Part A: For “later.”
Using the four-syllable word in place of the two-syllable word is rarely, if ever, a good stylistic choice.
Part B: And “consequently.”
Though both words contain the sense “following” or “occurring later,” “consequently” has primarily a causal nuance: “occurring because of.” Frequently “subsequently” (which has no connotation of causation) is misused for “consequently” — e.g.: “My taste tends to be masculine to begin with. Chintz is not on my radar screen. Subsequently [read ‘Consequently’] I don’t attract frou frou clients.” Peter Marino, in “Peter Marino, Architect,” Celebrated Living, Fall 2008, at 88, 89 (interview). Language-Change Index — “subsequently” misused for “consequently”: Stage 1.
For information about the Language-Change Index click here.
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Quotation of the Day: “No native speaker or writer would have the least hesitation in determining the proper order of the six forms “dogs,” “big,” “the,” “black,” “ten,” “same”; but the statement of that order is a much more important part of a descriptive grammar than the rules for the agreement of verbs with collective nouns.” James Sledd, “Grammar or Gramarye?” in A Linguistics Reader 125, 132 (Graham Wilson ed., 1967).
