Common mistakes with English words

Tweet

[b]I'm not going to claim that my grammar or spelling are flawless, but I do try. These are just a few of my pet peeves, that's all. Today, I want to tackle several. See what you think about them. To begin with, there's the word "forte." I've no idea who started this, but someone, somewhere, mispronounced it as "for-TAY," & folks heard it. Not knowing any better, they thought it sounded fancy, I suppose, & here we are. Folks, it's a homonym of FORT. Plain & simple. Putting that French ending on it just makes one sound, well, ignorant. Next, let's talk about "importantly," a frequently misused adverb. Example: "More importantly, when you see a traffic accident, you should stay put & be a witness." No no no. It's "more important," or "most important." The correct use of the word "importantly" is this: "He was a regal sort of bum, pontificating more importantly than his actual betters did, about the most inane subjects." Then there's that tricky clause thing, where people believe that since we politely refer to ourselves secondarily in a sentence such as, "She & I are old friends," that this holds true in clauses. Thus one hears, "It's not up to Jack or I!" "Me," of course, should take the place of "I." The easiest way to get it right is simply to eliminate the other person in the clause & see how it sounds. "It's not up to I" immediately lets one know one should've said "me." One more? All right, "moot." These days folks believe it's the equivalent of "academic," something that's already been settled, but in fact, it's just the opposite. It comes from the old English verb, "to moot," or, meet, to discuss something. One was said to go to a mooting place to settle problems, or hash out ideas or plans. Okay. Off the soapbox. Class dismissed. Grammar Grundy out! Maggiepie "WHERE'S THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE?"[/b]