WORDS MISTAKES

CONTRARY/CONTRAST

The phrases “on the contrary” and “to the contrary” are used to reply to an opposing point. Your friend tells you she is moving to New York and you express surprise because you thought she hated big cities. She replies, “On the contrary, I’ve always wanted to live in an urban area.”

When a distinction is being made that does not involve opposition of this sort, “in contrast” is appropriate. “In New York, you don’t need a car. In Los Angeles, in contrast, you can’t really get along without one, though you won’t need a snow shovel.”

Here’s a simple test: if you could possibly substitute “that’s wrong” the phrase you want is “on the contrary” or “to the contrary.” If not, then use “in contrast.”

BOUNCE

BOUNDS

A leaky ball may be out of bounce, but when it crosses the boundary line off the basketball court or football field it goes out of bounds. Similarly, any action or speech that goes beyond proper limits can be called “out of bounds”: “Mark thought that it was out of bounds for his wife to go spelunking with Tristan, her old boyfriend.”

BREATH/BREATHE

When you need to breathe, you take a breath. “Breathe” is the verb, “breath” the noun.

BRAKE/BREAK

You brake to slow down; if your brakes fail and you drive through a plate-glass window, you will break it.

BENEFACTOR/BENEFICIARY

Benefactors give benefits; beneficiaries receive them. We expect to hear of generous benefactors and grateful beneficiaries.

BEAT/BEAD

In American English when you focus narrowly on something or define it carefully you “get a bead” or “draw a bead” on it. In this expression the term “bead” comes from the former name for the little metal bump on the end of a gun barrel which helped the shooter aim precisely at a target. “Beat” is often mistakenly substituted for “bead” by people who imagine that the expression has something to do with matching the timing of the person or activity being observed, catching up with it.

BESIDE/BESIDES

“Besides” can mean “in addition to” as in “besides the puppy chow, Spot scarfed up the filet mignon I was going to serve for dinner.” “Beside,” in contrast, usually means “next to.” “I sat beside Cheryl all evening, but she kept talking to Jerry instead.” Using “beside” for “besides,” won’t usually get you in trouble; but using “besides” when you mean "next to” will.

BELIEF/BELIEVE

If you have it, it’s a belief; if you do it, you believe. People can’t have religious “believes”; they have religious beliefs. If you have it, it’s a belief; if you do it, you believe.

COULD OF, SHOULD OF, WOULD OF

COULD HAVE, SHOULD HAVE, WOULD HAVE

This is one of those errors typically made by a person more familiar with the spoken than the written form of English. A sentence like “I would have gone if anyone had given me free tickets” is normally spoken in a slurred way so that the two words “would have” are not distinctly separated, but blended together into what is properly rendered “would’ve.” Seeing that “V” tips you off right away that “would’ve” is a contraction of “would have.” But many people hear “would of” and that’s how they write it. Wrong.

Note that “must of” is similarly an error for “must have.”

WANDER/WONDER

If you idly travel around, you wander. If you realize you’re lost, you wonder where you are.

WARY/WEARY/LEERY

People sometimes write “weary” (tired) when they mean “wary” (cautious) which is a close synonym with “leery” which in the psychedelic era was often misspelled “leary”; but since Timothy Leary faded from public consciousness, the correct spelling has prevailed.

WET YOUR APPETITE

WHET YOUR APPETITE

It is natural to think that something mouth-watering “wets your appetite,” but actually the expression is “whet your appetite”— sharpen your appetite, as a whetstone sharpens a knife.

WRANGLE/WANGLE

If you deviously manage to obtain something you wangle it: “I wangled an invitation to Jessica’s party by hinting that I would be inviting her to our house on the lake this summer.” But if you argue with someone, you wrangle with them: “Once I got to the party, Jessica’s attitude irritated me so much that we wound up wrangling constantly during it.” Of course cowboys wrangle cattle, and specialists wrangle other animal species in films.

YEAR END AND YEAR OUT

YEAR IN AND YEAR OUT

When something goes on continually, it is traditional to say it happens “year in and year out,” meaning “from the beginning of the year to its end—and so on year after year.”

The mistaken form “year end and year out” doesn’t make sense because “year end” and “year out” both refer to the same part of the year, so no time span is being described.

