Editor's Corner

Good afternoon, fellow travelers. I was reviewing some of the questions I have tucked away in my mailbox, and here are some questions I get a lot:

• Why did you use the word “whether” instead of “if”?
• Aren’t “whether” and “if” interchangeable in this sentence?
• What is the rule about using one instead of the other?

What is the rule? Well, we’ve been doing this for some time now, and you must know that there is never just one rule! Here are a few rules to help you navigate the rough seas of English, from BizWritingTip.com:

1. If you are expressing a simple condition, use “if.”

   Examples
   If you can’t attend, please let us know. (Contact us only if you can’t attend.)

   If you are going to attend, do you want to carpool? (We won’t expect to carpool, if you are not going.)

2. Use “whether” if there are two alternatives—even if the alternative is only implied.

   Examples
   Please let us know whether you can attend. (You should let us know your plans either way.)

   Let’s discuss whether this is the right thing to do—or not.

3. Use “whether” after the infinitive form of a verb. (These are the verbs beginning with “to.”)

   Examples
   I am trying to decide whether I should work overtime.

   I need to know whether we can hire a part-time person for the summer.

4. “Whether” and “if” are interchangeable if the answer would be yes or no.

   Examples

   She tried to remember whether she had replied to his email. (Yes, she did.)

   She tried to remember if she had replied to his email. (Yes, she did.)

5. “Whether” and “if” are interchangeable in “whether/or” or “if/or” constructions.

   Examples

   I would like to know if the figures are accurate or they are estimates.

   I would like to know whether the figures are accurate or they are estimates.

Note: “Whether” is considered the more formal word. If you are writing a report or a formal letter and have the option of using “whether” or “if” (rules 4 and 5), I would use “whether.” If you are writing an email or an informal letter and have the option, then use “if.”

Kara Church
Senior Technical Editor
619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773
www.symitar.com

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Today’s word for a certain type of other words is demonym. No, it isn’t another way to call someone a devil; demonym is derived from the Greek word for populace (demos) plus the suffix for name (-onym). A demonym, also referred to as a gentilic, is the name for a resident of a locality. For example, a resident of Seattle is a Seattleite; a resident of New England is a New Englander.

In English, we have many different ways to form demonyms for other countries, states, and cities. Here are a few common suffixes and examples, and some irregular demonyms toward the end, but for a much heftier list see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonym.

-(a)n

• Hungary → Hungarian
• Utah → Utahn

-ian

• Brazil → Brazilian
• Calgary → Calgarian

-nian

• Panama → Panamanian
• Toronto → Torontonian

-in(e)

• Argentina → Argentine
• Florence → Florentine

-ite

• Denver → Denverite
• Wisconsin → Wisconsinite

-(e)r

• Amsterdam → Amsterdammer

• Auckland → Aucklander
• Netherlands → Netherlander

-(l)ese

• Aragon → Aragonese
• Benin → Beninese
• Bhutan → Bhutanese
• Congo → Congolese
• East Timor → East Timorese

-i

• Somalia → Somali (not Somalian)
• Tajikistan → Tajikistani (also "Tajik")
• Yemen → Yemeni
• United Arab Emirates → United Arab Emirati
• Uzbekistan → Uzbekistani (also "Uzbek")

Irregular

• Liverpool → Liverpudlian
• Lyons → Lyonnais (from French)
• Mumbai → Mumbaikar (either gender)
• Naples → Napoletano/a
• Nice → Niçois
• Parma → Parmesan in English, Parmigiano in Italian
• Bali → Balinese
• Chechnya → Chechen
• Denmark → Dane
• Isle of Man → Manx

Kara Church
Senior Technical Editor
619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773
www.symitar.com

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A few weeks ago, someone asked me about some of the idiomatic phrases she’s heard and where they come from. The particular example was “butter (you/me/we) up.” I have tried to find the origin, but to no avail. Most of my resources just define the phrase, but don’t provide any (believable) explanation. I did stumble across a site that offers explanations for some phrases. Follow me in my time machine to this article from listverse:

Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride
This phrase, surprisingly, was used to sell Listerine mouthwash! To promote their product, the manufacturers of Listerine employed the personal experience of girls at the time, who desperately wanted to settle down but seemed always to be left on the shelf. First used in the 1920s, it portrays a situation and a possible explanation for the lack of success these girls had. Here is the transcript of the ad:
Poor Edna was getting on for thirty and most of her girlfriends were either already married, or about to tie the knot. How she wished that, instead of being their bridesmaid, she could be the bride! However, any romance of hers invariably ended quickly. There was a reason. Unbeknownst to her, she suffered from bad breath and no one would tell her, not even her closest friends. The advertisement sold millions of bottles of mouthwash and also gave the English language a new saying!

