Today: The General Rule. The simple rule is to use a plural verb with a plural subject, a singular verb with a singular subject. But there are complications. If a sentence has two or more singular subjects connected by “and,” use a plural verb. Yet if the subjects really amount to a single person or …

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Subject-Verb Agreement (1). Read More »

Miscellaneous Entries. sty (= an inflammation on the eyelid) is the standard spelling. (*"Stye" is a variant form.) The plural is “sties.” Another word spelled “sty” (= a pen for pigs) also has the plural “sties.” stylish; stylistic. “Stylish” = in style, in vogue {a stylish hat}. “Stylistic” = (1) having to do with style …

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries. Read More »

This term, originally from golf, is best spelled “stymie.” It can function as a noun {a serious stymie}, but more commonly it’s a verb — e.g.: o “Danielle Odom brings quiet pathos to the damaged little girl — though the tongue-twisting lines she’s handed once she arrives in heaven would stymie virtually any child actor.” …

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: stymie; *stymy. Read More »

So spelled. *"Stupify" is a fairly common misspelling — e.g.: o “Insurance agents will stupify [read ‘stupefy’] their clients with [obscure] notations.” James W. Johnson, Logic and Rhetoric 197 (1962). o “Drugs like heroin and cocaine typically stupify [read ‘stupefy’] and immobilize the user.” Richard Morin, “New Facts and Hot Stats from the Social Sciences,” …

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: stupefy. Read More »

“Stultify” formerly meant “to attempt to prove mental incapacity.” By modest extension, it came to mean either “to make or cause to appear foolish” or “to put in a stupor.” E.g.: “Rote liturgy can stultify as well as edify.” Daniel B. Clendenin, “Why I’m Not Orthodox,” Christianity Today, 6 Jan. 1997, at 32. Then, by …

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: stultify. Read More »

So inflected. The form *"striked" is erroneous — e.g.: o “The No. 8 Hillbillies striked [read ‘struck’] next when Jack McDaniels returned an interception 97 yards to knot the score at 7.” “N. Marion Breezes over Huntington,” Charleston Gaz., 22 Nov. 1997, at B4. o “As recently as the late Sixties, British post-war race relations …

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: strike / struck / struck. Read More »

So inflected. The past participle “stridden” (attested in the Oxford English Dictionary from 1576 to 1970), as well as its variant form “strode” (attested from 1817 to 1963), rarely appears today. Another past-participial form, *”strid,” was current before 1800, but it is now obsolete. The form “strode” can be either the simple past or the …

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: stride / strode / stridden. Read More »

Though *”stricken” often appears as a past participle, grammatical authorities have long considered it inferior to “struck.” It’s archaic except when used as an adjective {a stricken community}. The past-participial use is ill-advised — e.g.: “A noncompete agreement that bans a person from ever setting up a competing company in the same geographical location will …

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: stricken. Read More »

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 …

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Language-Change Index Read More »

stratum. The plural is “strata” — which should not be used as a singular but sometimes is. E.g.: “By contrast with the atmosphere of, say, Sinclair Lewis’s ‘Main Street,’ in which an afternoon call or the purchase of a shirtwaist might occasion endless talk among every strata [read ‘stratum’] of a community, minding our own …

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries. Read More »

The verb is inflected “strew” / “strewed” / “strewn.” “Strewed” is sometimes misused as a past-participial form — e.g.: o “Cars were strewed [read ‘strewn’] haphazardly in parking lots.” David Montgomery, “Flood Waters Leave Widespread Ruin in Their Wake,” Wash. Post, 23 Jan. 1996, at A1. o “It’s been 13 years since her [Georgia O’Keeffe’s] …

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: strew. Read More »

“Straitlaced” (= rigidly narrow in moral matters; prudish) referred originally, in the 16th century, to a tightly laced corset — “strait” meaning “narrow” or “closely fitting.” Over time, writers have forgotten the etymology (or they never learned it in the first place) and have confused “strait” with “straight.” Hence the erroneous form *”straightlaced” — e.g.: …

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: straitlaced. Read More »

straitjacket. The "strait" in this word means "close-fitting." *"Straightjacket" is a common but undesirable variant for "straitjacket" — e.g.: "Teachers of the subject assigned editorials by rhetorical types until it was realized that such straightjacketing [read ‘straitjacketing’] of students was destructive of talent, not a developer of it." Curtis D. MacDougall, Principles of Editorial Writing …

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: straitjacket. Read More »

straighten; straiten. These two verbs have different meanings. "Straighten" = to make or become straight. "Straiten" = (1) to make narrow, confine; or (2) to put into distress, esp. financial hardship. Because "straiten" is the rarer word, it is sometimes wrongly displaced by "straighten" — e.g.: o "Brookes may pride itself on a different sort …

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: straighten; straiten. Read More »