A recent "obituary for the English Language" in the Washington Post inspired our Frank Reust to do a checkup on the patient here. Reust directs the news and features copy editors at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and STLtoday.com
What follows is a posting Reust shared with staffers on the intranet bulletin board:
Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten wrote a tongue-in-cheek obituary for the English language in Sunday's paper.
In a follow-up, he compiled specific errors that drive readers crazy: "the most frequently mentioned, and intensely loathed, illiteracy."
A search for these phrases in the P-D archive from 2000 to today finds we sometimes get it right and sometimes get it wrong. Below is Weingarten's list (he started with the most hated phrases), how many times the phrase appeared in our archive and the right way to do it.
The aim here is to point out common errors in writing.
1. Went missing
P-D: 274
Right way: disappeared, vanished, can't be found, is/are missing
2. For all intensive purposes
P-D: 0
Right way: For all intents and purposes
3. predominately
P-D: 167, many in quotations
Right way: predominantly
4. should have went
P-D: 4, all in quotations
Right way: should have gone
5. didn't used to ...
P-D: 72
Right way: didn't use to ...
6. restauranteur
P-D: 7
Right way: restaurateur
7. "loose," as the opposite of "win"
P-D: Can't figure
Right way: lose
8. A mute point
P-D: 0
Right way: moot point (correctly used 144 times since 2000)
9. "amount" used to describe countable objects
P-D: Can't figure
Right way: "Number" is a better way to describe countable objects. "Amount" should be reserved for totals.
10. bicep
P-D: 78, sometimes in quotes
Right way: biceps is singular and plural; also goes for triceps, quadriceps
11. get ahold of
P-D: 36
Right way: get hold of, get a hold of
12. snuck
P-D: 190
Right way: sneaked
13. if I would have known...
P-D: 13, almost always in quotes
Right way: If I had known
14. "your welcome" when it should be "you're welcome"
P-D: 0
15. anyways
P-D: 24, almost always in quotes
Right way: anyway; also applies to forward, backward, toward
16. reigned in, free reign
P-D: reign in: 118, quick look found most were wrong, some were correct usage (the Cardinals' reign in the NL Central)
P-D: free reign: 22
Right way: rein in, free rein; think horses
