Kirk Mahoney . com

I frequently see one of these used when the other is required.

Problem:
These two sentences do not mean the same thing.

Explanation:
The sentence “It tastes different.” means that “It” has a different taste than something else.

In other words, “It tastes different.” effectively is an abbreviated sentence for something like “It tastes different than ice cream.”

The sentence “It tastes differently.” means that “It” now tastes things differently than it formerly tasted things.

The source of the confusion between using the adjective “different” and the adverb “differently” is due to the fact that the verb “taste” has definitions when used with an object and other definitions when used without an object.

• The most common definition of the verb “taste” with an object is to test the flavor of [the object] by putting some in the mouth or on the tongue;
• The most common definition of the verb “taste” without an object is to have a particular flavor.

Solution:
Use “It tastes different.” when referring to the taste of something. Use “It tastes differently.” when referring to the ability of something to test the flavor of other things.

I saw this in an email message yesterday.

Problem:
The two words “here width” do not form an adverbial phrase.

Explanation:
The complete sentence in the email message was “For all those who cannot access the links, please find the documents attached here width.”

The problem with the sentence is that the two words “here width” — spelled H-E-R-E-SPACE-W-I-D-T-H — together do not form an adverbial phrase.

These two words, however, do sound like the adverb “herewith” — spelled H-E-R-E-W-I-T-H — which means by means of this, or along with this, or hereby, which gives us our solution.

I wish that I could search for this two-word “here width” mistake with Google, but I got a lot of matches that were not representative of mistakes.

Solution:
“… please find the documents attached herewith.”

I saw this in a Web article about English.

Problem:
“Everyday” is an adjective, but an adverb is required here.

Explanation:
I was searching the Web for the negative effect of spelling errors when I found this sentence.

The sentence appeared in an article titled “COMMONLY MISSPELLED WORDS“, which gave parents the recommended frequency and duration of helping their children to learn the correct spellings of words.

Unfortunately, one can spell words correctly but still make mistakes with grammar.

“Everyday” — spelled E-V-E-R-Y-D-A-Y — tells you what. For example, an “everyday event” is something that occurs daily. In other words, “everyday” is an adjective; it modifies a noun (such as “event”).

In contrast, “every day” — spelled E-V-E-R-Y-SPACE-D-A-Y — tells you when. “It happens every day.” is an example of the correct use of “every day” (with the space in the middle).

The goal of the article writer was to tell the reader when to spend fifteen minutes with words.

Solution:
“Spend 15 minutes every day with the words.”

I saw this at a software-development online forum.

Problem:
The single word “anyway” is incorrect in this sentence.

Explanation:
The question appeared at an online forum for software developers. The forum participant was asking about creating a clone of a Microsoft Excel worksheet using Visual Basic for Applications.

The single word “anyway” is an adverb that means regardless or in any case.

An example of the proper use of the adverb “anyway” is “Even if you do not like it, I am going to Galveston anyway.”

If we replace the adverb “anyway” in what I saw online with the adverb’s definition, then we get “Is there regardless to create a clone …” — clearly showing that the adverb “anyway” does not belong in the forum participant’s sentence (at least not where he put it).

The forum participant was actually asking whether there was a method or way to create a clone. This gives us the solution.

Solution:
“Is there any way to create a clone …”

I saw the phrase with the hyphen last night in an Acura advertisement on television.

Problem:
These two phrases have different meanings, but many people do not appreciate the difference.

Explanation:
The phrase “well qualified buyers” without the hyphen is equivalent to “well, qualified buyers” — with a comma and a space between the word “well” and the word “qualified”.

The word “well” in this hyphen-free phrase is an adjective, as in “He is a well man.”

In contrast, the word “well” is an adverb in the hyphenated modifier “well-qualified”.

In other words, “well” is modifying the word “qualified”, which on its own acts as an adjective, as in “qualified participants”.

One should typically NOT use a hyphen between an adverb and an adjective when together they form an adverb-adjective modifier of a noun.

However, when an adverb can also act as an adjective, and “well” is just such a word, one must put a hyphen between the adverb and the adjective to form the adverb-adjective modifier of a noun and thereby avoid possible confusion about whether the first word is an adverb or an adjective.

