Kirk Mahoney . com

I sometimes see an ampersand used where the word “and” is required.

Problem:
These two conjunctions are not quite synonyms.

Explanation:
Wikipedia has an excellent overview of the ampersand.

As Wikipedia notes, “The word ampersand is a corruption of the phrase ‘and per se and’, meaning ‘and [the symbol which] by itself [is] and‘.”

The ampersand symbol — & — comes from a ligature of the letters “e” and “t” in the Latin word et, which means “and”.

Although the rise in popularity of SMS text messaging — with its 140-characters-per-message limit — has spurred the increasing use of the one-character “&” as a substitute for the three-character “and”, it is NOT appropriate to use the ampersand absolutely everywhere as a substitute for “and”.

Here is a summary of where the ampersand is appropriate:

• In the name of a business (e.g., “Smith & Jones”);
• When addressing an envelope to a couple (e.g., “Dr. & Mrs. Johnson”);
• In book and movie titles (e.g., “Harry & Tonto”);
• When giving credit for close collaboration on a screenplay (e.g., “William Benson & Mary Gallagher”);
• When citing sources in text, per the APA style guide (e.g., “(Watson & Crick, 1955)”).

An ampersand is also used in many computer languages.

Otherwise, an ampersand should NOT be used as a substitute for the conjunction “and”.

Solution:
Reserve the use of the ampersand (&) as a substitute for the conjunction “and” in business names, movie and book titles, names of couples on envelopes, and some other special situations.

I frequently hear people confuse accuracy and precision.

Problem:
These two nouns are not synonyms, at least not in science.

Explanation:
The scientific definition of the noun “accuracy” is the degree to which a measurement agrees with that measurement’s standard value.

The scientific definition of the noun “precision” is the degree to which a set of measurements of the same sample agree with that set’s mean.

Imagine an archery target, and imagine an archer shooting arrows at that target.

The closer that an arrow lands to the center of the target (the bull’s eye), the more accurate is the shot.

In contrast, if an archer can shoot several arrows that all land in almost the same location, then one can say that the archer is precise.

An archer can be accurate simply by the fact that bull’s eye is the mean of the points at which all of his or her arrows land.

An archer can be precise simply by the fact that all of his or her arrows land in the same location.

Precision speaks to reproducibility and standard deviation within the sample. Higher precision in a trial (e.g., in shooting a set of arrows) refers to greater reproducibility and smaller standard deviation.

Accuracy speaks to nearness to the target. Higher accuracy in a trial (e.g., in shooting a set of arrows) refers to less distance between the target location or value and the mean of the actual locations or values.

This discussion has these implications:

• A trial can be accurate but not precise.
• A trial can be precise but not accurate.
• An ideal trial is both accurate and precise.
• One can make a calculated adjustment for a trial that is precise but not accurate (that is, a trial that is biased), if one knows the degree of inaccuracy (the degree of bias).
• One can ignore a trial’s imprecision (the degree of variability) in a trial that is accurate but not precise, if one’s primary interest is that the mean within the trial is very close to the goal or target.

Solution:
Think “nearness to a goal” when thinking of accuracy. Think “reproducibility” when thinking of precision.

I thought about these two verbs the other day and wondered what the distinction was.

Problem:
Some people use these verbs interchangeably, but they are not quite synonyms.

Explanation:
Some say that roasting specifically applies to meat.

Others say that one can roast vegetables, too.

For example, some say that a roasted potato differs from a baked potato in that the roasted potato is cooked in an oven with liquids poured over it while the baked potato is cooked in an oven without such liquids.

I wondered whether this was the best distinction, so I read the definition of each verb in a dictionary.

The verb “roast” — when it comes to food — specifically means to bake uncovered, and the verb “roast” applies to both meat and other food.

In other words, to roast a potato is to bake it uncovered, usually in an oven.

Whether the potato is cooked with liquids is immaterial to whether it is roasted.

Solution:
Think of roasting as a special way of baking — that is, baking food uncovered.

I thought again about these two forms after hearing someone claim that only one of these was correct.

Problem:
The verb “feel” can take an adjective or an adverb.

Explanation:
The verb “feel” is a loaded verb in that it relates to a state of health or emotion as well as to the sense of touch.

