Spelling Variations in the English-Speaking World
In a comment on another blog, someone wrote the word “faeces” and another person asked if the first person had meant “feces.” This query brings up an interesting dilemma among those who write internationally: how to handle the incredibly different spelling rules for various English-speaking countries. I’m going to look specifically at Great Britain and America, as I am most familiar with the differences between these two countries’ spelling rules.
I hate to say it, but we Americans tend to over-simplify spellings. The British, by keeping “unnecessary” letters, tend to make analysis of words much easier. Take the “faeces/feces” query mentioned above.
In Britain, the rule has been that any word deriving from Latin and including the ligature “ae” should be spelled with the “ae,” even when the letters are pronounced with the long /e/ sound. In America, the spelling rule has evolved to the point that the silent “a” is usually dropped. Thus, the following words:
- faeces, feces
- anaesthetic, anesthetic
- aesthetic, esthetic
- Aetna, Etna
The only problem with this change of spelling is that it obscures the roots of the words, and, in fact, can even lead to mispronunciation.
Another difference between British and American spellings is the ubiquitous “U” debate. Americans drop the useless “u,” while the Brits keep it in. Thus, the following:
- honour, honor
- colour, color
- neighbour, neighbor
- rumour, rumor
- armour, armor
There’s no real problem here, unless you are unfortunate enough to learn the British spellings as “right” and then find yourself working for an American who thinks they are “wrong,” or worse, “pretentious.”
Finally, another familiar difference, the “er” or “re” ending debate. Americans tend to end words with the spelling “er,” but the British retain the “re” as correct. Thus:
- theatre, theater
- centre, center
Again, the only problem is when you are trained one way, but find yourself required to use the other.
The best rule for the writer is to use your native land’s spelling, unless you know that the majority of your audience is going to be from the opposite side of the fence.
The Grammar Guru Goes Gaga
I want to remark briefly on a phenomenon that strikes unexpectedly and with sometimes disastrous results—but I don’t know what to call it. “Spellus confustibus” comes to mind, as does “Frozen Brain Syndrome.” If I hadn’t had to pay the tax man, I would have a Name That Glitch contest.
Sometimes your brain will freeze up when you look at a word, and you will sit there telling yourself that of course “cow” is spelled C-O-W, but your brain tells you, “No, that just doesn’t look right.” So you go and look it up, sure enough, you are right and your brain is wrong. Don’t believe me? Stare at a word and say it repeatedly in your mind, and see how long it takes you to think, “Man, that is one weird looking word! Is it spelled right?”
This happened to me moments ago as I added the “lose/loose” entry to my last post. The word “lose” looked wrong. The impression that it was wrong was so incredibly strong that I had to go and look the word up in the dictionary to convince myself that my mind was on the fritz again.
My message to you is: when “spellus confustibus” strikes, go ahead and look it up, even if you are sure it’s just a brain glitch. Exactly three times in my life, the “glitch” turned out to be correct after all. And the rest of the times, well, I got a good dose of confidence that I really had this spelling thing down pat.
Take a Breath! Breathe, Breathe, Breathe!
breath, breathe: This one is simple, but it’s a very common mistake.
Breath (breth with a soft /th/ sound) is the noun: I need to catch my breath. Take a deep breath and cough. Breathe (/breeeeeth/ with a hard /th/ sound) is the verb: Breathe in and out slowly, please. Don’t breathe the chlorine fumes.
The confusion comes, I think, from the fact that, when the verb is conjugated, the final “e” is dropped when the endings are added. He isn’t breathing!
The distinction is clear in this example: We had to use oxygen to help him breathe, as he was unable to catch his breath after breathing in the toxic fumes.
raise, raze: This is an important distinction, as these words are utterly opposite in meaning. They are homophones, which creates the confusion.
Raise means lift up: Raise your hand if you’re sure. Raze means to utterly destroy, to reduce to bare earth and rubble: The Visigoths were known to raze entire villages, leaving no two stones stacked together.
The distinction is clear in this example: We will raise new towers to replace the two that were razed by homicidal terrorists.
lose, loose: Sometimes this error is merely due to sloppy typing and failure to proofread; other times, I have found that there is true confusion about the forms.
Lose (/looz/) is a verb indicating that something has been misplaced or done away with, or that one has failed to win: He will lose his shirt if he loses the poker game. (Note the spelling of the verb in the conditional phrase!) Loose (/loos/) is an adjective meaning “not tight, insecure, or dubious”: That button is loose. That man has loose morals.
The distinction is clear in this example: Don’t lose that loose tooth when it falls out or the tooth fairy may lose your address!
