Add these sound-alikes to your list of words to check twice.
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At the end of the novel, the villain, U Po Kyin, an exceptionally rotund magistrate, moves to another district for a plumb job.
This was fixed between editions; the job was a “plum,†of course.
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[Headline] One Man Disperses Charity After Tragedy in Boston
A common confusion. We meant “disburse†or pay out - not “disperse,†which means scatter.
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“In the broadest sense, we want to use our knowledge and our network and our relationships to try to affect the greatest amount of good,†Ms. Powell Jobs said in one of a series of interviews with The New York Times.
A perennial challenge. “Affect†as a verb means “influence.†The verb we wanted here was “effect,†meaning “accomplish.†(This, too, was later fixed, but not before a sharp-eyed reader spotted the problem.)
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[Caption] Former President Suharto resigned 15 years ago Tuesday as Indonesia was wracked by rioting.
“Rack†and “wrack†cause confusion both as nouns and as verbs. For the verb meaning to torment, The Times's stylebook calls for “rack,†which would have worked here. “Wrack,†as a verb meaning to ruin or destroy, is considered archaic; if that's the meaning we want, use a modern synonym.
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In a Word
This week's grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.
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Mr. Obama's approval rating in a CNN poll published on Sunday was 53 percent, little different from 51 percent in their April survey.
The plural pronoun “their†can't refer to the singular CNN (and sticklers might argue that CNN, used here as a modifier, isn't a proper antecedent in any case). Rephrase.
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BERLIN - Throughout her rise to power and as Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel has kept her personal life strictly private, to an extent that is hard to achieve in the age of social media.
This long story about Merkel's personal life never answers one of the most obvious questions: How old is she?
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During hearings in the British Parliament last week, Margaret Hodge, a member of the opposition Labour Party and chairwoman of the Public Accounts Committee, which oversees taxation, upbraided Matt Brittin, Google's vice president for North and Central Europe, that the company's tax practices were “devious, calculated and, in my view, unethical.â€
You upbraid someone “for†something; the verb doesn't work with “that.â€
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The worry is less about the newcomers' origins, they say, than about their tranquility-shattering behavior. …
Eventually came the nouveau riche with their mega-mansions, corporate planes and over-the-top tent parties.
The first choice of the stylebook and the dictionary is “tranquillity†with two L's. Also, “nouveau riche†is singular; the plural is “nouveaux riches.â€
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The bill would exempt broad swathes of trades from new regulation.
The plural of “swath†is “swaths.â€
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Proponents for a new station said they found this provision troubling.
“Proponents†implies “forâ€; make it “proponents of.â€
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The collection of phone records in this manner is known as pretexting. Clearly a violation of privacy, the law was clarified in 2007 to formally make pretexting illegal.
Dangler. Pretexting, not the law, is clearly a violation of privacy.
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It's “Rashomon†on steroids: As each episode tracks one member of the hyper-dysfunctional Bluth family over roughly the same stretch of time, the story constantly circles back on itself, and information is rationed like methadone in the rehab center that first appears in Episode 3.
We have done better recently in avoiding this tired cliché; let's remain vigilant.
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But he acknowledged that teachers could probably find cheaper prices elsewhere.
The product is cheaper; the price is lower.
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Based on the comments we received, this is a common challenge - and one that is not easily resolved.
You don't “resolve†a challenge. Make it “problem†or pick a different verb, perhaps “met.â€
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Just weeks ago, for instance, Mr. Karzai demanded that American Special Operations forces leave Wardak Province over allegations that coalition troops had been responsible for the torture and murder of civilians.
A colleague notes that this phrase, along with “just days,†is increasingly common and frustratingly vague. Two weeks? Ten weeks? Why not just say how long ago?
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Mr. Cook is also expected to argue that some of Apple's largest subsidiaries do not reduce Apple's tax liability, and to press for a sweeping overhaul of the United States corporate tax code - in particular, by lowering rates on companies moving foreign overseas earnings back to the United States.
A (different) colleague points out that “sweeping overhaul†and “major overhaul†are overused and usually redundant, since “overhaul†means an extensive or thorough revision. There's no such thing as a minor overhaul.
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By escaping American shores, Actavis expects to reduce its effective tax rate from about 28 percent to 17 percent, a potential savings of tens of millions of dollars per year for the company and a still larger hit to the United States Treasury.
Saving, not savings. As the stylebook says:
savings. Do not use it as a singular noun: The cuts produced a savings of $50,000. Delete a or make it saving. Also: daylight saving time.
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When the company was born in 1909, its designers Alexandre Benois, Léon Bakst and Nicholas Roerich combined hues with an intensity hitherto unknown on Western stages.
What we meant was “theretofore,†but what we really wanted was “till then.†From the stylebook:
heretofore, hitherto. Both words mean until now. Do not confuse them with theretofore, meaning until then. All three words have their place, but it is in an old-fashioned legal brief. News writing calls for the simple phrases.
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Much like Mr. Bush did in 2006 when he acknowledged and emptied secret overseas C.I.A. prisons, Mr. Obama appears intent on countering criticism of his most controversial policies by reorienting them to meet changing conditions.
Avoid using “like†as a conjunction, introducing a full clause. Make it “much as†or “just as.†(We fixed it in time for later editions.)
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Evidence from crude data sets like these are prone to confirmation bias.
Agreement problem. Evidence is singular; make it “is prone,†not “are prone.â€
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Gene Munster, one of the lead analysts on the survey, said that if anything, the results showed that the taste and interest of Web users, particularly younger ones, was fickle and fleeting.
And another one. Make it “were,†to agree with the compound subject.
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Rescuers hoped to finish their search for survivors just more than 24 hours after the Oklahoma City area was hit by a storm nearly two miles across.
The perfectly acceptable idiom is “just over,†not “just more than.â€
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Instead, it can both be true that population density matters immensely to suicide rates and true that depressed people are more at risk of suicide on average regardless of where they live - that it may be better to be depressed in Alabama than in Montana, but it's also better not to be depressed at all.
This wasn't parallel; rephrase. For example: “it can be true both that … and that …â€
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Her role in the 25 minutes that comprise “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet†may not have been as prominent as those of Mr. Shatner or Mr. Cravat.
The whole comprises the parts, not the other way around. Here, we could simply say “the 25 minutes of ‘Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.'â€