YOU CAN’T HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO

YOU CAN’T EAT YOUR CAKE AND HAVE IT TOO


The most popular form of this saying—“You can’t have your cake and eat it too”— confuses many people because they mistakenly suppose the word “have” means “eat,” as in “Have a piece of cake for dessert.” A more logical version of this saying is “You can’t eat your cake and have it too,” meaning that if you eat your cake you won’t have it any more. The point is that if you eat your cake right now you won’t have it to eat later. “Have” means “possess” in this context, not “eat.”

ASPECT/RESPECT

When used to refer to different elements of or perspectives on a thing or idea, these words are closely related, but not interchangeable. It’s “in all respects,” not “in all aspects.” Similarly, one can say “in some respects” but not “in some aspects.” One says “in this respect,” not “in this aspect.” One looks at all “aspects” of an issue, not at all “respects.”

ATTRIBUTE/CONTRIBUTE

When trying to give credit to someone, say that you attribute your success to their help, not contribute. (Of course, a politician may attribute his success to those who contribute to his campaign fund, but probably only in private.)

AS OF YET

YET

“As of yet” is a windy and pretentious substitute for plain old English “yet” or “as yet,” an unjustified extension of the pattern in sentences like “as of Friday the 27th of May.”

AS LESS AS POSSIBLE

AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE

The expression is not “as less as possible,” but “as little as possible.”

ASSURE/ENSURE/INSURE

To “assure” a person of something is to make him or her confident of it. According to Associated Press style, to “ensure” that something happens is to make certain that it does, and to “insure” is to issue an insurance policy. Other authorities, however, consider “ensure” and “insure” interchangeable. To please conservatives, make the distinction. However, it is worth noting that in older usage these spellings were not clearly distinguished.

European “life assurance” companies take the position that all policy-holders are mortal and someone will definitely collect, thus assuring heirs of some income. American companies tend to go with “insurance” for coverage of life as well as of fire, theft, etc.

VERY SORT OF, VERY KIND OF

“He’s very sort of buffed.” Wha . . ? He can’t be very buffed and only sort of buffed at the same time. It’s an error to follow the phrase “very sort of” with an adjective (a quality, such as “rich,” “happy,” “conscientious”).

It’s all right to say “very sort of” when “very” means “exact, precise,” and the phrase is followed by an noun (a thing or person): “the very sort of pastry I can’t resist,” “the very sort of boss I can’t stand.”

Less common is the equally confused expression “very kind of” as in “he’s very kind of charming when he’s trying to impress women.”

Of course “very kind of” is fine in appreciative comments where “kind” is an adjective meaning “generous,” “helpful,” like “it was very kind of you to shovel Mrs. Mukherjee’s front walk.”

COMPRISED OF

COMPOSED OF

Although “comprise” is used primarily to mean “to include,” it is also often stretched to mean “is made up of”—a meaning that some critics object to. The most cautious route is to avoid using “of” after any form of “comprise” and substitute “is composed of” in sentences like this: “Jimmy’s paper on Marxism was composed entirely of sentences copied off the Marx Brothers Home Page.”

CAPITAL/CAPITOL

A “capitol” is almost always a building. Cities which serve as seats of government are capitals spelled with an A in the last syllable, as are most other uses of the word as a common noun. The only exceptions are place names alluding to capitol buildings in some way or other, like “Capitol Hill” in DC, Denver, or Seattle (the latter named either after the hill in Denver or in hopes of attracting the Washington State capitol building). Would it help to remember that Congress with an O meets in the Capitol with another O?

CALM, COOL, AND COLLECTIVE

CALM, COOL, AND COLLECTED

Unless you’re living in an unusually tranquil commune, you wouldn’t be “calm, cool, and collective.” The last word in this traditional phrase is “collected,” in the sense of such phrases as “let me sit down a minute and collect my thoughts.” If you leave out “cool” the last word still has to be “collected.”

BRING/TAKE

When you are viewing the movement of something from the point of arrival, use “bring”: “When you come to the potluck, please bring a green salad.” Viewing things from the point of departure, you should use “take“: “When you go to the potluck, take a bottle of wine.”

BY FAR AND AWAY

BY FAR, FAR AND AWAY

You could say that Halloween is by far your favorite holiday, or you can say that it’s far and away your favorite holiday; but if you combine the two expressions and say “by far and away” you’ll annoy some people and puzzle others who can’t figure out why it doesn’t sound quite right.