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Which Version?
Do you write preventive or preventative? (the former for me every time)
Adviser or advisor? (again the former every time)
In my dictionary 'preventive' has two distinct definitions, while 'preventative' has only one word of definition next to it - 'preventive'.
And 'adviser' does offer 'advisor' as an alternative, but it points out that this version is disputed. On the Job Centre website, however, they seem to be seeking far more sales advisors than sales advisers.
I may be wrong, but I think these are examples of words being mis-spelled so often that the mis-spelling has become the dominant version and the poor old original has declined to the point of endangerment, like hordes of grey squirrel advisors overrunning the habitat of the more timid red squirrel advisers.
And I have a load of books on criminology but I am yet to see an example of someone being sentenced to five years' preventative detention.
Adviser or advisor? (again the former every time)
In my dictionary 'preventive' has two distinct definitions, while 'preventative' has only one word of definition next to it - 'preventive'.
And 'adviser' does offer 'advisor' as an alternative, but it points out that this version is disputed. On the Job Centre website, however, they seem to be seeking far more sales advisors than sales advisers.
I may be wrong, but I think these are examples of words being mis-spelled so often that the mis-spelling has become the dominant version and the poor old original has declined to the point of endangerment, like hordes of grey squirrel advisors overrunning the habitat of the more timid red squirrel advisers.
And I have a load of books on criminology but I am yet to see an example of someone being sentenced to five years' preventative detention.
Comments
And there are some words ending in "ic" which can also be spelt/spelled "-ical". Somtimes the shorter version is used more often; sometimes it's the longer one that's more common.
*checks dictionary just in case* :-D
I remember clearly at night school English class the teacher corrected a pupil for writing focussed with the double s. This pupil could have shown the teacher the dictionary and put him in his place. If there was only one way to spell the word then confusions such as this would not arise. We don't NEED two ways to spell focused - one will do fine.
Today's people, if I can say that, won't rush to a dictionary to find 'focussed' and 'advisor', if they did we would not have 46 mis-spelled signs on the Mail website to look at... everyone is pushing the boundaries of the language all the time. How long before some of the classic mis-spellings become accepted?
I also think teachers need to take a lot of responsibility for this - when my daughter was just 7 (29 years ago) the teacher told the class not to worry about the spelling, just get the sense on the paper.
You will also find, by comparison, that the Americans spell differently to the English and that too is being drawn into the language. The whole world is one melting pot of language and duplicated words, going without the dictionary is better, every time, go with what feels right and looks right and avoiding being pedantic about it, will make for a better flow of writing. I do not go check out the words, if it doesn't look right/feel right then there are alternatives and that is what I will use.
Use alternatives? The English language has many shades of meaning all represented by the greatest variety of words available to anyone in the world. Some are synonyms, but most have a slightly different feel, edge, implication, sound, weight, rhythm... if I choose a word I certainly wouldn't want to use another simply because I couldn't spell it.
Ok, some words are spelled very oddly, but unless we stick to some sort of rules it will become increasingly difficult to get the sense of anything.
Sorry about that unmarked quote, folks. It illustrates the correct usage of language which has been corrupted by estate agents, probably in an attempt to clarify things for house purchasers who may have been confused otherwise: The property comprises of three bedrooms, two receptions, kitchen and bathroom.
I used to be annoyed when I met 'comprises of', but hey, what the heck. Same with any other misuse or variation. I suppose we could allow ourselves to get worked up by the authorial snobbery of littering one's writing with foreign language tags: the sine qua nons, shadenfreudes and raison d'etres. All part of life's rich tapestry.
What I am saying is that we have no need for adviser AND advisor. The gradual replacing of the former with the latter will not enrich or advance the English language one bit. It is like a joiner having two identical hammers, but one is blue and the other red. They both do exactly the same job and one is no better than the other - so why on earth does he have two when one would do the job?
If I had the power to update the dictionary there would only be adviser. Anything else would be plain wrong.
So ner ;-)
If, to hammer home the analogy, and play devil's advocate purely for thread reasons, COS, our joiner's original blue handled hammer had served him handsomely since the days of his apprenticeship but he found the slight modification in the weighting/shape of the handle of his recent and practically identical red handled hammer, I suspect his old blue one would spend more time at the bottom of the toolbox and he'd go with the one he prefered.
So really having two hammers only adds unnecessary weight to his tool bag ;-)
That's hit the nail on the head :-D
:-D
Nit picking? Quite possibly, but someone typed that script for her to read and this person, who clearly doesn't understand the rules of the plural form, is collecting a wage packet for efforts such as this.
I'm sure you all know that the FA Cup final (singular) gets under way while the Commonwealth Games (plural) get under way. While we are all trying to have work accepted and we pore over every character to ensure we submit our best effort, someone at the BBC is dashing off slipshod writing and being paid for it.
Would such a fundamental error get past your radar?
The Wages of Sin is death.
But it depends on the context. The Commonwealth Games is second only to the Olympics, for example, treats the CGs as a single collective object and so takes 'is'.
But would you say the Commonwealth Games is under way, or the Commonwealth Games are under way? Are every time for me.
If you really want to frustrate yourself, try it with bands. I saw a newspaper fly sheet today, "McFly rocks local school".
"The Beatles was a group" seems to be the most grammatically sound, but "The Beatles were a group" sounds right - even though you're then doubling up the false plural onto both the name and the (singular) "group". And even if the band name is a singular entity, it still sounds wrong. "Blur was a band from Essex".
but it's a touch of the Canute syndrome isn't it? They haven't been able to stop 'le weekend', 'le jersey' etc, and I think 'laptop' sounds much sexier than 'ordinateur' n'est pas?
I bought the Shorter OED a number of years ago and use it regularly.
I too use the Internet sometimes, but also like to use the SOED even though it means going downstairs to the library. One thing I like about using a book dictionary is seeing other words on the page which can lead to several minutes following other words around the dictionary. Besides, dictionary.com is American.