13 Commonly Mishandled English Words
Learning a second language comes with its own limitations. The English language is no exception. Then there is the new technology which as much as it gets the credit for improving the quality of our lives has equally come with its own pack of limitations that is dealing the field of language and literature quite a blow. I’m talking about our “Short Messaging Services(SMS) age” and the later smart-phone times that comes with it the annoying “Auto-correct”. Consequently some of the English words have suffered abuse and misuse. Interestingly though, it’s the abuser who quite often than not happens to suffer more from the mishandling of these words as you’d see in today’s list. Which is why at List13 we decided to enlighten you of these 13 Commonly Mishandled English Words.
1. I’m and Am who I am This I dedicate to my fellow comrades who are increasingly giving me worries and I fear a heart attack in lurk. Comrades it does you no good to go through the 8-4-4 system to come out ladies and gentlemen who can’t tell the difference between “I’m” and “am” for your resume and job application letters. They won’t tell you but I will for free. It’s just ugly. To begin with short forms are not often encouraged especially for the formal letters and but when you insist to go down that road at least try get it right. “Am” is not the short form of “I’m”. For the sake of your resume it’s either “I am” or “I’m”. Closed!
2. The Alumnus and Alumni Ours is the age where graduates seem to be in almost every corner of our planet. Just walk in any formal gathering and you’ll find them there, which per se is a good thing. That notwithstanding, it actually gives you no right to stand up during the introduction session to mess things up with you insisting you are “Prof. Mr./Mrs. so and so, an alumni of Xhuxa University”. It gets sadder when I hear you spoil things further saying, “Former alumni…” “Alumnus”“alumni”“alumni” “alumnus” What the heck! is the accepted singular form of instead of It sounds so right but it’s not. supersede your grasp of the English language, you can always opt to including yourself in the group of alumni of a particular year, say, “I’m one of the 1997 alumni of Xhuxa University”. Alternatively you can as well say an “alumna”. But for the last time folks “alumnus” is the accepted singular form of “alumni”.
3. Take your time to Peruse through It’s not strange to see you snatch a daily from me then back your move with the excuse, “Lemme peruse quickly then hand it back to you if you don’t mind,” and to make it sound convincing that you’ll be through with it in a short while, you go ahead to pronounce “peruse” with the quickest tone and some funny non-verbal cues as accompaniments. Now, whereas I don’t mind you snatching it away from me I mind a great deal you subjecting me to the vague paradox of “peruse quickly”. Gentlemen, “peruse” is not in any way the synonym of “scanning” or “skimming”. If anything it’s the exact opposite of that. To peruse is to examine or consider with attention and in detail.
4. Anyhowly or Anyhow? Be informed “anyhowly” is not an English word. I know it sounds convincingly right to say “anyhowly” but I’m embarrassed to agree with you that it’s convincingly right. Because it’s not. Save your breathe of the unnecessary extra syllable and stick to anyhow.
5. I need your Certainty and Certainity about this. Speaking of words that are not English words, this word “Certainity” is certainly one of those belonging to that set. Kindly avoid the vague irony of trying to sound certain of a subject when you can’t even get the word right. It’s with absolute certainty I confirm to you that “certainity” isn’t an English word. Once again save your breathe the extra syllables.
6. Please Repeat that Again The English dictionary defines the verb bit of this word as; to say, state or perform again. This is the one among the many other definitions that am here to point out its misuse and to clarify its use. Because it’s something that happens or being said again, it certainly is senseless of you to interrupt our lecture and ask the lecturer to, “Please repeat that again,” Repeat is simply repeat because it’s done or said again.
7. At-least Folks “at-least” is an adverb made up of a preposition and an adjective “at” and “least” to which the meaning is more clear when written separately as in “at least” and not “atleast”
8. A-Lot Do not deprive of this adverb’s meaning by joining the article “a” and noun “lot”. And so when you are telling them the story and that time comes to quantify the event that’s the subject of your story make sure you get this adverb cum noun right. It’s “a lot” not “alot” The latter by the way being a Luo word for vegetables. Just so you know a bit of the famed intanasonol language.
9. It’s its Once again comrades maintain your resume’s uniqueness and get the clear distinction of these two words. One is a short form of “it is” made up of an adjective cum noun cum pronoun (“it”) and a verb (“is”) while the other (“its”) is purely a pronoun, a possessive pronoun to be precise.. but you can always save yourself the hustle and just write “it’s” in full and avoid the short forms especially if somewhere in your resume sits a description of yourself that goes like ”I am a hard worker” or “I believe in hard work,”
10. How Contented and Contentious are you for the Job? Once again special dedication to the comrades. It is very okay to use those big hard words(actually for Lack of a better phrase) to compliment your personality so your resume stands out amongst the many. One request though: Please do yourself justice and research on some of these words. Because whereas you would want them to boost your personality, quite often than not they may end up ruining everything instead. One such word is “contentious”. This word is not in any way a form of speech of the English word “contentment” or “being contented”. Contentious means involving or likely to cause controversy. And I believe you are not dedicating yourself to decorating that resume so as to cause controversies in someone’s firm unless you are a celebrity to which that would be good for business.
11. How Invaluable or Valuable could it be? Sometimes one added to one is not necessarily two. Such is the complexity of the English language. Not all the time the prefix “in-“precedes a word implies the limiting aspects of the word. Ladies and gentlemen this comes to you as a polite reminder that the word “invaluable” is the synonym of this other word “valuable” so is “inflammable” and “flammable”. If you see a sign saying IT’S INFLAMMABLE stay away, and get to the nearest fire extinguisher.
12. In-fact, Incase There is no such English word as “infact” and but incase is an English word except that “incase” and “in case” is not the same thing. Should you ever happen to want imply “in reality or actuality”, get the word right it’s “in fact” same is the case when you happen to want to mean “in the event of” get it right the word is “in case” and not “incase"
13. Will you say Anything? or Nothing! Now this is for you to tell the difference. Which of this statement has a higher degree of communicating meaning;
I didn’t tell him anything.
I didn’t tell him nothing.
Hint: Nothing