Fighting Poor English Usage
Posted by: Mark Stoneman on: July 4, 2008
Whenever I run across words that people mix up with other words, I try to explain the problem. This effort has led to posts on the following words:
- between / among, many / much, fewer / less
- effect / affect
- en masse, saddest / sadist
- statute / statue, tenet / tenant
I plan do more such posts as opportunity offers, but I would like to point out a blog that offers a whole lot of posts about other words, One Step Forward by Legbamel, whose voice makes her writing a pleasure to read. Here is a sampling of recent words covered:
My only complaint? The blog has no proper index of words covered. This weakness might be due to the blog’s strength. She’s covered so many of them that listing them might break the blog’s category system.
4 Responses to "Fighting Poor English Usage"
July 8, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Thanks for the mention! You’re right that I don’t have the individual entries listed, but it would take up too much space on my blog. The site I linked to above includes a list of them, though, and most of my other posts organized by categories. Perhaps I should link to it from my sidebar. [smacks forehead]
I’d have gone with “Promoting the Use of Good English” or simply “Promoting Good English”, except that I like the “fighting” idea. 
If only my grammar police badge and keyboard locks would arrive…
November 16, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Mark, you have an excellent post.
The title, per se, may be or may not be the crux of the issue. Whatever you call, the conceptual part remains vital. Poor usage or bad usage or un-usual usage all may fit in.
Two cents here. Being specific about the usage (and this clarity for non-native speakers), might help all the concerned in improving communicative skills.
March 2, 2009 at 4:13 am
Pretty late in my comments. I am pretty new to blogging.
Missed a lot of your earlier blogs, but now attempting to go deep and understand and pass on to others.
An excellent service to English.
Gopal. G
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- mstoneman_esl: @kalinagoenglish The existence of class and the use of the word say nothing about social mobility. Maybe you're conflating class and caste?
- mstoneman_esl: @kalinagoenglish Most countries, I'd say, though I've found Europeans to be more up front with the language of class than Americans are.
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July 5, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Hmmm. Maybe I should have called this post “Promoting Good English Usage”?