{"id":5164,"date":"2015-04-01T00:18:12","date_gmt":"2015-03-31T23:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/writehouse.org\/?p=1525"},"modified":"2015-04-01T00:18:12","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T23:18:12","slug":"not-this-but-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/not-this-but-this\/","title":{"rendered":"Not this- But this"},"content":{"rendered":"

Severe<\/em> is never a verb. You cannot severe<\/em> your relationship with the firm. You may sever<\/em> your relationship with the firm, or sever<\/em> your ties to your homeland.<\/p>\n

Surety<\/em> is not pronounced shotee<\/em>. Surety<\/em> is pronounced shor\u2019ti<\/em>. Bite the r. Pronounce the r<\/em>.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t reply<\/em> a letter or an email. You reply<\/em> to a letter or an email.<\/p>\n

Dear Ma<\/em> is wrong. Write Dear Madam<\/em>. (And, whether in speech or in writing, prefer madam<\/em> or ma\u2019am to ma<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

Corrupt politicians and contractors can\u2019t eat<\/em> money. Eating<\/em> always involves chewing and swallowing. Corrupt politicians and contractors embezzle<\/em> or steal<\/em> money. And yes, stealing in public office is corruption. You can\u2019t eat<\/em> money, even if you\u2019re neither a politician nor a contractor, and even if you\u2019re as honest as Abraham Lincoln. You spend<\/em> or waste<\/em> money.<\/p>\n

All what I\u2019m saying, all what she\u2019s doing<\/em> etc are bad English. The correct expressions are all that I\u2019m saying<\/em> or all I\u2019m saying<\/em>, and all that she\u2019s doing<\/em> or all she\u2019s doing<\/em>. Nix all what<\/em>.<\/p>\n

There is no such time as 12am or 12pm. 12 o\u2019clock is either 12midday (12noon)<\/em> or 12 midnight.<\/em> You can also simply say midday, noon, or midnight.<\/em> Let\u2019s meet at noon. Let\u2019s dine at midday. Let\u2019s dance at midnight. The meeting will start at 12noon. Breakfast ends at 12midday. Dinner ends at 12midnight.<\/em><\/p>\n

You can\u2019t be afraid of your life<\/em>, can you? I love my life. I\u2019m not afraid of it<\/em>. When threatened, I may be afraid for my life<\/em> or afraid for my health or afraid for my safety. <\/em><\/p>\n

Surgeons don\u2019t operate<\/em> patients\u2014they operate on<\/em> patients. So you can\u2019t say she was operated<\/em>. Say instead she was operated on.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ask<\/em> and axe<\/em> are pronounced differently. Ask<\/em> is pronounced ask<\/em>; axe<\/em> is pronounced aks<\/em>. Asked<\/em> is pronounced askt<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Equipment<\/em> is not a countable noun, so you can\u2019t say an equipment <\/em>or equipments<\/em>, no matter how many items of equipment<\/em> you\u2019re referring to.<\/p>\n

Furniture<\/em> is not a countable noun, so you can\u2019t say a furniture<\/em> or furnitures<\/em>, no matter how many items of furniture<\/em> you mean.<\/p>\n

I look forward to see yo<\/em>u is wrong. The correct expression is I look forward to seeing you.<\/em><\/p>\n

If I am chanced, when I am chanced <\/em>are such horrible expressions they would make the angels weep! Consider If I have the chance, if I have the time, when you get the chance, when you have time.<\/em><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know it off head<\/em> is not English. The Queen of England would cringe! She would be mad at you if you said that. To be off one\u2019s head<\/em> is to be mentally deranged. You\u2019re not mad, I\u2019m sure, even if you madden the Queen. Say I don\u2019t know it by heart<\/em>. The Queen would then smile.<\/p>\n

Quit lying: she is not on seat, he is not on seat<\/em> etc. That\u2019s bad English. Besides, on an unclear line, someone might think you said she is not on heat<\/em>. Say she is not available right now.<\/em><\/p>\n

Where are you at?<\/em> is, to quote Bryan Garner, a \u201cbadge of illiteracy.\u201d Say where are you?<\/em><\/p>\n

Bindingness<\/em> is not an English word, no matter how many times you encounter it in some law reports. Try binding force<\/em>. If it doesn\u2019t work, redraft.<\/p>\n

Pant trousers<\/em> or<\/strong> pants trousers<\/em> is rubbish. The British refer to that item of clothing as trousers<\/em>; the Americans pants<\/em>– choose one.<\/p>\n

Flat apartment<\/em> has been creeping into the lexicon of the linguistically challenged real-estate market. Apartment<\/em> is American dialect for flat<\/em>, the British term. Choose one.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t say how it looks like<\/em>. Say what it looks like<\/em> or<\/strong> how it looks<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Severe is never a verb. You cannot severe your relationship with the firm. You may sever your relationship with the firm, or sever your ties to your homeland. Surety is not pronounced shotee. Surety is pronounced shor\u2019ti. Bite the r. Pronounce the r. You can\u2019t reply a letter or an email. You reply to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}