Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words - Bill Bryson [31]
flounder, founder. Founder means to sink, either literally (as with a ship) or figuratively (as with a project). Flounder means to flail helplessly. It too can be used literally (as with someone struggling in deep water) or figuratively (as with a nervous person making an impromptu speech).
Fogg, Phileas. Not Phogg, not Phineas, for the character in Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days.
forbear, forebear. The first is a verb meaning to cease or refrain from. The second is a noun and means ancestor.
forbid, prohibit. The words have the same meaning, but the construction of sentences often dictates which should be used. In prepositional constructions, forbid may be followed only by to (“I forbid you to go”). Prohibit may not be followed by to but only by from (“He was prohibited from going”) or by an object noun (“The law prohibits the construction of houses without planning consent”). Thus the following is wrong: “They are forbidden from uttering any public comments” (New York Times). Make it either “They are prohibited from uttering . . .” or “They are forbidden to utter . . .” A small additional point is that forbid’s past-tense form, forbade, has the preferred pronunciation “for-bad,” not “for-bade.”
forceful, forcible, forced. Forcible indicates the use of brute force (“forcible entry”). Forceful suggests a potential for force (“forceful argument,” “forceful personality”). Forced can be used for forcible (as in “forced entry”) but more often is reserved for actions that are involuntary (“forced march”) or that occur under strain (“forced laughter,” “forced landing”).
forego, forgo. Commonly confused, as here: “The independents must destroy all documents obtained during the case and agree to forego any further litigation against the chains for three years” (International Herald Tribune). Forego means to go before, to precede. To do without is to forgo.
forgather. “Wherever people foregather, one hears two kinds of talk” (Simon, Paradigms Lost). Although foregather is not incorrect, the more usual spelling is forgather. A separate question is whether forgather adds anything that gather alone wouldn’t say, apart from a creak of antiquity.
former, latter. Former, properly used, should refer only to the first of two things and latter to the second of two things. Both words, since they require the reader to hark back to an earlier reference, should be used sparingly and only when what they refer to is immediately evident. Few editing shortcomings are more annoying and less excusable than requiring a reader to cover old ground.
fortissimo, fortississimo. The first (abbreviated ff.) means very loud; the second (abbreviated fff.) means as loud as possible.
fortuitous. Not to be confused with fortunate, as it was here: “If Mr. Perella’s merger assignment was mostly chance, it nevertheless was fortuitous” (New York Times). Fortuitous means accidental or by chance, so this sentence is telling us that Mr. Perella’s assignment was not only mostly chance, it was also entirely chance. A fortuitous occurrence may or may not be a fortunate one.
fraction. “The gold recovered so far may represent only a fraction of the total hoard” (Sunday Times). A few careful users continue to maintain that fraction in the sense of a small part, as in the example, is ambiguous: 99⁄100 is also a fraction but hardly a negligible part. The looser usage, however, has been around for at least three hundred years (Shakespeare uses it in Troilus and Cressida) and is unlikely to be misunderstood in most contexts. Even so, it would be more precise to say “a small part” or “a tiny part.” See also PERCENTAGE, PROPORTION.
Frankfurt am Main is the formal name of the German city that serves as the nation’s financial center.