Author: Kirk

“Forth-Sixth Grade Curriculum”

Adjectives, Misspellings

My wife saw this title yesterday on a manual from ChildBuilders.

Problems:
1. The first adjective is misspelled.
2. The range is written incorrectly.
3. Everything before “Curriculum” should be hyphenated.

Explanation:
ChildBuilders is an admirable non-profit organization aimed at preventing mental-health problems in children.

So this title on the cover of a printed manual aimed at teachers and school administrators is especially embarrassing.

First, “Forth” (spelled without a “u”) should be “Fourth” (spelled with a “u”) — as in fourth grade.

Second, a range of ordinal numbers should be written with the preposition “to” in the middle — as in first to third or as in seventh to ninth.

Third, when a range is used to modify a noun (for example, “Grade”) that in turn modifies another noun (for example, “Curriculum”), everything before the final noun should be hyphenated.

The solution comes from these three corrections.

Solution:
“Fourth-to-Sixth-Grade Curriculum”

“Anecdote” vs. “Antidote”

Common English Blunders, Mispronunciations, Nouns, Versus

I sometimes hear people mispronounce one of these words as if it were equivalent to the other word.

Problem:
These two nouns are not synonyms.

Explanation:
The noun “anecdote” means a short account of an incident as an unpublished narrative.

The noun “antidote” means a medicine for counteracting a poison.

Those who confuse these two nouns probably are distracted by the fact that both nouns have “dote” — D-O-T-E — in them, the fact that both nouns start with A-N, and the fact that both nouns are eight letters long.

The noun “antidote” is constructed from the prefix “anti-“, which means against, and “dote”, whose origin essentially means given. In other words, the roots of “antidote” when assembled mean given against.

The noun “anecdote” is constructed from the prefix “an-“, which means not, and “ecdote”. The “ecdote” part of “anecdote” is a combination of “ec”, which means out, and “dote”, whose origin, as just noted, means given.

So the “ecdote” part of “anecdote” essentially means published. In other words, the roots of “anecdote” when assembled mean not published.

Solution:
Use “anecdote” when referring to a spoken story; use “antidote” when referring to a remedy for poison.

“Restoral” vs. “Restoration”

Nouns, Versus

I saw the noun “restoral” on a plaque this morning and began wondering about these two nouns.

Problem:
The noun “restoral” has fallen out of use by many people.

Explanation:
The plaque honored a team of people who had restored some sort of service to a group of customers.

According to many dictionaries, the noun “restoral” first appeared in the early 1600s, and “restoration” is its only definition, where “restoration” means the act of restoring.

In contrast, the noun “restoration” first appeared around 1350, but the noun “restoration” has a different meaning when capitalized.

In particular, the phrase “the Restoration” with a capital R refers to King Charles the Second’s reestablishment of the monarchy in England.

I believe that this explains why some people favor “restoral” over “restoration” when referring to the act of restoring.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following words (without the quotation marks) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “restoration” — 10,700,000 matches
  • “restoral” — 68,500 matches

This tells me that Web authors favor “restoration” over “restoral” by a ratio of 156:1. As I have explained, these two nouns are equivalent when referring to the act of restoring, but you have to choose one of them based on your audience and the likelihood of confusion.

For example, most people understand the noun “restoration” better than the noun “restoral” when they hear each noun — for example, over the telephone.

Solution:
When talking about restoring services and there is no likelihood of confusion with the Restoration with a capital R, use “restoration” in speech and in writing. Avoid using “restoral” in speech. Consider using “restoral” in writing for audiences that will recognize it and when there is likelihood of confusion with the Restoration with a capital R.