Editor's Corner

In place of a quiz today, we’re going to go over something that is tough for many people, including yours truly. I am hoping that sharing this information might help all of you who’ve asked about “lie” and “lay,” and maybe sear it into my brain while I type it. This is the “lay vs. lie chart” and a ton of examples from The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation, by the late Jane Straus.

lay vs. lie chart

Examples in the Present Tense:

I lie down for a nap at 2:00 P.M. everyday.

I am lying down for a nap today.

The hens lay eggs.

The hen is laying eggs.

I am tempted to lie about my age.

I am not lying about my age.

Examples in the Past Tense:

I lay down for a nap yesterday at 2:00 P.M.

The hen laid two eggs yesterday.

He lied on the witness stand.

Examples with a Participle (has, have):

I have lain down for a nap every day this week.

The hen has laid two eggs every day this week.

He has lied each day on the witness stand.

For additional information and more examples, see the Purdue OWL (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/purdueowlnews/535) and read “The Owl’s Nest” article.

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123

I’m skipping the last day of “dis-“ and “mis-” words since I think it’s putting everyone to sleep. For the final five words in the DailyWritingTips article, click here: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/15-dis-words-and-their-relations/

Moving on, today we’ll have a look at the word “blond.” Or is it “blonde”? If you had to suffer—I mean take—four years of French, you’re probably hip to the answer. For those of you who took Spanish, German, or Japanese, here’s the scoop. (Definition from The Grammar Devotional: Daily Tips for Successful Writing from Grammar Girl™, by Mignon Fogarty.)

“The word comes to English from French, in which it has masculine and feminine forms. As an English noun, it kept those two forms; thus, a blond is a fair-haired man and a blonde is a fair-haired woman. When you are using the word as an adjective, there is only one spelling: blond.”

[KC] I’ve written some examples for you:

· They chose a blonde to play the role of Mrs. Tibbles. (noun, female)

· She remembers her husband as a blond, but the children remember their father as grey-haired. (noun, male)

· When Dotty found the long blond hair on the car seat, it reminded her of the fun she and Rosemary had on their road trip. (adjective, neutral)

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123

Our “dis-” and “mis-” list continued from yesterday (courtesy of DailyWritingTips.com*):

Disconnect/Misconnect
To disconnect is to uncouple or unhook. To misconnect is to put together erroneously. (The shared root, connect, is from the Latin word connectere, “to join together.” That word’s root, in turn, is related to nexus, meaning “a link or bond.”)

Discount/Miscount
A discount is a markdown on a price. A miscount is a tabulation made in error. (The source of the root count is the Latin word computare, from which, of course, compute and computer are derived.)

Disinformation/Misinformation
Disinformation is a form or propaganda intended to cover up inconvenient facts and/or sway public opinion. Misinformation is a more neutral term referring merely to incorrect data. (The Latin root they share is formare, which means “to form or shape.”)

Disinterest/Uninterest
These seemingly indistinguishable words sharing the root word interest (from the Latin term interesse, meaning “to be between” or “to make a difference”) have a key difference of connotation: To be disinterested is to have no stake in something, to be impartial, and uninterested denotes the more basis sense of a lack of concern or investment in something.

Dislocate/Mislocate
To dislocate is to put out of place; to mislocate is to misplace, or lose. (Locate is from the Latin word locare, “to place,” and is related to locus, which refers to a site or center.)

*http://www.dailywritingtips.com/15-dis-words-and-their-relations/

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123

Feeling a little dissed by the weather gods? Well, I have 15 more disses for you! From DailyWritingTips.com, the first few “dis-” words from the article 15 “Dis-” Words and Their Relations, by Mark Nichol.

Oh, and a quick refresher:

Synonym – a word that means the same thing as another word. For example, some synonyms for the word “quiet” are silent, tranquil, and inaudible.

Antonym – a word that means the opposite of another word. For example, some antonyms for the word “quiet” are loud, noisy, or piercing.

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Words with the antonymic prefix dis- are easily confused with similar-looking terms starting with mis- or un- that usually have differing connotations or entirely distinct senses. Here are comparative definitions of some of these terms, along with etymological identification:

1-2. Disassemble/Dissemble/Misassemble
The first two words have a shared etymology but distinct meanings. To disassemble originally meant “to disperse” and now means “to take apart,” but to dissemble is to conceal or simulate. The Latin root they share is simulare, which means “to make like or to compare.” (Resemble, semblance, and the like also stem from this word, and similar is closely related.) Dissimulation is dissemble’s more directly descended synonym. To misassemble, meanwhile, is to assemble incorrectly.

3-4. Disassociate/Dissociate
These interchangeable words mean “to separate,” either literally, as in withdrawing from a social group, or figuratively, as in diverging from past behavior. (The common root stems from the Latin term sociare, which means “to join,” from which English derives social, society, and similar words.)

5. Discharge/Mischarge
Discharge means “to release,” “to unload,” or “to perform one’s duties.” Mischarge is a rare word meaning “to make a mistake in charging,” as in loading a weapon. (The root word, charge, is from the Latin term carricare, meaning “to load.”)

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123

It’s the first day of June, and the Chicago Manual of Style has released a new crop of questions and answers. If you’d like to read more, you can go to the original source: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/CMS_FAQ/new/new_questions01.html

Q. I’ve always thought that when you use any as a pronoun it should be treated as singular. But in the following sentences, “Do they all match? Is any missing?” using is feels awkward. Does any in this case refer to they in the previous sentence?

