What Not To Say To A Woman – Part TWO of TWO
24 Things You
Might Be Saying
-_Wrong
___-___By Readers
__-_Digest Magazine
___-_August 18th, 2010
______Part TWO of TWO
You almost never mean:
Beg the question
You almost always mean:
Raise the question
Why:
Correctly used,
“begging the question”
is like making a circular argument
(I don’t like you because
you’re so unlikable).
But unless you’re a
philosophy professor,
you shouldn’t ever need this phrase.
Stick to
“raise the question.”
You might say: More than
You can also say: Over
Why:
The two are interchangeable
when the sense is
“Over 6,000 hats were sold.”
We like grammarian
Bryan Garner’s take on it:
“The charge that over is inferior
to more than is a baseless crotchet.
You almost never mean:
Supposably
You almost always mean:
Supposedly
Why:
Supposably is,
in fact, a word—
it means “conceivably”—
but not the one you want
if you’re trying to say
“it’s assumed,”
and certainly not the one you
want if you’re on a first date
with an English major or a
job interview with an
English speaker.
You might say:
All of
You probably mean:
All
Why:
Drop the of whenever you can,
as Julia Roberts recently did,
correctly:
“Every little moment is amazing
if you let yourself access it.
I learn that all the
time from my kids.”
But you need all of
before a pronoun
(“all of them”) and before
a possessive noun
(“all of Julia’s kids”).
You might say:
That
You might mean:
Which
Why:
“The money that is on
the table is for you”
is different from
“the money,
which is on the table,
is for you.”
That pinpoints the subject:
The money that is on
the table is yours;
the money in my pocket is mine.
Which introduces an aside,
a bit of extra information.
If you remove
“which is on the table,”
you won’t change the meaning:
The money is for you
(oh, and unless you
don’t want it, it’s on the table).
If the clause is necessary
to your meaning, use that;
if it could safely be omitted,
say which.
You never mean:
Outside of
You always mean:
Outside
Why:
These two prepositions
weren’t meant for each other.
Perfectly acceptable:
“Wearing a cheese-head
hat outside Wisconsin
will likely earn you some
stares and glares
(unless you’re surrounded
by Green Bay Packers fans,
that is).”
You might say:
Each other
You might mean:
One another
Why:
Tradition says that each other
should be used with two people
or things, and one another with
more than two,
and careful speakers should
follow suit:
“The three presenters argued
with one another over who should
announce the award,
but Ann and Barbara gave each
other flowers after the ceremony.”
(By the way,
if you need the possessive form
of either one when writing that
business letter,
it’s always each other’s
and one another’s;
never end with s’.)
.
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