The verb “feel” can be used as a linking verb, which is called a “copula” in linguistics.

A linking verb ties the subject of a sentence with the predicate of the sentence.

As described elsewhere, the verbs “be”, “become”, and “seem” are called true linking verbs because they can be nothing else.

Examples include:

• “I am rich!”
• “You became wealthy.”
• “They seem nice.”

In contrast, each of the following verbs can act as an action verb or as a linking verb:

• “appear”;
• “feel”;
• “grow”
• “look”;
• “prove”;
• “remain”;
• “smell”;
• “sound”;
• “taste”;
• “turn”.

Here are examples of these verbs used as action verbs, each of which can be modified by one or more adverbs:

• “She effortlessly appeared from the bushes.”
• “He barely feels that tack in the carpet.”
• “Mary often grows hibiscus plants.”
• “Look now at that cow crossing the road!”
• “Can you quickly prove this theorem?”
• “I can remain here.”
• “Everyone should always smell the flowers.”
• “Paul Revere urgently sounded the alarm.”
• “Can they barely taste the ginger in that dessert?”
• “Please slowly turn the car to the right at the next light.”

Here are examples of the same verbs used as linking verbs, each of which is followed by an adjective:

• “She appears ill.”
• “He feels odd.”
• “Mary grows angry when she sees her hibiscus flowers destroyed.”
• “Darling, you look marvelous!”
• “Purchase of Manhattan proved inexpensive.”
• “The dishes remain dirty.”
• “You smell delightful.”
• “His argument sounds correct.”
• “This dessert tastes delicious.”
• “His face turns red when you embarrass him.”

Solution:
Use “I feel bad.” to describe the current state of your emotions or health. Use “I feel badly.” to describe your ability to feel with your sensory neurons.

I wondered the other day about these two words.

Problem:
One of these nouns formerly was a synonym for the other noun but now is not.

Explanation:
The noun “phonics”, which dates back to around the year 1680, refers to a way to teach spelling and reading based on the phonetic interpretation of ordinary spelling.

Put briefly, the primary meaning of the noun “phonetics”, which dates back to around the year 1840, is the study of speech sounds.

An obsolete meaning of the noun “phonics” is the noun “phonetics”.

Given that “phonics” is an older noun than “phonetics”, it seems that it was temporarily fashionable to use “phonics” as a synonym for “phonetics”, a much newer noun.

Note that one does not “teach phonics” unless one is teaching others how to use phonics for teaching spelling and reading.

For example, children in elementary school would not be “taught phonics”.

Instead, their teacher would “use phonics” to teach those children to read and spell, and that teacher would have been “taught phonics” by his or her college professor.

Solution:
Think “a way to teach” when thinking of the noun “phonics”; think “sounds” when thinking of the noun “phonetics”.

I had to look up these two verbs the other day during a conference call.

Problem:
I was not sure which verb represented proper English.

Explanation:
The conference call entailed a review of verbiage to go into a Web-based application.

The review centered on how to communicate to a customer that two identities with the same company could be disconnected from one another.

One part of the document used the verb “disassociate”; another part of the document used the verb “dissociate”.

I had to look up these two verbs because I was unsure whether both were correct. Both verbs are correct and mean to remove from association.

The difference, according to at least one dictionary, is the age of the two verbs.

• The verb “disassociate” originated in the period of 1595 to 1605.
• The verb “dissociate” originated in the period of 1605 to 1615.

Solution:
Both verbs represent proper English. Use the one that you prefer, but be consistent within any given document that you are writing.

I read one of these words today where it seemed to me that the other was more appropriate.

Problem:
Most dictionaries treat these two words as synonymous conjunctions, but one is preferable over the other for expressing cause and effect.

Explanation:
Many, if not all, dictionaries indicate that the second or third definition of the word “since” when used as a conjunction is “because”.

An unambiguous example of using “since” as a synonym for “because” is “I kissed her since I love her.”

However, it is easy to construct an ambiguous sentence with the conjunction “since”.

For example, “I decided to learn French since my company moved me to Paris.” has two possible meanings:

1. A causal meaning — “I decided to learn French because my company moved me to Paris.”;
2. A temporal meaning — “I decided to learn French after my company moved me to Paris.”

