Author: Kirk

“All Together” vs. “Altogether”

Adverbs, Common English Blunders, Versus

I often see these used interchangeably.

Problem:
The phrase “all together” and the adverb “altogether” are not synonyms.

Explanation:
“Altogether” is an adverb that means completely, wholly, quite. For example: He’s not altogether certain about his mother’s sanity.

“All together” is a phrase that means in a group. For example: The dogs were all together in the kennel. This can be restated as All of the dogs were together in the kennel. And, without seriously affecting the meaning of the sentence, one can remove the “all”: The dogs were together in the kennel.

I believe that the mistaken use of “altogether” for “all together” — or vice-versa — in writing comes from the fact that “altogether” and “all together” sound alike.

Solution:
Use “all together” in a sentence when one can separate “all” and “together” in the sentence and still get the same meaning or when one can remove “all” without severly affecting the sentence’s meaning. Use “altogether” when one means completely, wholly, quite.

“Historic” vs. “Historical”

Adjectives, Common English Blunders, Versus

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

Problem:
The adjectives “historic” and “historical” are not synonyms.

Explanation:
The adjective “historic” means important in history or well known.

The adjective “historical” means characteristic or pertaining to history, belonging to the past, or concerned with history.

Therefore, all historic events are historical, but all historical events are not necessarily historic.

A “historical house-restoration project” would be a project involving the restoration of a house in such a manner as to be concerned with the history of the house.

In contrast, a “historic house-restoration project” would be a house-restoration project that is noteworthy for the techniques used in the project, for the accomplishments of the project, or for something else important about the project that will be remembered in the future.

Solution:
Use “historical” when modifying a noun or noun phrase so as to relate it to history. Use “historic” when modifying a noun or noun phrase so as to relate it to something important in history.

“at least 16-years of age”

Adjectives, Hyphens, Nouns

My wife saw this in an email message yesterday.

Problem:
The hyphenation is incorrect.

Explanation:
Here is the phrase as it appeared in the full sentence: “Please ask students who you think would really benefit from this experience and who are at least 16-years of age to complete the information.”

This phrase should not have a hyphen.

When a number modifies a noun (or noun phrase) to tell you how many, there should be no hyphen between the number and the noun (or noun phrase) that the number is modifying.

In the problematic phrase, the number “16” is modifying “years of age” (a noun phrase), so one should not insert a hyphen between them.

I believe that the writer of the email message was distracted by the fact that hyphens are required when one writes something such as “the 16-year-old student”. The reason for this requirement is that “16-year-old” is modifying “student”; the hyphens effectively glue “16” and “year” and “old” together to create a modifier of “student” (the noun).

Solution:
“at least 16 years of age”