Ask the English Teacher

Man up and refudiate the viral use of banned words!

Via The Star: Banned words list for 2011 includes ‘viral,’ ‘epic,’ a dozen others. It's pointless to try to forbid usage, but the banned-words list at least makes us think about terms we might use just because they seem fresh and clever. Excerpt:

It’s official: Viral went viral, and now it’s been virtually vaporized. 

Michigan’s Lake Superior State University features the term linked to popular online video clips in its annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. The 2011 list, compiled by the university from nominations submitted from across North America throughout the year, was released Friday. 

Nominators did more than vanquish “viral.” They also repudiated Sarah Palin’s “refudiate,” flunked “fail” and weren’t at all wowed by “wow factor.” In all, 14 words or phrases made the cut to be, well, cut from conversation. 

The call to banish viral was vociferous, garnering more nominations than any other. 

“This linguistic disease of a term must be quarantined,” Kuahmel Allah of Los Angeles wrote in his submission. “If one more thing goes viral, I’m buying a Hazmat suit and moving into a clean-room.” 

Other entries showed people’s apparent aversion to simple language, hence the call to “live life to the fullest” when they could just live, promoting every foible or stumble to “fail,” or super-sizing every reasonably good time to an “epic” event. 

“Standards for using ‘epic’ are so low, even ‘awesome’ is embarrassed.” said Mike of Kettering, Ohio, whose submission came with no last name. 

Appropriately, Lake Superior State spokesman Tom Pink stopped short of describing this year’s batch of submissions as “epic.” Rather, he viewed it as solid and typical — based on more than 1,000 nominations, once he and his colleagues sorted out phrases previously banned in the list’s 36-year history.

God save the Queen's English

You don't have to be a monarchist to like this article from the UK paper The Independent: God save the Queen's English: Our language is under threat from ignorance, inverted snobbery and deliberate 'dumbing down'. Excerpt;

The Queen's English, with correct grammar and vocabulary, can be spoken in many accents, say Indian or Australian, and in regional British accents such as those used in Birmingham, Newcastle or Glasgow. There are extremely good users of the Queen's English in Sweden, Sri Lanka and Singapore, and very bad users of it in London, Oxford and Cambridge. 

There is much ignorance, carelessness, inverted snobbery and deliberate "dumbing down", as if bad English is more socially acceptable than good English. 

Standard English should be used when writing business letters, essays, reports, job applications and on all formal occasions. Most people here use it automatically nearly all the time, without consciously thinking: "I am using the Queen's English." 

Other forms of English are completely acceptable in appropriate situations. For example, in plays or films involving characters with strong regional or ethnic dialects, the author would not write standard English for them. 

A problem with non-standard English is that it can cause confusions. For example, in Malaysia, to have an "off day" means to have a day off, not a bad day, and to "chop" a document means to rubber-stamp it, not to cut it. In Britain, one finds people using "sick" or "wicked" to mean good, with great scope for misunderstandings. 

Deviations from the Queen's English include errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation and word choice. I heard a man on a train say: "Me and him gets on great". The two pronouns should be in the subject case, not the object case; the verb should be plural as there are two subjects, and "great" is an adjective, when an adverb is required. One should put oneself last, so the correct version would be: "He and I get on well." 

One can have a sentence that is grammatically correct, but ambiguous, such as: "This room needs cleaning badly" or "Mary told Jane that she was pregnant." The former would be clearer as, "This room badly needs cleaning," because word order affects meaning. In the latter, the pronoun "she" could apply to either woman. 

The world of advertising often uses corrupted English, as in the slogans "Beanz Meanz Heinz" and "Drinka pinta milka day". Odd spellings are used, such as "lite" and "nite", perhaps to catch the eye by being unconventional. These should be avoided. 

It is repeatedly said that English is a living, changing language. We do need new terms for technology or new phenomena, and English has such a large vocabulary because it has absorbed words from many languages. The Queen's English is not fossilised and takes in new words, phrases and usages, but it should not embrace usages which blur meanings. 

For example, we have clear distinctions in meaning between to effect/to affect, disinterested/uninterested, imply/infer, their/there/they're, defuse/diffuse, complimentary/complementary, fewer/less. 

We lose precision and clarity if we lose those distinctions, and confusions of such words are extremely widespread.

To which I reply, "Hear, hear!" (And not "Here, here," which I see too often in online debates.)

Problems with diction

"Diction" means choice of words. In the post on the "obituary" for the English language just below, you've seen some examples of very poor choice of words. Some people get confused about to, two, and too; there, they're, and their; flaunt and flout.

So here's a PDF of what I call "diction demons": words that often sound alike but have very different meanings. You're welcome to download it and pass it along.

Download Diction Demons

Sentence endings

Amer asks two interesting questions:

1. I am not sure about the following sentences:

i) They have once again won
ii) They have won once again

Which one is correct?

Actually, both are correct. But here is an odd fact about English. We tend to pay the most attention to the beginning and end of a sentence, and the beginning and end of a paragraph. I call these the "hot spots" of sentences and paragraphs. We read the words in between, but they don't have as much impact.

This is why a "bad news" business letter usually puts the bad news in the middle of a paragraph, with some neutral information at the beginning and end. The bad news doesn't hurt as much.

So in the sentences you ask about, it depends on what you want to emphasize: If it's "won," then leave it at the end. If you want to emphasize that they have won "once again," put that at the end.

2. Can you end a sentence with a preposition?

Yes. We end sentences with prepositions all the time, in both speech and writing.

