Some Common Incorrectly Used Words That Spoil Our Grammar

While I like to think I know a little
about business writing, I still fall
into a few word traps. (Not to
mention a few cliché traps.) Take
the words "who" and "whom." I
rarely use "whom" when I should —
even when spell check suggests
"whom" I think it sounds
pretentious. So I use "who." And
then I sound dumb.
Just like one misspelled word can
get your resume tossed onto the
"nope" pile, One incorrectly used
word can negatively impact your
entire message. Fairly or unfairly, it
happens — so let's make sure it
doesn't happen to you.
Adverse and averse:
Adverse means harmful or
unfavorable:
"Adverse market conditions caused
the IPO to be poorly subscribed."
Averse refers to the the feelings of
dislike or opposition: "I was averse
to paying $ 18 a share for a
company that generates no
revenue." But hey, feel free to have
an aversion to adverse conditions.
Affect and effect:
Verbs first. Affect means to
influence: "Impatient investors
affected our roll-out date." Effect
means to accomplish something:
"The board effected a sweeping
policy change." How you use effect
or affect can be tricky.
For example, a board can affect
changes by influencing them and
can effect changes by
directly implementing them. Bottom
line, use effect if you're making it
happen, and affect if you're having
an impact on something that
someone else is trying to make
happen.
As for nouns, effect is almost always
correct: "Once he was fired he was
given 20 minutes to gather his
personal effects." Affect refers to an
emotional state, so unless you're a
psychologist you probably have
little reason to use it.
Bring and take
Both have to do with objects you
move or carry. The difference is in
the point of reference: you bring
things here and you take them
there. You ask people to bring
something to you, and you ask
people to take
something to someone or
somewhere else.
"Can you bring an appetiser to
John's party"? Nope.
Compliment and complement:
Compliment means to say
something nice. Complement
means to add to, enhance, improve,
complete, or bring close to
perfection. I can compliment your
staff and their service,
but if you have no current openings
you have a full complement of staff.
Or your new app may complement
your website. For which I may
decide to compliment you.
Criteria and criterion
"We made the decision based on
one
overriding criteria," sounds fairly
impressive but is also wrong.
Remember: one criterion, two or
more criteria . Or just use "reason"
or "factors" and you won't have to
worry about getting it wrong.
Discreet and discrete:
Discreet means careful, cautious,
showing good judgment: "We made
discreet inquiries
to determine whether the founder
was interested in selling her life
company."
Discrete means individual, separate,
or distinct: "We analyzed data from
a number of discrete market
segments to determine overall
pricing levels." And if you get
confused, remember you don't use
"discretion" to work through
sensitive issues; you exercise
discretion.
Elicit and illicit:
Elicit means to draw out or coax.
Think of elicit as the mildest form of
extract. If one lucky survey
respondent will win a trip to the
Bahamas, the prize is designed to
elicit responses.
Illicit means illegal or unlawful, and
while I suppose you could elicit a
response at gunpoint … you
probably shouldn't.
Farther and further
Farther involves a physical distance:
"Ibadan is farther from Ondo than
Lagos."
Further involves a figurative
distance: "We can take our business
plan no further." So, as we say in the
South (and that "we" has included
me), "I don't trust you any further
than I can throw you," or, "I ain't
gonna trust you no further."
Fewer and less:
Use fewer when referring to items
you can count, like "fewer hours" or
"fewer dollars." Use "less" when
referring to items you can't (or
haven't tried to) count, like "less
time" or "less money."
Imply and infer:
The speaker or writer implies, which
means to suggest. The listener or
reader infers, which means to
deduce, whether correctly or not. So
I might imply you're going to
receive a raise. And you might infer
that a pay increase is imminent.
(But not eminent, unless the raise
will somehow be prominent and
distinguished.)
Insure and ensure
This one's easy. Insure refers to
insurance. Ensure means to make
sure. So if you promise an order will
ship on time, ensure that it actually
happens. Unless, of course, you plan
to arrange for compensation if the
package is damaged or lost — then
feel free to insure away. (While
there are exceptions where insure is
used, the safe move is to use ensure
when you will do everything
possible to make sure something
happens.)
