378. Never say turkle soup, for turtle soup.

379. The word long should not now be employed to signify many. An example of this early usage is found in the Fifth Commandment, “that thy days may be long upon the land.” The following lines furnish an instance of the verb to lengthen, meaning to make many:—

“The best of all ways
To lengthen our days,
Is to take a few hours from the night, my lad.”

380. “They returned back again to the same city from whence they came forth:” omit the italicized words, which are redundant and inelegant.

381. “Have you any leisure upon your hands?” omit upon your hands,—not so much because anything after “leisure” is superfluous, in such a sentence, as because the idea of having leisure upon your hands is absurd.

382. “Seven lads were present, and he gave them all a book:” say, gave them each a book. All refers to a number of persons or things taken collectively, as one body; each refers to every individual, separately considered.

383. “Lend me your umberell:” say, umbrella. The former pronunciation, however, is allowed by poetic license, as in the following, adapted from Thomas Moore:—

“Oh, ever thus from childhood’s hour,
Has chilling fate upon me fell!
There always comes a soakin’ shower
When I hain’t got an umbrell.”

384. We lately met a grammarian, who had just made a tour through the mines, conjugating, or, rather, cogitating thus: “Positive, mine; comparative miner; superlative, minus!”

385. “Put not thy secret into the mouth of the Bosphorus, for it will betray it to the ears of the Black Sea.”—(Oriental Proverb.) Pronounce Bosphorus as if written Bosforus, and not Bos-porous.

386. Be careful to use the hyphen (-) correctly: it joins compound words, and words broken by the ending of a line. The use of the hyphen will appear more clearly from the following example: “many colored wings” means many wings which are colored; but “many-colored wings” means “wings of many colors.”

387. “I am afraid it will rain:” say, I fear. Afraid expresses terror; fear may mean only anxiety.

388. Never say o-fences for offences; pison for poison; co-lection for collection; voiolent for violent; kivver for cover; afeard for afraid; debbuty for deputy. The last three examples are very common.

389. “It is a mere cipher:” never spell cipher with a y.

390. “I was necessitated to do it:” a poor expression, and often made worse by necessiated being used: say, I was obliged, or compelled, to do it.

391. “Gibbon wrote the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire:” pronounce Rise, the noun, so as to rhyme with price; Rise, the verb, rhymes with prize.

392. “He joined his regiment last week:” never say, ridgiment for regiment.

393. “He bought a gimlet:” never spell the last word gimblet, as many do.

394. “He is a supporter of the Government:” beware of omitting the n in the second syllable of Government—a very common practice.

395. “Received this day of Mr. Brown ten dollars:” say, “Received this day from,” &c.

396. “Of whatever you get, endeavor to save something; and with all your getting, get wisdom:” carefully avoid saying git for get, and gitting for getting.

397. “So intent was he on the song he was singing, while he stood by the fire, that he did not perceive that his clothes were singeing.” Verbs ending with a single e, omit the e when the termination ing is added, as, give, giving; in singeing, however, the e must be retained, to prevent its being confounded with singing. The e must also be retained in dyeing, to distinguish it from dying.

398. The following sentences may be studied: “The dyer dyes daily, yet he dies not.” “The miner minds the minor mines.” “It is not meet to mete out such meat.” “He performed a great feat with his feet at the fête.” (Fête is pronounced fate.)

399. “Lower the sails, as the sky begins to lower:” pronounce low in the former so as to rhyme with mow, and low in the latter so as to rhyme with cow.

400. “There was a great row on Monday, in Tryon Row:” pronounce the former row so as to rhyme with cow—the latter row, so as to rhyme with mo.

401. “His surname is Clifford:” never spell the sur in “surname” sir, which shows an ignorance of its true derivation, which is from the Latin.

402. “The buildings are so old that they pay almost no rent now:” scarcely any rent, is better.

403. “His mamma sent him to a preparatory school:” mamma is often written with one m only, which is not, as may at first be supposed, in imitation of the French maman, but in sheer ignorance.

404. Active verbs often take a neuter sense; as, “The house is building:” here, is building is used in a neuter signification, because it has no object after it. By this rule are explained such sentences as, “Application is wanting;” “The Grammar is printing,” &c.

405. “He attackted me without the slightest provocation:” say, attacked.

406. “I called on him every day in the week successfully:” very common, but incorrect; say, successively.

407. “I fear I shall discommode you:” it is better to say, incommode.

408. “I can do it equally as well as he:” leave out equally, which is superfluous.

409. “We could not forbear from doing it:” leave out from, which is unnecessary; or say, refrain from.

410. “He was totally dependent of his father:” say, dependent on his father.

411. “They accused him for neglecting his duty:” say, of neglecting, &c.

412. “They have a great resemblance with each other:” say, to each other.

413. “I entirely dissent with him:” say, from him.

414. “He was made much on at the Springs:” say, made much of, &c.

415. “He is a man on whom you can confide:” say, in whom, &c.

416. “He was obliged to fly the country:” say, flee the country. A very common mistake.

417. “The snuffers wants mending:” say, want mending. No one would say, “My pantaloons is ripped.”

418. “His conduct admits of no apology:” omit of, which is quite unnecessary.

419. “A gent has been here inquiring for you:” a detestable, but very common expression; say, a gentleman has been, &c. Oliver Wendell Holmes hits off this liberty with language, in the following happy couplet:—

“The things called pants, in certain documents,
Were never made for gentlemen, but gents.”

420. “That was all along of you:” say, “That was all your fault.”

421. “You have no call to be angry with me:” say, no occasion, &c.

422. “Too free an indulgence in luxuries enervate and injure the system:” say, enervates and injures, &c. The plural, luxuries, standing directly before the verb, (which should be enervates, in the singular,) deceives the ear. Errors of this