Once an editor corrected something that Winston Churchill had written, saying that Churchill should not end a sentence with a preposition. Churchill wrote back: "This is the kind of hairsplitting up with which I will not put." He didn't end the sentence with a preposition, but it sounded silly.

Propensity

Michael asks:
I recently had the following question marked wrong on a homework assignment where, among other words, we were required to use the word propensity, so I used the following sentence: "Many claim poor handwriting is a propensity for being a doctor." However, the student teacher who marked it wrong was unable to give an explanation as to why it was marked wrong, so I was wondering if you could help me with explaining why it was marked incorrectly.

Propensity, my dictionary tells me, means "a natural disposition or tendency...a liking for; partiality." So it's got to be a trait of a person, not of a skill like handwriting. If you turned the sentence around, however, it could work: "Doctors have a propensity for bad handwriting."

Drop out or drop off?

A reader in Singapore recently wrote to ask about some differences in common English expressions:

1) drop out & drop off?
He dropped out of school (he stopped going to classes).
I’ll have to drop out of the team (I can’t play any more).
To drop off means to fall, or to fall asleep: The ball dropped off the table. He dropped off after dinner (he fell asleep).

2) fall off, fall down & fall over(eg; patient falls down or patient falls off)?
She hit a hole in the road and fell off her bike (she lost her balance).
He fell off the cliff and died (he fell a long distance).
I don’t want to fall down the stairs (lose my balance and roll down the stairs).
He is falling down on the job (he’s not doing what he should).
In the dark, I tripped and fell over a chair (it was in my way).

3) fill in, fill up or fill out the form?
You can fill in the form (put words in the blanks), or you can fill out the form (same thing).
You can’t fill up a form, but you can fill up the gas tank of your car.

4) in the bed or on the bed?
When you are in the bed, you have covers over you.
When you are on the bed, you are lying on top of the covers.

Some English terms with "as"

A friend in India asks about some "as" expressions in English:

as well as
This means “in addition to”: As well as playing football, he also played volleyball.
She traveled to Italy as well as Greece.

as long as
This means “for a certain time”: As long as I am healthy, I will keep working. (If I become ill, I will quit.)
She listened to his boring conversation for as long as she could. (Then she walked away.)

It can also mean “provided” or “if” or “but only”:
I will go to the party as long as I can leave early. (I don’t want to stay all night.)
We will support our team as long as they keep winning. (If they lose, we’ll reject them.)

as far as
This also has a couple of meanings:
“a certain distance”: We climbed the mountain as far as we could. (Then we couldn’t climb any higher.)
It can also introduce a subject:
As far as my family is concerned, they all like the idea. (In some cases, people drop the “in concerned”)

as soon as
When something can happen: We will leave as soon as he calls.
Please reply as soon as possible.
I came as soon as I could.

May or Can?

Carol in Texas asks:
We attended a baseball game recently where helpers were spaced around the stadium with signs stating “How Can I Help You?”

Isn’t the actual correct usage “How May I Help You?”

This question has really been bothering my entire family, and we are split down the middle of which is right or wrong, may vs can.

The distinction between the two is often blurred. But "can" refers to actual ability to do something:
He can play the piano.
They can't score a goal even when they try.
We can get there by noon if we leave now.

"May" involves choice and sometimes uncertainty:
You may leave the room when you finish the test.
If the traffic is good, we may get there by noon.
They may score a goal if they get a lucky break.

Suppose some bashful guy approaches a lovely girl and asks: "Can I take you to the dance?" Well, no doubt he can, if he's got access to a car or cab fare. Instead he should ask: "May I take you to the dance?" In other words, will you choose to go to the dance with me?

So in the case you mention, the signs should say: "How May I Help You?" Presumably the helpers can help you—that is, they have the training and ability. But until you tell them what you need, they're uncertain; it's up to you to choose.

Do or Make?

Miguel asks a big question about two small words:
My question is: when am I going to use do and when make?

In my dictionary, the definitions of "do" take up a quarter of a big page of small print. "Make" takes up half a page. We even have an expression, "make do," which means "manage with what you have":
"The recipe calls for six potatoes, but we can make do with three."

In most cases, "do" means to perform an action, but it can also mean to compose something—so it can be a synonym of "make." In general, however, "do" refers to an action and "make" to the creation of something. For example, a musician might say to his fellow-musicians:

"Let's do St. Louis Blues"—that is, let's play that song. But the musician might also say:
"You make St. Louis Blues sound like a funeral march." That is, you are creating a version of the song with a special style or quality.

If you look in your own dictionary, you'll be amazed at the number of expressions using "do" and "make." All I can suggest is that you learn them and use them.

You'll make me proud if you do!

Very Much Indeed!

Concetta asked a good question in the comments some time ago, and I'm sorry to have been so slow to answer it:
Can you tell me the difference between very and much. When is it correct to use very and when is it correct to use much and when is it interchangeable.

"Very" comes from Old French verrai, meaning "true." (The modern French word is vrai.) We tend to use it as an intensifier: "She seems very [truly] happy."

"Much" means great in quantity, amount, extent, or a remarkable thing:
We have too much work to do.
Thanks for your compliment, but I didn't really do much.

It can also mean to treat with regard:
He made much of her accomplishments.

And it can mean for the most part or nearly:
I've come to much the same conclusion that you did.

So the two terms aren't interchangeable, but we can use them together:
She's very much in love with him = She's truly a lot in love with him.