The word “more” is like the word “well” in that “more” can be either an adjective or an adverb.

• An example of “more” as an adjective can be found in “more attractive women” — with a space between “more” and “attractive”. A synonym for this example is “additional attractive women”.
• An example of “more” as an adverb can be found in “more-attractive women” — with a hyphen between “more” and “attractive”. A synonym for this example is “women who are more attractive”.

Solution:
The word “well” acts as an ADVERB in “well-qualified buyers” — with a hyphen between “well” and “qualified” — to form an adverb-adjective modifier of the noun “buyers”.

The word “well” acts as an ADJECTIVE in “well qualified buyers” — with a space between “well” and “qualified” — so that each of the words “well” and “qualified” individually modifies the noun “buyers”.

I heard this on television yesterday.

Problem:
The adverb “back” in “return back” is redundant.

Explanation:
The verb “return” means to go back, so the meaning of “return back” would be to go back back.

Because the “re” in “return” means back, one could argue that someone who “returns back” would never reach the intended destination.

For fun, I searched Google for the expression “return back” (with the quotation marks) and got about 2,490,000 matches. This is depressing.

Solution:
“return”

I saw this in a comment at EngadgetMobile.com.

Problem:
The word “alot” — spelled A-L-O-T — is a nonsense word.

Explanation:
The comment writer was referring to cell-phone functions that he uses often, not a little.

So he should have written “a lot” — spelled A-space-L-O-T — instead.

The two-word, adverbial phrase “a lot” means to a great extent or degree.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following (with the quotation marks to avoid hyphenated forms) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

• “a lot” — with a space after the letter “a” — 640,000,000 matches
• “alot” — with no space — 129,000,000 matches

This tells me that Web authors have written the adverbial phrase correctly vs. incorrectly by a ratio of 4.96-to-1, which is dreadful.

Note: The adverbial phrase “a lot” should not be confused with the verb “allot” — spelled A-L-L-O-T — which means to apportion, to appropriate, or to dedicate.

Solution:
“… all of which I use a lot, …” — with a space between the indirect article “a” and the noun “lot”

My wife saw this the other day in a seminar handout.

Problem:
The word “apart” — spelled A-P-A-R-T with no spaces — does not belong in this phrase.

Explanation:
The word “apart” as an adverb means into parts or pieces, as in “The tornado blew the house apart.”

The word “apart” can be combined with “from” to form a prepositional idiom that means besides or in addition to, as in “She wrote to no one apart from Jim.”

The word “apart” as an adjective means having unique or independent characteristics and is usually used after the noun that it modifies, as in “an institution apart”.

The word “apart” is NOT a noun, but a noun is what the phrase required, given that the writer was referring to someone not being a member of a group.

Solution:
“… no longer a part of the group”

I heard this yesterday during a news interview on a local television station.

Problem:
The adverb “back” makes the statement self-negating.

Explanation:
To “credit” an amount to someone is to refund what that person had paid.

The “re” in “refund” means back. Therefore, one could argue that a “refund back” action would never reach the intended recipient.

In other words, the adverb “back” should NOT be used to modify the verb “credit”.

For fun, I searched Google for “credit back” (with the quotation marks). Unfortunately, I could not use the results to get a reliable estimate of the number of erroneous instances because there are many instances on the Web of correct use.

For example, “Colorado lawmakers want to bring tax credit back.” is an example of correct use of “back” after “credit” because “back” in this sentence is modifying the verb “bring” instead of the noun “credit”.

Solutions:
“They credited me the whole amount.”
OR
“They credited the whole amount to me.”

I saw this in a presentation to customer-support personnel.

Problem:
The word “back” is redundant in this expression.

Explanation:
The expression was part of advice to customer-support personnel:

“Come to work with a smile on your face! That smile then brightens everyone’s day[,] which reflects back to our customers. A smile goes a long way over the phone when providing Best in Class Service.”

The “re” in “reflect” means back. Therefore, one could argue that a “reflects back” action would never reach the intended recipient.

Solution:
“… which reflects to our customers.”
OR, even better, given the full sentence,
“… which is transmitted to our customers.”