Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day Third World. Originally, this term denoted the group of underdeveloped nations (especially in Africa and Asia) not aligned with either Western democracies (i.e., the “First World” — or “Free World”) or Communist countries (i.e., the “Second World”) during the Cold War. But as the world turns, so does the …

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*these kind of; *these type of; *these sort of. These are illogical forms that, in a bolder day, would have been termed illiteracies. Today they merely brand the speaker or writer as slovenly. They appear most commonly in reported speech, but sometimes not — e.g.: o “What’s disheartening about this, from the Lebanon point of …

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thesaurus. The plurals “thesauruses” and “thesauri” occur with equal frequency. The homegrown “thesauruses” is probably better — e.g.: o “In addition, there are the computerized thesauruses included in most word-processing programs.” Leslie T. Sharpe & Irene Gunther, Editing Fact and Fiction 204 (1994). o “Thesauruses also increased in popularity, rising from 22nd in terms of …

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Miscellaneous Entries. threnody /THREN-uh-dee/ (= a funeral song; elegy) is the usual spelling. *”Threnode” is a variant. threshold. So spelled. *”Threshhold” is a common misspelling — e.g.: “We dared to cross the threshhold [read ‘threshold’] from sophisticated, drawing-room, strangulated drollery to the wilderness where we not only faced the lion’s roar but smelled the breath …

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there is; there are (2). Today: Number with. The number of the verb is controlled by whether the inverted subject that follows “there is” or “there are” is singular or plural. Mistakes are common — e.g.: o “He said there is [read ‘are’] several truckloads of nuclear waste.” Frank Munger, “State Bans DOE Nuke Waste,” …

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there is; there are (1). Today: As Signals of Clutter. These phrases, though sometimes useful, can also be the enemies of a lean writing style, as several commentators have observed — e.g.: o “The trouble with ‘there’ has nothing to do with grammar or with ‘correctness’ of any kind. It’s a perfectly proper word, and …

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therefore (2). Part A: Run-on Sentences. One should take care not to create run-on sentences by joining two independent clauses with “therefore” — e.g.: “Byfield had hired him for a ridiculous reason: ‘He grew up in New York, therefore I liked him.’” Kenneth Whyte, “Let Byfields Be Byfields,” Saturday Night, 1 Feb. 1996, at 15 …

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therefore (1). Today: Punctuation Around. One must take care in the punctuation of “therefore.” When a comma appears before “therefore,” the preceding word gets emphasized {it was John, therefore, who deserved the accolades} (suggesting that somebody else got the accolades but didn’t deserve them). Or you can reverse the order of the words to put …

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there. “There” for “they’re” or “their” is an embarrassing confusion of homophones. It’s the type of solecism one expects from a grade-school student, not from a professional writer or editor. But it is a common inadvertence in journalism — e.g.: o “And that’s where these radio stations are really missing the boat, because there [read …

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then. Part A: As an Adjective. “Then” should not be hyphenated when alone as an adjective meaning “that existed or was so at that time” {the then mayor of San Diego}. But when the word is part of a phrasal adjective, the phrase should be hyphenated {then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani}, but not after {Rudolph Giuliani, then …

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Miscellaneous Entries. thereabouts; *thereabout. Although any writer might be well advised to avoid either term, the former is preferred and overwhelmingly more common. thief. The plural is “thieves” — not *”thiefs.” The mistaken plural is fairly common — e.g.: “After decades of being in bed with some of the biggest thiefs [read ‘thieves’] in the …

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theirs. “Theirs,” an absolute possessive, is sometimes wrongly written *”their’s” — e.g.: o “The Badgers read Bennett’s intensity. He read their’s [read ‘theirs’].” Vic Feuerherd, “Bennett’s Gift,” Wis. State J., 14 Nov. 2000, at D1. o “Apparently, it can happen even in a marriage such as their’s [read ‘theirs’], which lasted 33 years.” Anna L. …

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the. The pronunciation rule for the definite article parallels the usage rule for the indefinite articles “a” and “an.” Before a word that starts with a vowel sound, say /thee/ (rhymes with “bee”) {/thee/ ant} {/thee/ elephant}. Before a word that starts with a consonant sound, say /thuh/ (rhymes with “duh”) {/thuh/ bee} {/thuh/ condor}. …

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that is. Conventional wisdom once held that if this phrase begins a sentence, the result is a sentence fragment. But good writers unimpeachably use the phrase in this way, in place of “in other words” — e.g.: o “While adopting certain teaching techniques, we are more interested in communication than in composition. That is, with …

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Language-Change Index. The third edition of Garner’s Modern American Usage reflects several new practices. Invariably inferior forms, for example, are now marked with asterisks preceding the term or phrase, a marking common in linguistics. The most interesting new feature is the Language-Change Index. Its purpose is to measure how widely accepted various linguistic innovations have …

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Miscellaneous Entries. thence; whence; hence. “Thence” = from that place or source; for that reason. “Whence” = from there. “Hence” = (1) for this reason; therefore; (2) from this source; (3) from this time; from now; or (4) from this place; away. They’re literary archaisms — except for “hence” in sense 1. thenceforth; *thenceforward. The …

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that (4). Today: Final Problems. Part A: Unnecessarily Repeated as Conjunction. One must be careful not to repeat the conjunction “that” after an intervening phrase. Either suspend it till just before the verb or use it early in the sentence and omit it before the verb — e.g.: “Mr. Siefker has gone through half a …

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that (3). Today: Wrongly Suppressed “that.” As a relative pronoun or conjunction, “that” can be suppressed in any number of constructions (e.g., “The dog you gave me” rather than “The dog that you gave me”). But in formal writing “that” is often ill-advisedly omitted. In particular, the conjunction “that” should usually be retained to introduce …

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that (1). Today: And “which.” You’ll encounter two schools of thought on this point. First are those who don’t care about any distinction between these words, who think that “which” is more formal than “that,” and who point to many historical examples of copious “whiches.” They say that modern usage is a muddle. Second are …

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Miscellaneous Entries. the case of. This flotsam phrase is almost always best omitted. their; they’re. A book like this one need not explain such elementary distinctions. So it will not. But: “Liberals are again trying to explain why they lost their fifth presidential election in 20 years. They’ve been talking about what they’re [read ‘their’] …

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