İngilizce'deki En Sık Yanlışlar 7

REACTIONARY/REACTIVE

Many people incorrectly use “reactionary” to mean “acting in response to some outside stimulus.” That’s reactive. “Reactionary” actually has a very narrow meaning; it is a noun or adjective describing a form of looking backward that goes beyond conservatism (wanting to prevent change and maintain present conditions) to reaction—wanting to recreate a lost past. The advocates of restoring Czarist rule in Russia are reactionaries. While we’re on the subject, the term “proactive” formed by analogy with “reactive” seems superfluous to many of us. Use “active,” “assertive,” or “positive” whenever you can instead.


REAL/REALLY

The correct adverbial form is “really” rather than “real”; but even that form is generally confined to casual speech, as in “When you complimented me on my speech I felt really great!” To say “real great” instead moves the speaker several steps downscale socially. However “really” is a feeble qualifier. “Wonderful” is an acceptable substitute for “really great” and you can give a definite upscale slant to your speech by adopting the British “really quite wonderful.” Usually, however, it is better to replace the expression altogether with something more precise: “almost seven feet tall” is better than “really tall.” To strive for intensity by repeating “really” as in “that dessert you made was really, really good” demonstrates an impoverished vocabulary.

REBELLING/REVOLTING

Even though “rebel” and “revolt” mean more or less the same thing, people who are revolting are disgusting, not taking up arms against the government.


    
REBUT/REFUTE

When you rebut someone’s argument you argue against it. To refute someone’s argument is to prove it incorrect. Unless you are certain you have achieved success, use “rebut.”


RECENT/RESENT

There are actually three words to distinguish here. “Recent,” always pronounced with an unvoiced hissy S and with the accent on the first syllable, means “not long ago,” as in, “ I appreciated your recent encouragement.” “Resent” has two different meanings with two different pronunciations, both with the accent on the second syllable. In the most common case, where “resent” means “feel annoyed at,” the word is pronounced with a voiced Z sound: “I resent your implication that I gave you the chocolates only because I was hoping you’d share them with me.” In the less common case, the word means “to send again,” and is pronounced with an unvoiced hissy S sound: “The e-mail message bounced, so I resent it.” So say the intended word aloud. If the accent is on the second syllable, “resent” is the spelling you need.


REGARD/REGARDS

Business English is deadly enough without scrambling it. “As regards your downsizing plan . . .” is acceptable, if stiff. “In regard to” “and “with regard to” are also correct. But “in regards to” is nonstandard. You can also convey the same idea with “in respect to” or “with respect to.”


REIGN/REIN

A king or queen reigns, but you rein in a horse. The expression “to give rein” means to give in to an impulse as a spirited horse gives in to its impulse to gallop when you slacken the reins. Similarly, the correct expression is “free rein,” not “free reign."

REPEL/REPULSE

In most of their meanings these are synonyms, but if you are disgusted by someone, you are repelled, not repulsed. The confusion is compounded by the fact that “repellent” and “repulsive” mean the same thing. Go figure.


RESISTER/RESISTOR

A resistor is part of an electrical circuit; a person who resists something is a “resister."


RIFFLE/RIFLE

To rifle something is to steal it. The word also originally had the sense of “to search thoroughly,” often with intent to steal. But if you are casually flipping through some papers, you riffle through them. You never “rifle through” anything.


ROLE/ROLL

An actor plays a role. Bill Gates is the entrepreneur’s role model. But you eat a sausage on a roll and roll out the barrel. To take attendance, you call the roll.


ROLLOVER/ROLL OVER

A rollover used to be only a serious highway accident, but in the computer world this spelling has also been used to label a feature on a Web page which reacts in some way when you roll the ball inside a mouse or a trackball over it without having to click. It also became an adjective, as in “rollover feature.” However, when giving users instructions, the correct verb form is “roll over”—two words: “roll over the photo of our dog to see his name pop up.”

Since most people now use either optical mice or trackpads the term “rollover” has become technically obsolete, but it persists.


ROOT/ROUT/ROUTE

You can root for your team (cheer them on) and hope that they utterly smash their opponents (create a rout), then come back in triumph on Route 27 (a road).

SACRED/SCARED

This is one of those silly typos which your spelling checker won’t catch: gods are sacred, the damned in Hell are scared.

SAIL/SALE/SELL

These simple and familiar words are surprisingly often confused in writing. You sail a boat which has a sail of canvas. You sell your old fondue pot at a yard sale.


SAY/TELL

You say “Hello, Mr. Chips” to the teacher, and then tell him about what you did last summer. You can’t “tell that” except in expressions like "go tell that to your old girlfriend."

SEAM/SEEM

“Seem” is the verb, “seam” the noun. Use “seam” only for things like the line produced when two pieces of cloth are sewn together or a thread of coal in a geological formation.

SAW/SEEN

In standard English, it’s “I” ve seen” not “I” ve saw.” The helping verb "have” (abbreviated here to “” ve” ) requires “seen.” In the simple past (no helping verb), the expression is “I saw,” not “I seen.” “I” ve seen a lot of ugly cars, but when I saw that old beat-up Rambler I couldn’t believe my eyes."


