When Albus Dumbledore said that Lord Voldemort was “the last remaining ancestor of Salazar Slytherin,” more than one person noted that he had made a serious verbal bumble; and in later printings of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets author J. K. Rowling corrected that to “last remaining descendant.” People surprisingly often confuse these two terms with each other. Your great-grandmother is your ancestor; you are her descendant.
BUY THE BOOK!
Even though “analogy” is spoken with a soft G, use a hard G in pronouncing “analogous” so that it sounds like the beginning of the word “gust.” Many people mistakenly use a soft G, which sounds like the beginning of the word “just.”
BUY THE BOOK!
It’s easy to type “and” when you mean “an.” A spelling checker won’t catch the mistake.
BUY THE BOOK!
The classy way to pronounce the first syllable of this word is “amf-,” but if you choose the more popular “amp-” remember that you still have to include the H after the P when spelling it. UK-standard writers spell it “amphitheatre,” of course.
BUY THE BOOK!
This is a vast subject. I will try to limit the number of words I expend on it so as not to use up too great an amount of space. The confusion between the two categories of words relating to amount and number is so pervasive that those of us who still distinguish between them constitute an endangered species; but if you want to avoid our ire, learn the difference. Amount words relate to quantities of things that are measured in bulk; number to things that can be counted.
In the second sentence above, it would have been improper to write “the amount of words” because words are discrete entities which can be counted, or numbered.
Here is a handy chart to distinguish the two categories of words:
| amount | number |
|---|---|
| quantity | number |
| little | few |
| less | fewer |
| much | many |
You can eat fewer cookies, but you drink less milk. If you eat too many cookies, people would probably think you’ve had too much dessert. If the thing being measured is being considered in countable units, then use number words. Even a substance which is considered in bulk can also be measured by number of units. For instance, you shouldn’t drink too much wine, but you should also avoid drinking too many glasses of wine. Note that here you are counting glasses. They can be numbered.
The most common mistake of this kind is to refer to an “amount” of people instead of a “number” of people.
Just to confuse things, “more” can be used either way: you can eat more cookies and drink more milk.
Exceptions to the less/fewer pattern are references to units of time and money, which are usually treated as amounts: less than an hour, less than five dollars. Only when you are referring to specific coins or bills would you use fewer: “I have fewer than five state quarters to go to make my collection complete.”
BUY THE BOOK!
Although in America “amongst” has not dated nearly as badly as “whilst,” it is still less common in standard speech than “among.” The -st forms are still widely used in the UK.
BUY THE BOOK!
Some Canadians and more Latin Americans are understandably irritated when US citizens refer to themselves simply as “Americans.” Canadians (and only Canadians) use the term “North American” to include themselves in a two-member group with their neighbor to the south, though geographers usually include Mexico in North America. When addressing an international audience composed largely of people from the Americas, it is wise to consider their sensitivities.
However, it is pointless to try to ban this usage in all contexts. Outside of the Americas, “American” is universally understood to refer to things relating to the US. There is no good substitute. Brazilians, Argentineans, and Canadians all have unique terms to refer to themselves. None of them refer routinely to themselves as “Americans” outside of contexts like the “Organization of American States.” Frank Lloyd Wright promoted “Usonian,” but it never caught on. For better or worse, “American” is standard English for “citizen or resident of the United States of America.”
BUY THE BOOK!
If you feel pulled in two directions about some issue, you’re ambivalent about it; but if you have no particular feelings about it, you’re indifferent.
BUY THE BOOK!
Even though the prefix “ambi-” means “both,” “ambiguous” has come to mean “unclear,” “undefined,” while “ambivalent” means “torn between two opposing feelings or views.” If your attitude cannot be defined into two polarized alternatives, then you’re ambiguous, not ambivalent.
BUY THE BOOK!
Most of the words we’ve borrowed from the French that have retained their “-eur” endings are pretty sophisticated, like “restaurateur” (notice, no “N”) and “auteur” (in film criticism), but “amateur” attracts amateurish spelling.
BUY THE BOOK!