Month: January 2013

 

Here's another challenge on confusing words and usage. Take a stab at the correct answers and send them to me. 

 

1. I am one of the required signatories, aren't I/ain't I/am I not?
2. I thought it was an incredible/incredulous coincidence that my dentist was at the movie theater and saw me buy the popcorn.
3. She took the vitamin D as a preventative/preventive measure.
4. After reading the research, however, she decided to take a different tack/tact.
5. I was less worried about it then/than she was.
6. I use/used to take a lot more vitamin C.
7. He wondered whether/whether or not she would get to the ticket window before the show sold out.
8. He racked/wracked his brain to try to figure out how to get in without his ticket, which he left/had left at home.
9. He was reticent/reluctant to drive all the way home to get it.
10. She was reticent/reluctant about why she was so late.

Here are your results from our last challenge.

 

Word	Percent who missed it
symposia/ums	88%
a	38%
bated	25%
into	13%
crummy	13%
Electric	0%
electrical	0%
Electric	0%

 

First, extra points go
to Carla Craddock and to Tara Allen for knowing that the ugly duckling
grows up to be a swan. And thanks, Tara, for the memory of Danny Kaye
singing "A swan?…Go on!" And no one got 100% because I was a stickler
about wanting an explanation about symposia and symposium. Technically,
though, everyone got that one right-as you will see below.

 

Although symposiums/symposia is at the top of the list, it is not because anyone got it wrong. In fact, both spellings are equally valid. Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
lists both spellings as equal variants, which means that "either one
may be used according to personal inclination." That does not mean we
should all spell it one way in one sentence and the other way in the
next. In professional publishing, typically the publisher's in-house
style guide indicates a preference for the sake of consistency.
Sometimes the context may suggest which is more appropriate. In the
sentence in the challenge, where an academic setting is evident, the
Latinate spelling does seem arguably more appropriate. And in fact most
respondents answered symposia.

 

The history (sorry) of the use of a or an before the word historic is checkered. But the upshot is that today's consensus is a historic, a historical, and a historian are correct, according to The Chicago Manual of Style, Theodore Bernstein's The Careful Writer, The Associated Press Stylebook, and the Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style. According to Bryan Garner writing in the latter, at some point in the past some argued that the h
is weak because the emphasis is on the second syllable in these words.
However, the idea currently is that you do pronounce the h, even though the syllable is not accented, so the use of a is correct, in both American and British English.

 

Baited: like a fishhook or a mousetrap.

Bated: restrained.

 

Into is the preposition for move something from one place into another. In and to
may find themselves next to each other through some coincidence in a
sentence, in which case the two words remain separate. Here are some
ways that can happen. First, the word in might occur before an infinitive form of a verb. So you might have something like this:

 

He went in to go to sleep. (The word in is acting as an adverb specifying where or in what direction he went. The word to is part of the infinitive verb form to sleep. The infinitive of a verb is the "to verb" form of the verb. Some examples are to go, to dream, to sleep, to be.)

 

Another coincidence might occur when the word in is acting as part of a phrasal verb. A phrasal verb is a verb whose meaning relies on a small, related word. An example is throw out (the word out changes the meaning of throw from "propel through the air" to "place in the trash," as in "I don't need these papers so I will throw them out." In fact, you will find the phrasal verb in the dictionary with its "particle" attached: I found throw out in the dictionary as a separate entry from throw.

 

He is plugged in to all the new social networks. (Plugged in is a phrasal verb, meaning something like "involved in." The word in is part of the verb, and, separately, to is the preposition)

 

The electric train was plugged into the outlet. (Plugged is not used as a phrasal verb here, so into is the preposition, not part of the verb. Compare with these sentences: Place your wet towel into the drier. The towel was placed into the drier. Stuff your pajamas into the duffle bag. The pajamas were stuffed into the duffle bag. Plug your power cord into the outlet. The cord was plugged into the outlet.)

 

My radio is tuned in to WJLA. (Tuned in is a phrasal verb. In is part of the verb, and to is the preposition.)

 

Crummy: term meaning of low quality.

Crumby: having crumbs (as from bread or cake) all over it.

 

Everyone correctly
answered the examples about electric versus electrical. But I was
surprised to learn that the guide is whether the following word begins
with a vowel or a consonant!