Week 10 - A Few More Areas of Confusion

There are literally thousands of websites devoted to good grammar, and some of them try to be comprehensive, including every possible rule in the language. I've been focusing more on mistakes I see around the campus, which narrows the field quite a bit. I've covered quite a few of the common areas of confusion in the past few weeks, but just when I think I'm running out of timely topics, a couple more show up. Here are some I've seen just in the past few days.


Single quotes vs. double quotes

When do you use single quotation marks, and when do you use double quotes? This one is simple: you always use double quotes, unless you need to quote something and you're already inside a (double) quotation.

Our Accounting 101 teacher, Gail, told us today that "The 'income statement' for a company is a report that provides a periodic summary of its income and expenses."


How

"How" is usually an adverb, according to the dictionaries. There are obscure usages in which it can be a noun, as in

Dawn explained the hows and wherefores of grants administration to a rapt audience.

A common misusage of "how" shows up in sentences like

We were encouraged to include an example of how the obscure word could be used.

I was always taught that the correct usage in a sentence like the one above would be

We were encouraged to include an example of the manner in which the obscure word could be used.

but "...the manner in which" is pretty stiff, so another alternative to consider is

We were encouraged to include an example of the way the obscure word could be used.

Why is it wrong to say "...an example of how...?" Remembering back to Week 1, "of" is a preposition, and prepositions take objects that are nouns or pronouns, not adverbs.


Can vs. may

Here's one I saw just yesterday (well, one like it anyway):

Hannah bought an axe, so now she may cut down that tree in her yard.

The correct sentence, assuming she wouldn't prefer to use her chain saw, is

Hannah bought an axe, so now she can cut down that tree in her yard.

The distinction between "can" and "may" is that "can" is about ability, and "may" is about permission:

Hannah talked to the town authorities yesterday, and now she may cut down that dead tree.


Here are a couple of quick "word-for-word" examples to end on for the week.

Adverse vs. averse

She wasn't adverse to going to the beach on Saturday. [incorrect]

People use "adverse" all the time when they really mean "averse."

In such an adverse situation, he wouldn't be averse to running away.

"Adverse" is an adjective that describes things, and "averse" describes people.


Contingent vs. contingency

Here's another common misusage:

Yulanda was part of a contingency that went to the beach every Sunday afternoon.

"Contingency" should never refer to a group of people -- the correct word for them is "contingent."

The contingency plan, if Crane's Beach is full, will be to load the whole contingent back onto the bus and head for Plum Island.

Happy writing! See you next week.