A. Yes, it does. Any can be singular or plural (which I’m sure by now you have learned from checking the dictionary you keep at hand): “Have you checked the pizza? Is any missing?” or “Have you checked the Twinkies? Are any missing?” Both are correct (and around here, most likely missing).

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123

(Please excuse me, my sentence fragments are showing.)

Today’s results? Fantastic—except that I didn’t get a single comment on my reference to Deliverance. 🙂

Out of 104 responses, 102 were for the correct answer: B.

1. Their/there/they’re is a skunk in my laundry room!

2. I can’t wait to see the looks on their/there/they’re faces when they I tell them that pâté was made from cat food.

3. Toady, Cody, and Brodie just called to let us know their/there/they’re going canoeing down the Cahulawassee River.

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123

Since we’ve been on the topic of word confusion, today’s quiz is on there, their, and they’re. These homonyms (words that are pronounced the same, but have different meanings and spellings) can be tricky when you’re writing quickly and typing according to the “voice” in your head. Or am I the only one that hears that?:-)

Read the sentences below and select the correct option. Jot down your answers and select the correct combination of words(using the voting buttons) before noon today. I’ll send the answers and explanations this afternoon.

1. Their/there/they’re is a skunk in my laundry room!

2. I can’t wait to see the looks on their/there/they’re faces when they I tell them that pâté was made from cat food.

3. Toady, Cody, and Brodie just called to let us know their/there/they’re going canoeing down the Cahulawassee River.

A) there/they’re/they’re

B) there/their/they’re

C) they’re/their/they’re

D) their/their/their

E) there/their/their

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123

After I sent the Editor’s Corner yesterday, I received several e-mails asking me to explain “flammable” and “inflammable.” This is a fairly simple definition that won’t require any of us to look up the etymologies or to try and piece together numerous dictionary definitions. This article was written by Simon Kewin for Daily Writing Tips (www.dailywritingtips.com):

Don’t Be Burnt By “Inflammable”

The words “flammable” and “inflammable” mean the same thing: “easily set on fire.” Why is this?

In English, the in- prefix is often used to reverse the meaning of an adjective. Thus inactive is the opposite of active and inelegant is the opposite of elegant. So why isn’t inflammable the opposite of flammable?

The reason is that the in of inflammable is not the prefix meaning “not.” Inflammable derives from the Latin in meaning into and flamma, “a flame.” Flammable derives simply from flamma. Inflammable is thus very close to the word enflame, which has the same origin.

In practice, it can be confusing having two words that sound as if they could be opposites but which actually mean the same thing. It could even be dangerous, if “inflammable” were taken to mean “not flammable.” The Compact Oxford English Dictionary recognizes this and recommends using “flammable” at all times:

“The words flammable and inflammable have the same meaning. It is, however, safer to use flammable to avoid ambiguity, as the in- prefix of inflammable can give the impression that the word means ‘non-flammable’.”

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123

More frequently confused words from Paul Brians’ book, Common Errors in English Usage (http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/irregardless.html)

ATTAIN/OBTAIN

“Attain” means “reach” and “obtain” means “get.” You attain a mountaintop, but obtain a rare baseball card. “Attain” usually implies a required amount of labor or difficulty; nothing is necessarily implied about the difficulty of obtaining that card. Maybe you just found it in your brother’s dresser drawer.

Some things you obtain can also be attained. If you want to emphasize how hard you worked in college, you might say you attained your degree; but if you want to emphasize that you have a valid degree that qualifies you for a certain job, you might say you obtained it. If you just bought it from a diploma mill for fifty bucks, you definitely only obtained it.

AFFLUENCE/EFFLUENCE

Wealth brings affluence; sewage is effluence.

IRREGARDLESS/REGARDLESS

Regardless of what you have heard, “irregardless” is a redundancy. The suffix “-less” on the end of the word already makes the word negative. It doesn’t need the negative prefix “ir-” added to make it even more negative.

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123

Moot vs. Mute

I’ve received more e-mail about this topic than just about anything else, so let’s get into it. The phrase in question is “moot point.”

In America, moot generally means one of the following: insignificant, debatable, of no effect, irrelevant, pointless, purely academic, or hypothetical.

In Britain, well, it’s a little more specific. From Grammar Girl (http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/moot-versus-mute.aspx):

A "moot" was originally a group of lawyers or politicians, and they used items called "moot horns" or "moot bells" to call the assemblies together.

Later, in the 16th century, "moot" started to refer to a group of lawyers or students arguing hypothetical cases. For example, you may have heard of law students participating in something called moot court. When students started doing that, the noun "moot" also started to mean “an argument.” It’s actually used on the title page of the Magna Carta. It reads: With an Almanac and Calendar to know the moots, necessary for all young studiers of the law.

In the 16th century, “moot” also took on a meaning as an adjective that meant an arguable or debatable point, and it still holds on to that meaning in Britain.

For our purposes, when someone in the United States says “it’s a moot point,” I think the indication is that the point is irrelevant—it doesn’t matter.

And then there’s mute. According to our trusty Merriam-Webster Dictionary (http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/unabridged) here are some abbreviated definitions:

· (adjective) characterized by the inability to speak; characterized by absence of speech

· (noun) one that does not speak (also “a device on a musical instrument serving to reduce, soften, or muffle its tone”)

· (transitive verb) to muffle or reduce the sound of; to subdue or tone down (a color)

I imagine a “mute point” is the time in a performance at which the trumpet player sticks a plunger on the end of her instrument.

I haven’t heard much about trumpet or trombone playing in the financial industry, so if you’re going to use the phrase, it’s “a moot point.”

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123