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www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors |
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Friday, 12 October 2007 |
English is a maddening tongue. Over many
centuries, it has grown from the language of
the people of a small northern European island to
the preferred language of commerce, academia and
international politics around the world. This site,
from Washington State University English
professor Paul Brians, offers a handy compilation
of those tricky words and instances which can trip
up the unwary English speaker.
Surfers will find this a ready reference for
clarifying the most acceptable language usage. The
site uses an alphabetical listing of hundreds of
words to zoom in on the ones most prone to cause
difficulties to native English speakers. With
explanations of the differences between such words as affect and effect; complementary and
complimentary; and including the useful advice to “leave the term ‘quantum leap’ to the
subatomic physicists unless you know what you’re talking about”, this helpful list presents the
careful speaker with enlightening information on confusing words and the most satisfactory
choices for standard use.
It incorporates up-to-date comments on words and phrases from the world of the Internet
and other new technologies, such as the difference between Mac and MAC. The site avoids
discussing most common misspellings, leaving the correction of such slips to the spell
checker, and concentrates instead on linguistic confusions that your computer won’t catch. It
discusses many casual, slangy forms and provides illustrative examples written in the sort of
English familiar to most people likely to use this site, albeit with a distinct American bias. So
to improve your language skills, or just for a good read, join the 8 million or so previous
visitors to ‘Common Errors in English.’
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