Baz's Bugs (under construction)

A very personal view of common mistakes, misuse and mispronunciation of the English Language in the UK.

Usage (u), grammar (g), pronunciation (p), spelling (s). An apostrophe ' is used to denote emphasis on the syllable preceding the apostrophe.

Appreciate (p) Preferred: app-ree'shiate [as opposed to app-ree'-see-ate]
Beg The Question (u) Used frequently and always incorrectly in the media. Do not use it unless you understand its meaning
Bored/Fed Up (g) Correct: bored/fed up with...
Incorrect: bored/fed up of...
Contribute (p) Preferred: Con-trib'ute [as opposed to con'trib-ute]
Definite (s) Often misspelled as definate
Fed Up (g) see Bored/Fed Up
Gerund (g) Correct: I hope you appreciate my helping you
Incorrect: I hope you appreciate me helping you
Harass (p) Preferred (UK): Har'ass
Kilometre (p) Correct: Kilo'metre (as in kilo'gram)
Incorrect: Kil-om'etre
Medicine (p) Preferred (UK): Med-sin
Merrily group (p) So named because of the incorrect pronunciation of words such as temporarily, militarily, primarily etc.
Preferred (UK): tem'por-aly, mil'it-arily, prim'-arily [as opposed to tem-por-ar'ily etc]
Militarily (p) See Merrily group
Moment In Time (g) Correct: At this moment
Incorrect: At this moment in time
Correct: At this point in time
Negotiate (p) Preferred: Neg-osh'iate
Neither (g) Should take a singular verb
None (g) As a safe and general rule it should take a singular verb
Primarily (p) See Merrily group
Railway Station (u) Whatever happened to the Railway Station? We only seem to have Train Stations now!
Royal Navy (u) The adjectival form is Royal Naval (not Royal Navy!) as in Royal Naval Officer, ship etc.
Secretary (p) Preferred (UK): Sec're-tary
Temporarily (p) See Merrily group
Their They’re There (u,s) They're on their own again. There are several reasons for their unpopularity
To and Too (u,s) On too many occasions, it is just too awful to have to see incorrect use of these words.
Too bad. Too many. To give to. To be too nice

Your comments are welcome

© Copyright 2002, G K Garwood