U is for Usage

From 1964 to 1996, I got up every weekday morning at 5:30 and headed out the door for either Pascagoula (MS) High School, Jackson County (MS) Junior College or Woodham (Pensacola, FL) High School to endeavor to teach young people grammar, composition, vocabulary, and literature. I loved those years! I was probably a bit different from most English teachers (today they’re called language arts teachers) because what I wanted to teach the most wasn’t literature, though I loved teaching that part of English. No, I wanted to teach grammar, and I wanted my students to learn to love grammar as much as I did. I doubt that I was as successful as I wanted to be; however, most of them at least increased their knowledge of grammar while they were I my class.

This is the book that I taught from (I know it’s supposed to be “from which I taught,” but I don’t always follow the rules.) for many of my thirty-two years in the classroom . . .

 But I taught from the book labeled either “Fourth Course” or “Complete Course,” depending on whether I was teaching tenth or twelfth grade students. John Warriner was a master at composing grammar books . . . the best! Chapter 10, “Glossary of Usage,” was my favorite chapter, and we had a great time with it because it was full of usage problems that they didn’t even know were problems. I hope they remembered just a little bit of what we worked with. Today, I hear every day errors in the following usage problems, and I cringe when I hear mistakes by people who are supposed to be educated. Maybe they were absent when their teachers taught Chapter 10.

Anyway . . . here are some usage problems that are still prevalent today:

amount, number – Use amountto refer to a singular word; use numberto refer to a plural word.

            A large amount of money was in the drawer.

            A large number of coins were in the drawer.

bad, badly –Bad is an adjective, modifying nouns and pronouns; badlyis an adverb, modifying verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

            She feels very bad about her failure.

            The stockyards smell bad.

bring, take – Use bringwhen the meaning is to convey something to the person speaking.Use take when the meaning is to convey something away from the person speaking.

            When you come back, bring your textbooks, pencils, and paper.

            Will you please take this note to your father when you go home?

fewer, less – Fewer is used before a plural noun;lessis used before a singular noun.

            There were fewer guests at the last party.

            We took in less money tonight.

nauseated, nauseous – Nauseatedmeans “sick.” Nauseousmeans “disgusting, sickening.”

            After eating too much rich food, the child became nauseated.

            The nauseous odor of dead fish overwhelmed us.

These are not nearly all of the usage errors that bother this old English teacher, but I won’t go any further. There are also some usage errors that are more easily seen in writing: accept and except, affect and effect, and others. But enough is enough! I feel better after pointing out these errors in usage.

Just because I know when these words should be used doesn’t mean that I always use them correctly. Some of them require some thought, and sometimes my “thinker” doesn’t get activated quickly enough to catch errors. Maybe you have the same problem.