Article and graphic from: listverse

Kara Church
Senior Technical Editor

Good morning! I think congratulations are in order because we’ve all made it this far. This is the last of the homonym sets from the Spelling, Vocabulary, and Confusing Words list. The “X” and “Z” categories are empty, so we’ll finish up with the letter “Y.” I may have added a little to one of the definitions. 🙂

yoke harness for oxen; the word “joke” as pronounced by someone with a Swedish accent
yolk yellow center of an egg

yore long past
you’re contraction for you are
your possessive pronoun

Kara Church
Senior Technical Editor

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Today’s writing tip is about compound possessive subjects.

What is a compound subject? It is a subject that consists of two or more simple subjects that have the same predicate. In other words, it is several nouns that share the same verb. By adding possession to the mix (that sometimes tricky apostrophe s), people start to panic, and often end up with subjects and verb tenses that disagree. Let’s have a look at some examples and you’ll see what I mean.

When the subject (a single noun) owns something, the apostrophe s is placed after the noun:

• Lucrezia’s necklace
• Buster’s pork chop

When the subject is compound (two or more nouns) and both own the same thing, the apostrophe s is placed after the last noun:

• Lucrezia and Amalie’s necklace (two owners, one necklace)
• Buster and Bella’s pork chop (two dogs, one pork chop = trouble)
• Lacey, Alicia, and Maggie’s hobby shop (three owners, one shop)
• The stein was Tony and Edith’s. (one stein, two owners)

If each part of the compound subject owns different things, then the apostrophe s must be added to each:

• Lucrezia’s and Amalie’s necklaces (two owners, two necklaces)
• Buster’s and Bella’s pork chops (two dogs, two pork chops = peace)
• Lacey’s, Alicia’s, and Maggie’s hobby shops (three owners, three shops)
• The steins were Tony’s and Edith’s. (two steins, two owners)

When personal pronouns are used (I, you, he, she, we,or they) the situation is a bit different; the apostrophe s goes on the noun only, and the noun should come first.

• Lucrezia’s and her necklace (noun first, pronoun second)
• Buster’s and my pork chop (noun first, pronoun second)
• Lacey’s, Alicia’s, and her hobby shops (nouns first, pronoun second)
• The stein is Tony’s and hers. (noun first, pronoun second)

For a short quiz and more information, see English Grammar Revolution.

Kara Church
Senior Technical Editor
619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773
www.symitar.com

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Is it really Monday today?

Last week’s e-mail about pronunciation brought some interesting responses. I’m with many of you—I think the writer of the article could stand to be less bossy and she needs to get out more. Paraphrasing what a coworker said, “If I pronounced forte as fort, my friends would correct me and think I’d lost it.”

Today we’ll do some homonym pairs and trios, which are pronounced the same regardless of spelling. Note: Words covered in earlier lists have been removed, for example: one and won, rap and wrap. From Spelling, Vocabulary, and Confusing Words:

wade to walk through water
weighed to have put on a scale

wail mournful cry
whale marine mammal

waist narrowest part of the human torso (usually) [KC – Good thing she threw in the “usually.” ]
waste to squander or spend uselessly

wait to be available or ready
weight quantity of heaviness or mass [KC – What is this? The list of nagging homonyms? Weighed, weight, waist…I get it!]

waiver a relinquishment of some right
waver to feel indecisive; vary

warrantee person who is given a written guarantee
warranty written guarantee
manatee large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows
[KC – What a great mascot! The San Diego Sea Cows!]

way direction
weigh to measure mass [KC – You’ve got to be kidding me.]

weak lacking strength
week seven days starting with Sunday

wear to carry on the body
where in what place?

weather state of the atmosphere in a location
whether if

weave to interlace thread or yarn to make a fabric
we’ve contraction for we have

were past tense of are
we’re contraction for we are

wheeled moved on wheels
wield to exercise power; to handle a weapon effectively

which what one?
witch sorceress

while during or in the time that
wile a trick to fool, trap, or entice

whine complaining cry
wine fermented grape juice that becomes an alcoholic beverage

whined past tense of whine, complained
wind what one does to keep a watch ticking on time (pronounced like kind); air current (pronounced like sinned)
wined to supply with wine

whirled spun rapidly
world planet Earth
whorled shaped like a coil

who’s contraction for who is
Example: Who’s at the door?

whose possessive case of who
Example: Whose coat is this?

wood tree trunk material
would expressing an intention

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/outposts/2009/01/florida-manatee.html

Kara Church
Senior Technical Editor
619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773
www.symitar.com

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Happy Friday! Today’s topic, paraporsdokians, is a suggestion from Robert in ImageCenter R&D.