Irregardless and regardless
Irregardless appears in some
dictionaries because it's widely used
to mean "without regard to" or
"without respect to"… which is also
what regardless means. In theory
the ir- , which typically means "not,"
joined up with regardless, which
means "without regard to," makes
irregardless mean "not without
regard to," or more simply, "with
regard to." Which probably makes it
a word that does not mean what you
think it means . So save yourself a
syllable and just say regardless.
Number and amount:
I goof these up all the time. Use
number when you can count what
you refer to: "The number of
subscribers who opted out increase
last month."
Amount refers to a quantity of
something that can't be counted:
"The amount of alcohol consumed at
our last company
picnic was staggering." Of course it
can still be confusing: "I can't
believe the number of beers I
drank," is correct, but so is, "I can't
believe the amount of beer I drank."
The difference is you can count
beers, but beer, especially if you
were way too drunk to keep track, is
an uncountable total and makes
amount the correct usage.
Precede and proceed
Precede means to come before.
Proceed means to begin or continue.
Where it gets confusing is when an –
ing comes into play. "The
proceeding announcement was
brought to you by…" sounds fine,
but preceding is correct since the
announcement came before.
If it helps, think precedence:
anything that takes precedence is
more important and therefore
comes first.
Principal and principle:
A principle is a fundamental: "Our
culture is based on a set of shared
principles." Principal means primary
or of first importance: "Our startup's
principal is located in Lagos."
(Sometimes you'll also see the
plural,
principals , used to refer to
executives or relatively co-equals at
the top of a particular food chain.)
Principal can also refer to the most
important item in a particular set:
"Our principal account makes up
60% of our gross revenues."
Principal can also refer to money,
normally a sum that was borrowed,
but can be extended to refer to the
amount you owe — hence
principal and interest.
If you're referring to laws, rules,
guidelines, ethics, etc., use
principle. If you're referring to the
CEO or the president (or an
individual in charge of a high
school), use principal.
Slander and libel: Don't like what
people say about you? Like 'slander',
'libel' refers to making a false
statement that is harmful to a
person's reputation. The difference
lies in how that statement is
expressed. Slanderous remarks are
spoken while libelous remarks are
written and published (which means
defamatory tweets could be
considered libelous, not slanderous).
Keep in mind what makes a
statement libelous or slanderous is
its inaccuracy, not it's harshness. No
matter how nasty a tweet, as long
as it's factually correct it cannot be
libelous. Truth is an absolute
defense to defamation; you might
wish a customer hadn't said
something derogatory about your
business… but if what that
customer said is true then you have
no legal recourse. And now for those
dreaded apostrophes:
It's and its:
'It's' is the contraction of 'it is' . That
means it's doesn't own anything. If
your dog is neutered (the way we
make a dog, however much against
his or her will, gender neutral), you
don't say, "It's collar is blue." You
say, "It's collar is blue." Here's an
easy test to apply. Whenever you
use an apostrophe, un-contract the
word to see how it sounds. Turn it's
into 'it is' : "It's sunny," becomes, "It
is sunny." Sounds good to me.
'They're and their': Same with
these. 'They're' is the contraction for
they are. Again, the apostrophe
doesn't own anything. We're going
to 'their house', and I sure hope
they're home.
Who's and whose
"Whose password hasn't been
changed in six months?" is correct.
Use the non-contracted version of
who's , like, "Who is (the non-profit
contracted version of who's )
password hasn't been changed in
six months?" and you sound a little
silly.
You're and your
One more. You're is the contraction
of 'you are'. 'Your' means you own
it; the apostrophe in you're doesn't
own anything. For a long time a
local nonprofit displayed a huge
sign that said, "You're Community
Place."
Hmm. "You Are Community Place"?
No, probably not.
Now it's your turn: any words you'd
like to add to the list?

Posted By David Aniemeka