SELECT/SELECTED

“Select” means “special, chosen because of its outstanding qualities.” If you are writing an ad for a furniture store offering low prices on some of its recliners, call them “selected recliners,” not “select recliners,” unless they are truly outstanding and not just leftovers you’re trying to move out of the store.


    
SENSE/SINCE

“Sense” is a verb meaning “feel” (“I sense you near me”) or a noun meaning “intelligence” (“have some common sense!”). Don’t use it when you need the adverb “since” (“since you went away,” “since you’re up anyway, would you please let the cat out?”).


SERVICE/SERVE

A mechanic services your car and a stallion services a mare; but most of the time when you want to talk about the goods or services you supply, the word you want is “serve": “Our firm serves the hotel industry."

SETUP/SET UP

Technical writers sometimes confuse “setup” as a noun ("check the setup” ) with the phrase “set up” ("set up the experiment” ).

SHEAR/SHEER

You can cut through cloth with a pair of shears, but if the cloth is translucent it’s sheer. People who write about a “shear blouse” do so out of sheer ignorance.

SILICON/SILICONE

Silicon is a chemical element, the basic stuff of which microchips are made. Silicones are plastics and other materials containing silicon, the most commonly discussed example being silicone breast implants. Less used by the general public is “silica“: an oxide of silicon.


SOAR/SORE

By far the more common word is “sore” which refers to aches, pains and wounds: sore feet, sore backs, sores on your skin. The more unusual word used to describe the act of gliding through the air or swooping up toward the heavens is spelled ”soar.” This second word is often used metaphorically: eagles, spirits, and prices can all soar. If you know your parts of speech, just keep in mind that “soar” is always a verb, and “sore” can be either a noun (“running sore”) or an adjective (“sore loser”) but never a verb. In archaic English “sore” could also be an adverb meaning “sorely” or “severely”: “they were sore afraid.”


SOLE/SOUL

The bottom of your foot is your sole; your spirit is your soul.


SOMETIME/SOME TIME

"Let's get together sometime." When you use the one-word form, it suggests some indefinite time in the future. "Some time" is not wrong in this sort of context, but it is required when being more specific: "Choose some time that fits in your schedule." "Some" is an adjective here modifying "time." The same pattern applies to "someday" (vague) and "some day" (specific).


SPECIALLY/ESPECIALLY

In most contexts “specially” is more common than “especially,” but when you mean “particularly” “especially” works better: “I am not especially excited about inheriting my grandmother’s neurotic Siamese cat.” “Especial” in the place of “special” is very formal and rather old-fashioned.


SPECIE/SPECIES

In both the original Latin and in English “species” is the spelling of both the singular and plural forms. Amphiprion ocellaris is one species of clownfish. Many species of fish are endangered by overfishing.

Specie is a technical term referring to the physical form of money, particularly coins.


STAID/STAYED

“Staid” is an adjective often used to label somebody who is rather stodgy and dull, a stick-in-the mud.” But in modern English the past tense of the verb “stay” is “stayed”: “I stayed at the office late hoping to impress my boss.”


SUIT/SUITE

Your bedroom suite consists of the bed, the nightstand, and whatever other furniture goes with it. Your pajamas would be your bedroom suit.


SULKING/SKULKING

That guy sneaking furtively around the neighborhood is skulking around; that teenager brooding in his bedroom because he got grounded is sulking. “Sulking around” is not a traditional phrase.


SUMMARY/SUMMERY

When the weather is warm and summery and you don’t feel like spending a lot of time reading that long report from the restructuring committee, just read the summary.


SWAM/SWUM

The regular past tense of “swim” is “swam”: “I swam to the island.” However, when the word is preceded by a helping verb, it changes to “swum”: “I’ve swum to the island every day.” The “’ve” stands for “have,” a helping verb.


STAND/STANCE

When you courageously resist opposing forces, you take—or make—a stand. The metaphor is a military one, with the defending forces refusing to flee from the attacker. Your stance, on the other hand, is just your position—literal or figurative—which may not be particularly militant. A golfer wanting to improve her drives may adopt a different stance, or your stance on cojack may be that it doesn’t belong on a gourmet cheese platter; but if you organize a group to force the neighbors to get rid of the hippo they’ve tethered in their front yard, you’re taking a stand.

SO / VERY

Originally people said things like, “I was so delighted with the wrapping that I couldn’t bring myself to open the package.” But then they began to lazily say “You made me so happy,” no longer explaining just how happy that was. This pattern of using “so” as a simple intensifier meaning “very” is now standard in casual speech, but is out of place in formal writing, where “very” or another intensifier works better. Without vocal emphasis, the “so” conveys little in print.


SARCASTIC/IRONIC

Not all ironic comments are sarcastic. Sarcasm is meant to mock or wound. Irony can be amusing without being maliciously aimed at hurting anyone.

    
SPADED/SPAYED

If you’ve had your dog surgically sterilized, you’ve spayed it; save the spading until it dies.