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both . . . and. “He was both deaf to argument and entreaty” (cited by Gowers). The rule involved here is that of correlative conjunctions, which states that in a sentence of this type, both and and should link grammatically similar entities. If both is followed immediately by a verb, and should also be followed immediately by a verb. If both immediately precedes a noun, then so should and. In the example above, however, both is followed by an adjective (deaf) and and by a noun (entreaty). The sentence needs to be recast, either as “He was deaf to both argument [noun] and entreaty [noun]” or as “He was deaf both to argument [preposition and noun] and to entreaty [preposition and noun].”

The rule holds true equally for other such pairs: not only . . . but also, either . . . or, and neither . . . nor.

bottleneck, as Gowers notes, is a useful, if sometimes overused, metaphor to indicate a point of constriction. But it should not be forgotten that it is a metaphor and therefore capable of cracking when put under too much pressure. To speak, for instance, of “a worldwide bottleneck” or “a growing bottleneck” sounds a note of absurdity. Bottlenecks, even figurative ones, don’t grow, and they don’t encompass the earth.

bouillabaisse. Not -illi-.

bravado should not be confused with bravery. It is a swaggering or boastful display of boldness, often adopted to disguise an underlying timidity. It is, in short, a false bravery, and there is nothing courageous about it.

breach, breech. Frequently confused. Breach describes an infraction or a gap. It should always suggest break, a word to which it is related. Breech applies to the rear or lower portion of things. The main expressions are breach of faith (or promise), breech delivery, breeches buoy, breechcloth, and breech-loading gun.

Britannia, Britannic, but Brittany for the region (formerly a province) of France. The song is “Rule, Britannia,” with a comma.

British Guiana is the former name of the South American country now known as Guyana (see GUIANA, GUYANA).

BSE is short for bovine spongiform encephalopathy. It is more commonly known as mad cow disease.

buenos dias (for good day or hello in Spanish), but buenas (not -os) noches (good night) and buenas tardes (good afternoon).

buffalo. The plural can be either buffalo or buffaloes.

buoy. Though this book does not generally address matters of pronunciation, I cannot resist pointing out that the increasing tendency to pronounce this word “boo-ee” is mistaken and misguided. Unless you would say “boo-ee-ant” for buoyant, please return to pronouncing it “boy.”

burgeon does not mean merely to expand or thrive. It means to bud or sprout, to come into being. For something to burgeon, it must be new. Thus it would be correct to talk about the burgeoning talent of a precocious youth, but to write of “the ever-burgeoning population of Cairo” (Daily Telegraph) is wrong. Cairo’s population has been growing for centuries, and nothing, in any case, is ever-burgeoning.

Burma, Myanmar. The first is the former official name of the southeast Asian nation and the one now preferred by most publications and other informed users outside Burma. Myanmar was for a time used by many publications, but now its use is confined mostly to the country’s government and institutions under its influence.

but used negatively after a pronoun presents a problem that has confounded careful users for generations. Do you say, “Everyone but him had arrived” or “Everyone but he had arrived”? The authorities themselves are divided.

Some regard but as a preposition and put the pronoun in the accusative—i.e., me, her, him, or them. So just as we say, “Give it to her” or “between you and me,” we should say, “Everyone but him had arrived.”

Others argue that but is a conjunction and that the pronoun should be nominative (I, she, he, or they), as if the sentence were saying, “Everyone had arrived, but he had not.”

The answer perhaps is to regard but sometimes as a conjunction and sometimes as a preposition. Two rough rules should help.