The Most Commonly Misused English Words

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From attn:

The English language is not easily mastered. Homonyms — words that are spelled or pronounced the same but mean different things — can be particularly challenging, which is why even the most highly educated English speakers get tripped up sometimes.

. . . .

  • Adverse: Unfavorable or harmful; commonly confused with “averse,” which means disinclined.
  • Appraise: To evaluate the value of something; commonly confused with “apprise,” which means “to inform.”
  • As far as: The same; commonly confused with the phrase “as for,” which means “with regard to.”
  • Begs the question: Implies a conclusion that isn’t supported by evidence; commonly confused with “raises the question.”
  • Bemused: Bewildered; commonly confused with “amused,” which means entertained.
  • Cliché: A noun; commonly misused as an adjective.
  • Credible: Believable; commonly confused with “gullible.”
  • Criteria: A plural word; commonly misused as a singular word. The singular is “criterion.”
  • Data: A plural word; commonly used as a singular noun.

Link to the rest at attn:

12 thoughts on “The Most Commonly Misused English Words”

  1. After you see ‘affect’ misused, ‘effect’ misused, and ‘impact’ (which used to be reserved for wisdom teeth and bones in rock) misused too many times, you start to get a headache – and find yourself going to the more traditional Google offerings to make sure you still know what you thought you knew. And the Handbook of Good English for a quick refresher.

    The list of pet peeves is long and varied.

    But I still qualify books – and people offering editorial services – by whether they are correct.

    Fortunately, you can usually tell by the first few pages of the Look Inside! sample whether you wish to continue with a particular book.

    Being a stickler makes it VERY embarrassing when your aging fingers mistype words in comments where you can’t go in and fix them!

  2. But when something bemuses me, I am often amused. Does that count?

    By the way, I think that what people confuse credible with is credulous. And using data as singular is now considered standard. I can’t even remember the last time I saw anyone seriously use the now rare ‘datum’. It has come to have a pretentious ring. 🙂

    • Quite often I see the misuse of ‘which’ where ‘that’ is correct. And ‘who’ in place of ‘whom’.

      And using data as singular is now considered standard. I can’t even remember the last time I saw anyone seriously use the now rare ‘datum’. It has come to have a pretentious ring.

      Well, color me pretentious.

      Considered standard by whom? Not me.

      If we accept ‘data’ as the singular, what shall we use for the plural?

      And like Bernard Woolley said in Yes, Prime Minister, if there is only one item for discussion, you don’t have an agenda; you have an agendum.

      • I use “data” as a mass noun, like “salt”.

        Example:
        Have you seen the new Author Earnings data?
        Yes. I have seen it.

        Example if “data” were a plural noun:
        Have you seen the new Author Earnings data?
        Yes. I have seen them.

        If we accept ‘data’ as the singular, what shall we use for the plural?
        “Data point” or “entry in the data base” depending on the nature of the data. Analogous to “grain of salt”.

        But if “data” and “datum” better suit your purposes in your writing, I won’t fault you for standing your ground.

        • In my own writing, I have often fretted over accepting data as a mass noun or insisting that it is a plural. Personally, I don’t care much about any rule. Clarity to my readership, which is mostly software engineers, is all that matters. For them, judging from personal experience and usage in online software forums, “data” is a singular mass noun. I use Mr. Holt’s “data point” or “entry in the data base” and a few other locutions frequently. I can’t recall using “datum” at all recently. It sounds pedantic.

          I believe I would lose credibility with my readership if I were to insist on data as a plural noun. Generally, I agree with the rules in the post, but my final authority is the folks I write for. I truly admire those who have logical rules that they insist upon, but I have little strength for resisting my readers. Especially because my readers have consistently proven to be more sensible than I.

        • Yeah, I think of ‘data’ as being like ‘information’. I know that technically it’s a plural, but it sounds ridiculous to me when people (outside of some specific scientific/statistical context) use it as a plural or use ‘datum’. I think this is a case of the definition needing to evolve to match the way people use it because even a lot of us who know how it’s technically supposed to be used choose to use it differently. With this word, I think a descriptive definition is better than a prescriptive one.

  3. As a 49ers fan, I keep seeing the word “offense” and, while the spellings are identical, I think what the team is using to describe efforts to score points in a football contest is really just the sum total of the actions they have taken that hurt my feelings.

    • This has happened with the conditional tense.

      For example, the sentence “If the crowd is too big, we won’t stay” is now in such common usage that it is accepted even though it is grammatically incorrect. Correct is “If the crowd be too big, we won’t stay.” The easy way to see that it is correct is to drop ‘if’ and place the conditional verb at the beginning of the sentence. If it still makes sense, it is correct. Thus, “Be the crowd too big, we won’t stay.” That its use makes you sound like a pirate is a bit of serendipity.

      Most readers find it strange, so I don’t write that way.

      The only people I know who still use the conditional tense are lawyers. The conditional tense is used in statutes.

  4. Romance writers seem to use “bicep” as the singular and “biceps” as the plural, when it is actually “biceps” and “biceps or bicepses.” Sorry, I am a pedant; but it is ubiquitous and drives me bonkers. (My brother says that’s not a drive, it’s a putt.)

  5. “Uninterested” and “Disinterested.” I also strongly dislike overuse of “empower” and “impact”, but those are more of creeping-meaning-changes than verbal confusion.

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