Common Errors (Contd)

Well, this blog is dedicated to my my PRO batch at Aundh. This is my first blog ever since their batch started and I would request them to accept this as an apology for not putting up any relevant stuff for a long time now.


So here it goes for all of you...Sentence correction tips and some common confusables....


1)BORROW OFF/BORROW FROM:

Although in some dialects you can borrow money off a friend, but in standard English you borrow money from a friend.



2)AFFLUENCE/EFFLUENCE:

Wealth brings AFFLUENCE and...wait for it....EFFLUENCE is sewage!!!

3)PARAMOUNT/TANTAMOUNT:

“Paramount” means “best,” “most important.” “Tantamount” means “equivalent.”
“The committee’s paramount concern is to get at the truth; your continued insistence that you don’t remember any of the meetings you attended is tantamount to a confession of incompetence.”

4)PERPETRATE/PERPETUATE:
Perpetrate is to commit or execute or present in a poor tasteless manner. Generally criminals perpetrate or a person can perpetrate a practical joke.
However, Perpetuate is to cause to continue indefinitely or to prolong the existence of something.

5)WANGLE/WRANGLE:

To wrangle means to get into an argument, but to wangle means to obtain by unfair or underhand methods.
Wrangle of course has the other meaning of herding and rounding up cattle and a wrangler means a cowboy (WRANGLER Denimwear etc...rings a bell???)

6)All that Susan wants this semester is a wink and a smile from the cute guy who sits next to her in algebra class.
In the above statement the subject is "All" and that refers to "a wink and a smile". Hence, the corrected version would be "All that Susan wants this semester ARE a wink and a smile from the cute guy who sits next to her in algebra class"

7)Aditya believed that he wrote the best essay of the semester, but when Mrs. Sharma returned the paper, the slashes of red ink and caustic comments immediately changed his opinion of the work.

Now the above sentence has an obvious tense error. The latest action is Mrs Sharma returning the paper and Aditya had finished writing the paper before the second action(So verb is the past participle form). Therefore the correct sentence would be :

"Aditya believed that he HAD WRITTEN the best essay of the semester, but when Mrs. Sharma returned the paper, the slashes of red ink and caustic comments immediately changed his opinion of the work."

8)Alisha will welcome whoever/whomever Rounak picks to join the study group, even if he chooses another beautiful woman.

Notice that all of the verbs already have subjects! The verb "will welcome" has Alisha as its subject; the verb "picks" has Rounak as its subject; and the verb "chooses" has he as its subject. Thus, you need WHOMEVER, the object form!!!

9)At the end of the semester, Mr. Kansal will leave piles of old books outside his office. He gives these outdated editions to whoever/whomever wanders down the hallway and wants a free text.

In this sentence the verbs "wanders" and "wants" are missing a subject, so you need WHOEVER, the subject form!!!

10)An illustrous lineage plays a factor in getting admission into this University.

In this case, there has been the mixture of two often misconstrued idioms...it can either be "is a factor in getting admission." or "plays a role in getting admission."


Well, so that's it from my end for the moment. Will be back in about a couple of days with some idiomatic usage errors. Till then, hit the test gyms and solve as many online tests as possible.
Go break a leg!!!

Common Errors(Contd)

Hello Everyone,
I have been fishing for more and more common errors in the general English that we write and speak and trust me, I feel this can go on forever. I mean, inspite of training for CAT for quite some time now, I still find so many peculiar grammar rules that do not have a reason...it's just the accepted norm or rule. Here are some examples to prove my consternation...COMMON ERRORS-Dose-II....

1)Emphasize on/Emphasis:

You can place emphasis on something, or you can emphasize it; but you can’t emphasize on it or stress on it, though you can place stress on it.

2)Espouse/Expound/Expand:

The meaning of “espouse” is “marry.” When you espouse an idea or cause in public you are proclaiming that you are promoting it as yours.
When you expound an idea you are explaining it. Theoretically you could expound an idea that you don’t personally espouse.

Most of the time in such contexts it would be more appropriate to use “expand on,” which means “to speak at length about.” “Expand” in this sense lacks the systematic analytical connotations of “expound.”
You never “espouse on” an idea; you just espouse it.

3)Lay/Lie:

You lay down the book you’ve been reading, but you lie down when you go to bed. In the present tense, if the subject is acting on some other object, it’s “lay.” If the subject is lying down, then it’s “lie.” This distinction is often not made in informal speech, partly because in the past tense the words sound much more alike: “He lay down for a nap,” but “He laid down the law.” If the subject is already at rest, you might “let it lie.” If a helping verb is involved, you need the past participle forms. “Lie” becomes “lain” and “lay” becomes “laid”: “He had just lain down for a nap,” and “His daughter had laid the gerbil on his nose.”

4)Majority is/Majority are:

“Majority” is one of those words that can be either singular or plural. If you mean the word to describe a collection of individuals, then the word should be treated as plural: “The majority of e-mail users are upset about the increase in spam.” If the word is used to describe a collective group, then consider it singular: “A 90% majority is opposed to scheduling the next meeting at 6:00 A.M.”

5)Ascribe/Subscribe
If you agree with a theory or belief, you subscribe to it, just as you subscribe to a magazine.
However, if you ascribe a belief to someone, you are attributing the belief to that person, perhaps wrongly.

6)Lighted/Lit
Don’t fret over the difference between these two words; they’re interchangeable.

7)Under the guise that/of
My Uncle tried to rob my jewellery under the guise of securing my possessions. There are many other alternatives to this phrase like "excuse that", "under the pretext that", but "under the disguise" requires the preposition "of" , usually followed by a gerund.

8)Within / Among
“Within” means literally “inside of,” but when you want to compare similarities or differences between things you may need “among” instead. It’s not “There are some entertaining movies within the current releases,” but “among the current releases.” But you can use “within” by rewriting the sentence to lump the movies together into a single entity: “There are some entertaining movies within the current batch of releases.” A batch is a single thing, and the individual films that make it up are within it.

9)Sergeant at arms/sergeant of arms
A Serjeant at Arms (also spelled Sergeant at Arms) is an officer appointed by a deliberative body usually a legislature, to keep order during its meetings. The word serjeant is derived from the Latin "serviens", which means "servant".

10)Substitute for/ with
You can substitute almonds for the berries in a brownie recipe, but many people mistakenly say “substitute with” instead, perhaps influenced by the related expression “replace with.” It’s always “substitute for.”


Phew...these sessions really leave me a little amazed at the end of it. Will keep all of you posted on more such errors but next time I shall be back with some dope on "phrasal verbs"!!!! Till then, please keep solving as many sentence correction questions as possible, since with CAT going online, this area needs serious attention.

Au Revoir!!!