Misused and Abused Expressions and Words
The Most Common Errors in the English Language
Jan 22, 2009
Sometimes we hear a misused word or phrase so often it becomes common. It is easy to confuse words and meanings when translating from spoken to written ideas because we tend to talk in a much less formal manner than we write. Because we leave out letters, shorten sentences and slur words together when we talk, the written language is littered with incorrect grammar and most people don’t even realize what they’re writing or saying is wrong.
Many experts agree that when a writer misuses a word or expression, it is a simple case of being careless. Phrases and words are passed around so much that one person’s mistake often becomes “standard.” Even when the incorrectly translated phrase sounds funny or becomes meaningless, people continue to use it. But, for the people out there who do notice the absurdity in the new, misinterpreted phrase, it is extremely frustrating (not to be confused with fustrating, which, in fact, is not a word).
Commonly Misused Phrases
Could care less - If you are capable of caring less, then please, do so. But if you don’t and can’t care anymore, the correct phrase should be “couldn’t care less.”
One in the same - This just doesn’t make sense. One in the same what? Car? House? Circus? Really, they are “one and the same.” The use of “one” here means “identical with each other.” They are one; they are the same.
Once and a while - This also doesn’t make sense. A “while” is a period of time; something can’t happen once and a period of time, but it can happen once in a period of time, therefore, the phrase should be “once in a while.”
For all intensive purposes - “For all intensive purposes” is a reshaping of the phrase “for all intents and purposes” that, although wrong, gets used because it actually makes a certain amount of sense. “For all intensive purposes” might be considered logical if “intensive” were used to mean “serious” or “practical,” but the correct phrase is “for all intents and purposes,” meaning “for all practical purposes” or “in any reasonably likely circumstance.”
Wet your appetite - While it makes sense to think that something mouth-watering could “wet your appetite,” the expression is “whet your appetite,” as whet means to sharpen or to make keen.
Nip it in the butt - Funny image, but the correct expression is to “nip it in the bud.” To nip something in the bud is to stop it from flowering completely.
Most Commonly Misused Words
Although there are hundreds of words out there that are easily confused and misused, here are a few of the most annoying and commonly abused:
Non-Words
Alright - should be "all right"
Irregardless – should be “regardless”
Confusing Homonyms (Words that sound the same but have different meanings)
Than - a conjunction used in comparisons
Then - at that time
There - a place
Their -possessive form of they
They're - contraction of they are
To - a preposition
Two - a number
Too - also; to an excessive degree
Who's - contraction of who is or who has
Whose - possessive form of who
Your - possessive form of you
You're - contraction for you are
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