The temporal version clearly tells us when the writer decided to learn French. The causal version tells us why the writer decided to learn French.

A commenter at another website noted that Bryan Garner wrote in his book Garner’s Modern American Usage that the causal meaning of “since” has existed for more than one thousand years.

I believe that the use of “since” as a substitute for the conjunction “because” is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It is simpler to say or write the one-syllable, five-letter “since” than it is to say or write the two-syllable, seven-letter “because”, and clarity can be easily sacrificed for simplicity.

Solution:
To avoid confusion, prefer the conjunction “because” over the conjunction “since” when joining two sentences in a causal relationship. And prefer the conjunction “after” over the conjunction “since” when joining two sentences in a temporal relationship, unless “since” clearly carries a temporal connotation.

I heard one of these adjectives this morning and wondered why the speaker did not use the other.

Question:
Do these two adjectives mean the same thing?

Explanation:
I was watching “Landscapers’ Challenge” on the HGTV channel and heard a designer say something to the effect of “You need a pot that is proportionate to the size of the plant.”

The adjective “proportionate” in her statement struck me as odd because I would have used the adjective “proportional” instead.

Both adjectives date back to late 1300s.

If you look up the definition of “proportionate”, then you will see that one of its definitions is proportional.

In contrast, if you look up the definition of “proportional” in many dictionaries, then you will not see that one of its definitions is proportionate, although “proportionate” is listed as a synonym of “proportional”.

One of the primary definitions of both adjectives is being in proportion.

So these two adjectives essentially mean the same thing.

For fun, and because I was curious about which adjective was more popular on the Web, I searched Google for each of these adjectives and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

• “proportional” — 32,100,000 matches
• “proportionate” — 4,110,000 matches

This tells me that Web authors have favored “proportional” over “proportionate” by a ratio of 7.81-to-1, which is consistent with my initial reaction to hearing “proportionate” in the HGTV program.

Answer:
The two adjectives mean essentially the same thing, but “proportional” seems to be much more popular than “proportionate”.

I heard one of these adjectives the other day and immediately thought of the other one.

Problem:
These two adjectives appear to be antonyms but are not antonyms in today’s usage.

Explanation:
The core definition of the adjective “helpful” is rendering or giving assistance or aid.

An example of the correct use of this adjective is “The helpful teller made all bank patrons feel good about the bank’s services.”

In other words, someone who is helpful is someone who is of service.

There are four basic definitions of the adjective “helpless”:

1. dependent or weak, as in “He is helpless without his wife.”;
2. incompetent or powerless, as in “The employee is helpless without her supervisor.”;
3. involuntary or impossible to control, as in “They suffered from helpless crying upon seeing the effects of the tornado.”;
4. unable to provide help, as in “The helpless waiters discouraged diners from returning to the restaurant.”

The fourth definition of “helpless” is obsolete, so “helpless” in today’s language is not an antonym of “helpful”.

Solution:
Remember that “helpless” can mean the opposite of “helpful” in older books but is not the antonym of “helpful” today.

I thought of these two nouns recently when I had to refill a flashlight.

Problem:
One of these in everyday speech is often misidentified as the other in discussions related to electricity.

Explanation:
In electrical terms,

• a “battery” is an electrically connected combination of two or more “cells”;
• a “cell” is something that converts chemical energy into electrical energy, usually via an electrolyte and two substances with different conductivities.

A “cell” typically has an electromotive force of about 1.5 volts.

In contrast, a “battery” has an electromotive force that equals 1.5 volts times the number of cells in the battery.

For example, the PP3 battery, which is commonly called a “9-volt battery” and truly is a “battery”, has an electromotive force of 9 volts because it comprises six “cells” within its case.

As another example, if you put four “D” cells in a flashlight, you have a six-volt battery in the flashlight.

In other words, although many dictionaries indicate that one of the definitions of “battery” is “cell”,

• this refers to everyday speech,
• this is not the primary definition, and
• this is technically incorrect.

Solution:
When it comes to electricity, use “cell” for the “AA”, “AAA”, “C”, and “D” units that can be bought in stores, and use “battery” to refer to a connected set of these units or to refer to the 9-volt, “PP3″ unit popularly used in smoke detectors, alarm clocks, etc.