The Grammar Guru Butts in and Corrects Everyone
I refuse to start pointing fingers or editing everyone’s blogs — I don’t have the time or the inclination to cultivate rabid enemies. But there are a few words that need to be defined so that we don’t keep using the wrong word and making ourselves look silly.
Those in the know will notice that all of the following are (or can be, depending on where you live) “homophones” — that is, words which sound alike, but which are spelled differently and have different meanings.
- Ascent means “going in an upward direction. Assent means “agreeing.”
- Descent means “going in a downward direction.” Dissent means “disagreeing.”
- A council is a group of people who come together to determine policy. Counsel is advice, or the one who gives advice. A consul is a country’s ambassador, and is pronounced /KON sull/.
- The Capitol is the building with the big domed rotunda in Washington, D.C. A capital is the primary lawmaking city of a country, region, or state. [The Capitol is in our nation’s capital.]
- Than means an alternative; then means a point in time.
- The President is an official who heads an organization or country. A precedent is a standard or benchmark.
- The principal is the head of a school, or can be indicative of the main or primary thing. [The principal reason he failed is that he didn’t study.] A principle is a standard or ideal.
- A prophet foretells the future. A profit is a sizeable chunk of earnings.
- Hear, hear! is what one says when one wishes to express agreement with a speaker or an author. (It’s as if you were saying, “Hey everybody, you need to hear this!”) Hear means “to take in with the ears whatever is being said.”
Here, here! is what one says to one’s child when it is running away in the store. (It’s as if you were saying, “Hey, you get over here right now!” This is usually the precursor to “If you don’t hold my hand and stop touching stuff, I’ll take you outside and spank you.”) Here means “in this place.”
I have seen lots of these kinds of errors lately, both in blogs and in a number of otherwise respectable publications. Hope this little entry helps clear up a little confusion.
Where Did That Preposition Get To?
I think it was Winston Churchill who said, in response to a misguided editor’s rearranging his words so that a sentence would not end with a preposition, “This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.” [Sometimes quoted as “arrant nonsense…,” which I think is eminently better.] The point is that the “rule” about not ending a sentence with a preposition is not a rule at all; it’s a superstition.
While it is not undesirable to avoid ending with a preposition, there are many idioms or sentence constructions which lose their impact when rearranged. There are, of course, instances where an ending preposition is blatantly wrong, usually because the preposition is unnecessary or redundant.
For example, asking “Where’s the dog at?” is wrong because at, in this case, is redundant. At specifies placement, as does the pronoun where.
To say, “I need something to put this garbage in” is not wrong. It’s a shorter, informal version of the statement “I need something in which to put this garbage.” Similarly, asking “What school is your child in?” is not wrong, as it is actually simple inversion of the words “In what school is your child?” Both versions are correct; the difference is that the first is informal, and the second is formal. And perhaps that is where this superstition arose. Most of our teachers were interested in teaching us to write formal essays and theses. In those venues, you would rarely be correct in using the informal pattern.
So stop panicking. If you’re writing informally, or talking to someone, be natural and informal. Get nitpicky about the formal, “correct” versions only when you are presenting a thesis or some other scholarly pursuit.
Comma, Comma, Who’s Got the Comma?
Commas can be confusing, especially as there are divergent opinions on some uses. Being the old-fashioned type, I’m going to give you only one set of rules, leaving the least chance of misapprehension of your writing.
Commas are used to signal a pause in thought or to set off a phrase or clause (either for emphasis or as an aside). One way to determine whether a commas is needed is to say the sentence aloud, and set a comma where you naturally pause for breath.
You wouldn’t say, “Mary went to the store bought some ice cream returned home and ate two servings.” At least, you wouldn’t say it without pausing for a breath somewhere! You’d probably say: “Mary went to the store {pause} bought some ice cream {pause} returned home {pause} and ate two servings.” Now, just put a comma in where each of the pauses occurs, and you have a grammatically correct sentence: “Mary went to the store, bought some ice cream, returned home, and ate two servings.”
Now for some specific uses and rules.
- Use a comma to separate an introductory word or phrase from a sentence.
Examples: Unfortunately, his car wouldn’t start. Once upon a time, a princess sat by a deep well. - Use a comma to show when someone is being directly addressed. Examples: Michael, row the boat ashore. Don’t rock the boat, Susan!
- Use a comma to show when the action or subject changes.
Example: Mary walked the dog, washed the car, and swept the porch. - Use a comma to separate words in a series. Don’t forget the “serial comma” that comes between the penultimate word in the list and the word “and.” [The final serial comma is one of those hotly disputed rules. If you always use it, you will never cause confusion. Leaving it out sometimes makes a big mess.]
