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Maybe a list of common errors in English usage would be more useful if it were a manageable list. How about the 20 most common errors in usage. I'd bet (but surely there are some studies on this) that the following would appear near or close to the top of the list: it's for its; there for their; alright for all right; 'the reason is because', for 'the reason is that'; dangling modifiers; missing or unclear pronominal…
"Although digital clocks routinely label noon “12:00 PM” you should avoid this expression not only because it is incorrect, but because many people will imagine you are talking about midnight instead. " Uh?
I suspect that this is a piece of advice (avoiding the use of "12pm") which particular crufty old newspaper editors hold onto dearly even though it has passed out of utility.
Is it just me, or does the phrase, "Common Errors in English Usage" sound wrong? Shouldn't it be, "Common Errors in the Use of English"? So I checked on their own site: http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/usage.html . I guess I'm right. :)
As I am always forced bring up in English grammar threads, without a formal (decidable) grammar or an agreed-upon body of work to signify "common usage," there is no formal way to decide whether any statement is grammatical English.
Usage is mostly about imprecise, changing social conventions. That doesn't imply that it's useless to talk about it. We can talk about language usage more or less in the same way we talk about what to wear on such and such occasion.
"Although digital clocks routinely label noon “12:00 PM” you should avoid this expression not only because it is incorrect, but because many people will imagine you are talking about midnight instead. " Uh?
I highly suspect this is outdated advice. Technically there was some ambiguity about whether 12pm/am would denote midnight or noon, since am/pm are relative to noon. However, the computer age has utterly removed that ambiguity. 12pm is noon, 12am is midnight. Digital clocks have spread familiarity with that convention widely throughout the developed and developing world. I doubt there is any serious confusion any lon…
"Although digital clocks routinely label noon “12:00 PM” you should avoid this expression not only because it is incorrect, but because many people will imagine you are talking about midnight instead. " Uh?
I highly suspect this is outdated advice. Technically there was some ambiguity about whether 12pm/am would denote midnight or noon, since am/pm are relative to noon. However, the computer age has utterly removed that ambiguity. 12pm is noon, 12am is midnight. Digital clocks have spread familiarity with that convention widely throughout the developed and developing world. I doubt there is any serious confusion any lon…
Is it just me, or does the phrase, "Common Errors in English Usage" sound wrong? Shouldn't it be, "Common Errors in the Use of English"? So I checked on their own site: http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/usage.html . I guess I'm right. :)
How does it imply that you're right? "Common Errors in English Use" sounds much worse to me.
Also, the :) was intended to make it a bit of a joke.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How does it imply that you're right? "Common Errors in English Use" sounds much worse to me.
It says that, as a general rule, you should use 'use' instead of 'usage'. So I reconstructed the sentence to make it use 'use'. Also, the :) was intended to make it a bit of a joke.
Nowhere does it say that. It says that only if both seem appropriate (obviously disallowing modifying the rest of the sentence -- that is clear from the context and the example). In this case, "use" doesn't seem appropriate at all.