A paraprosdokian is a figure of speech where the end of a sentence or phrase is unexpected and causes the reader to reinterpret the first part.

Some examples are:

If I agreed with you we’d both be wrong.

A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.

The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it’s still on the list.

Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

Some people are like Slinkys®…not really good for anything, but you can’t help smiling when you see one tumble down the stairs.

Evening news is where they being with “Good evening”, then they proceed to tell you why it isn’t.

When tempted to fight fire, remember that the fire department usually uses water.

Hospitality: Making your guests feel like they’re at home, even when you wish they were.

There’s a fine line between cuddling and holding someone down so they can’t get away.

For more paraprosdokian fun, click the following link:

http://www.paraprosdokianfun.com/

Thanks for the suggestion Robert!

Thank you,

Jackie Solano

Technical Writer, Episys Technical Publications

Symitar®

8985 Balboa Avenue

San Diego, California 92123

Direct Line: 619-542-6711

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Correction
In yesterday’s Editor’s Corner I thanked two people for sending the list of heteronyms: Ron Harman and Mark. Ron Harman, the Education Manager of Enterprise Payment Solutions (EPS), was the sender. Mark Harmon, actor, was part of my daydream. 🙂 My apologies to those I confused.

Incorrect Pronunciations
I remember when I was a kid, my dad sometimes asked me to read newspaper articles to him. One day, I was sitting on the stairs in our living room with the front page of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in my hands. I was reading an article about some crime that had been committed, and I cruised right along through the word indicted—only I pronounced it “in-dik-ted.” He knew exactly what I meant and said, “Actually that word is pronounced ‘in-dite-ed,’ with a hard ‘e’ and silent ‘c.’” I was ticked off! How could there be a silent “c”? The Electric Company and Sesame Street never covered that!

The following list of incorrect pronunciations is part of a list from Daily Writing Tips. I must say that there are several of them that I am guilty of, especially when talking too quickly. You can take these or leave them—I like listening to different accents and regional pronunciations. I also think I might go medieval (MED-EE-EEVAL) on the writer if she told me to say miniature (MIN-I-A-TURE) with four syllables. 🙂

50 Incorrect Pronunciations That You Should Avoid
by Maeve Maddox
Fred Astaire drew laughs back in the Thirties with his song “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” in which the lovers can’t agree on the pronunciation of words like either, neither, and tomato.

On a personal level, I cringe when I hear someone sound the “t” in often or pronounce pecan with a short “a,” but I have to acknowledge that both these pronunciations are widely accepted alternate pronunciations that can be justified by the spelling.

Alternate pronunciations, however, are a different matter from out-and-out mispronunciations. The latter, no matter how common, are incorrect, either because of the spelling that indicates another pronunciation, or because of what is widely agreed upon to be conventional usage. Word of caution: I’m writing from an American perspective.

The list is by no means exhaustive, but provides a good start. [KC – Click here
for the complete article.]

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One of our Editor’s Corner readers, Ron Harman, sent this list of sentences for our viewing pleasure. Outside of proving why English can be hard to learn, the list also demonstrates some of the words we’ve learned recently. For example, the first sentence involves capitonyms (pronunciation and meaning change when polish is capitalized as Polish), but polish and Polish are also heteronyms (different meanings, different pronunciation, same spelling). There’s a color chart of these terms here, though it might confuse more than enlighten.

Now, without further ado:

Read the statements below out loud.

• We must polish the Polish furniture.
• He could lead if he would get the lead out.
• The farm was used to produce produce.
• The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
• The soldier decided to desert in the desert.
• This was a good time to present the present.
• A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
• When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
• I did not object to the object.
• The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
• The bandage was wound around the wound.
• There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
• They were too close to the door to close it.
• The buck does funny things when the does are present.
• They sent a sewer down to stitch the tear in the sewer line.
• To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
• The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
• After a number of injections my jaw got number.
• Upon seeing the tear in my clothes I shed a tear.
• I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
• How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Thank you for the contribution, Mark!

Kara Church
Senior Technical Editor
619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773
www.symitar.com

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I was going to introduce this as today’s “quick and dirty tip,” but I guess it’s not really quick, nor is it dirty. Goodness gracious, it isn’t all Greek, either! The word capitonym is a combination of capit– (English capital, from Latin caput meaning head) + nym (Greek for name, word). A capitonym is a word that changes its meaning (and sometimes pronunciation) when it is capitalized. For more information and an unedited chart of capitonyms, see Wikipedia. For the abbreviated version, see the table below.

Kara Church
Senior Technical Editor
619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773
www.symitar.com

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