Examples: John bought milk, eggs, bread, and cheese. Three dogs, a ferret, six cats, and fourteen fish are enough pets for any child! - Use a comma to separate multiple adjectives modifying the same noun.
Examples: The blonde, blue-eyed girl in the red dress is my niece. The policeman picked up the dirty, tear-stained, sniffling child. - Use a comma to separate spoken words from the rest of the sentence.
Examples: “You may go to the zoo,” their mother answered. “Say, Bob,” Adam shouted, “Help me with this ladder!” - Use a comma to separate two independent clauses (groups of words that can stand alone as sentences) that are joined by a conjunction.
Examples: Peter held the cat, and Mark chased the dogs away. Alvin kicked the door shut, but the wind blew it open again. - Use a comma to set off words that introduce an example or explanation.
Examples: The doctor warned of side effects, such as headaches, indigestion, and weight gain. Don’t be undependable, that is, be on time, follow through, and keep your promises. - Use pairs of commas to set off state names and years in written works.
Examples: On July 4, 1776, this nation was born. Elvis lived in Memphis, Tennessee, for many years.
It’s not really as scary as your grammar classes used to make it. I think the many uses of the comma, and the contradictory opinions on certain uses, make the comma seem more formidable than it really is.
We Interrupt This Series to Explain the Difference Between Two Words….
I know what I said was going to be next, but I just ran across three instances of confusion in the use of between and among. So I’m going to interrupt myself and quickly explain this simple problem.
Between is used only when you are dealing with two objects, people, or places. Among is used when you are dealing with more than two objects, people, or places.
Examples: We couldn’t decide between the Mexican restaurant and the Chinese restaurant. We divided the fortune cookies among the ten children and the three adults.
That’s it! It’s really that simple.
That vs. Who
The Grammar Guru’s pet peeve: “people that.” This rule is simple: A person is always a who, never a that. Despite its simplicity, this is one of the most often violated rules of grammar. I have seen this error in many well-respected publications. Part of the problem is that authorities are divided, and have been since the time of Chaucer.
The general rule (according to Fowler*), is that one should use who when referring to a human being, and that when referring to an inanimate object; either who or that may be used with an “animate but non-human” creature, or for a person representing a large class of like individuals (babies that cry all night).
Here is an egregious, but not unheard of, example of the wrong usage: The man that stole the money and threatened to shoot everyone that was in the bank was apprehended by the security guard that chased him down the street.
Right usage would be: The man who stole the money and threatened to shoot everyone who was in the bank was apprehended by the security guard who chased him down the street.
The following version would be better, as it would take the sentence out of passive construction and into an active voice as well as removing some lengthy clauses: After chasing him down the street, the security guard apprehended the man who stole the money and threatened to shoot everyone who was in the bank.
There is, however, one instance in which you will use that to refer to a person: when you are using that as a “demonstrative adjective” — a word denoting a particular person, place, or thing.
Example: That man is the person who robbed the bank.
*”Fowler” is the book Fowler’s Modern English Usage. If you aspire to a writing career, this book should not only be on your reference shelf, but it should also be the most worn book on that shelf. Study this book, learn it thoroughly, and you will not need The Grammar Guru because you will be a grammar guru yourself.
Can You Cite the Site Where You Lost Your Sight?
The “site” trio seems to be causing some confusion nowadays, probably as a result of the “shorthand” used by instant messagers. This is another simple problem to unravel.
A site (noun) is a place — virtual or actual — like a construction site or a website.
To cite (verb) something is to quote from it or make reference to it. You cite a reference in a research paper, or you can cite something in conversation. (“He cited an article from The Wall Street Journal.”)
The noun form of “to cite” is “citation.” In legal lingo, a person who has received a “citation” (more commonly known as a ticket) has been cited for his crime. In publishing, a citation is a reference in a bibliography or footnote to the source of given material.
Sight (verb) is the act of seeing something (as in “He sighted the deer”).
Sight (noun) is the physical sense of seeing or the ability to see. (“Diabetes destroyed his sight”). A sight is a hunting term for a device which aids the hunter to accurately aim at his target.
It’s Funny How We Misuse Its Forms
“Its” and “It’s” — What a dilemma! When do you need to use the one with the apostrophe, and when must you leave that little flying comma out?
This one is easy. The rule is that “it’s” with the apostrophe is used only when the word is used as a contraction of “it is.”
Strange as it may seem, “its” is one of the only possessives that does not use the apostrophe to indicate ownership.
Examples: It’s my opinion that this book isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.
The little kitten was crying for its mother.
Bob said, “Don’t kick the car; it’s not its fault you had a wreck!”