Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words - Bill Bryson [56]
Whichever tack you take, you should at least be consistent throughout the sentence. Here is one in which the writer went to some lengths to get the pronouns right before abruptly self-destructing just short of home: “Anyone who does confess to being a Sedaka fan does so with the guarded reluctance of one edging out of the closet, fearing he or she will be made immediate targets of fun” (Sunday Times). It should be “an immediate target of fun.”
5. Errors involving the word “number.” There is frequent confusion over whether to use a plural or singular verb with the noun number. Both of the following examples come from the same issue of The Times. Both are wrong. “Mr. Isaacs said a substantial number of households was inhabited today not by the conventional family group, but by single tenants”; “A small, but increasing number of individuals is apparently buying secondhand British Rail coaches.” There is an easy way out of the confusion. Always make it “The number was . . .” but “A number were . . .” The same rule applies to TOTAL.
numbers in text. “For more than a 1,000 years, the Venetians have laboured to preserve the delicate balance of their watery domain” (Independent); “Fugly has become the most impounded mutt in Australia with over a 100 convictions” (Independent). When numbers to a power of ten, such as these, are written out, they mean “one hundred,” “one thousand,” and so on. Putting an indefinite article in front of them is to say in effect “a one thousand years” or “a one hundred convictions.” Make it “a thousand years” or “1,000 years,” or “a hundred convictions” or “100 convictions,” but don’t combine the two.
numskull, not numbskull, is the preferred spelling.
Nuremberg (German Nürnberg) for the Bavarian city. Not -burg.
O
O, oh. O is confined almost exclusively to religious and poetic contexts. By convention it is always capitalized and never followed by punctuation. Thus if rendering a prayer you would write: “O Lord, who has drawn over weary day the restful veil of night. . . .” Oh is used in all other senses and is normally set off with a comma or commas: “We hunted for him for, oh, seven hours”; “Oh, I think it was a green car.” If a sentence employs a reverential word but is not actually reverential in intent, use oh, as in “Oh, god, I think she’s spotted me” or “Oh, lord, I don’t remember his name.”
oblivious. Fowler, Partridge, and the OED, among others, long maintained that oblivious can mean only forgetful. You cannot properly be oblivious of something that you were not in the first place aware of. But in its broader sense of merely being unaware or impervious, oblivious is now accepted universally.
obsolete, obsolescent. Things that are no longer used or needed are obsolete. Things that are becoming obsolete are obsolescent.
obviate does not mean to reduce or make more acceptable, it means to make unnecessary.
occur, take place. Take place is better reserved for scheduled events. When what is being described is accidental, occur is the better word, as it would have been here: “The accident took place in driving rain” (Guardian).
off of is redundant. Write “Get off the table,” not “Get off of the table.”
Oireachtas for the Irish legislature, consisting of the President and the two assemblies, the Dáil Éireann and Seanad. It is pronounced “ur'-AKH-tus.”
Old Peculier, not Peculiar, for the English beer.
Olympic-sized swimming pool. “. . . and in fitting movie star fashion, the grounds include an Olympic-sized swimming pool” (Mail on Sunday). An official Olympics swimming pool is fifty meters long. Virtually no private person,