Daily tip: good usage vs. common usage #6 - Adduce, deduce, induce.

adduce; deduce; induce.

To adduce is to give as a reason, offer as a proof, or cite as an example, e.g. as evidence of reliability, she adduced her four years of steady volunteer work as a nurse’s aide.

Deduce and induce are opposite processes.

To deduce is to reason from general principles to specific conclusions, or to draw a specific conclusion from general bases e.g. from these clues about who committed the crime, one deduces that the butler did it.

To induce is to form a general principle based on specific observations e.g. after years of studying ravens, the researchers induced a few of their social habits.

Daily tip: good usage vs. common usage #5 - Accord vs. accordance

accord or accordance

The first word means “agreement”, e.g. we are in accord on the treaty’s meaning; the second word means “conformity”, e.g. the book was printed in accordance with modern industry standards.

Daily tip: good usage vs. common usage #4 - access, vb

The use of nouns as verbs has long been one of the most common ways that word-usage changes happen in English. Today, few people quibble with using contact, debut, and host, for example, as verbs.

Access can be safely used as a verb when referring to computing, e.g. access a computer, access the Internet, access a database etc. Outside the digital world, though, it is still best avoided.

Daily tip: good usage vs. common usage #3 - abjure, adjure

I must confess, I've never had to use this one, but someone out there might find it helpful.

-----------

abjure; adjure.

To abjure is to deny or renounce under oath, e.g. "The defendant abjured the charge of murder," or to declare one’s permanent abandonment of a place, eg. abjure the realm.

To adjure is to require someone to do something as if under oath, e.g. "I adjure you to keep this secret," or to urge earnestly, e.g. "The executive committee adjured all the members to approve the plan."

Daily tip: good usage vs. common usage #2 - ability, capability, capacity

There are many words which are commonly confused with each other and which may have similar, overlapping, or even opposite meanings. Three such words are: ability, capability and capacity.

Ability refers to a person’s physical or mental skill or power to achieve something, e.g. the ability to ride a bicycle.

Capability refers more generally to power or ability, e.g. she has the capability to play soccer professionally, or to the quality of being able to use or be used in a certain way, e.g. a jet with long-distance-flight capability.

Capacity refers especially to a vessel’s ability to hold or contain something, e.g. a high-capacity fuel tank. However, used figuratively, capacity refers to a person’s physical or mental power to learn, e.g. an astounding capacity for mathematics.

Daily tip: good usage vs. common usage #1 - a, an

Many words are used in every day language which are perfectly adequate for purpose, i.e. they get across the meaning of what we want to say without being technically correct.

But, when writing, or editing, especially in narrative, we really need to be technically correct as far as is possible. In dialogue, grammatical errors and dialect are fine, if that is how your character speaks. But in narrative, we have to be more careful.

Dictionaries are not always reliable, as they reflect common usage rather than correct usage. As language evolves constantly, it is a fact that, when enough people get it wrong, it will inevitably become 'right'. Be that as it may, at this point in time, our writing must reflect what is currently 'right'.

This is the first in a series of daily tips on good usage vs. common usage.

-----

A; an.

We were all taught at school to use 'a' before a consonant and 'an' before a vowel. So, such constructs as "a cow" and "an elephant" pose no problems. But what do we do when a word begins with, for example, a vowel, but sounds as if it begins with a consonant, and vice versa?

We go with the sound of the word, not the spelling, as the a/an difference undoubtedly evolved for ease of speech.

So, use the indefinite article 'a' before any word beginning with a consonant sound e.g. "a utopian dream". Use 'an' before any word beginning with a vowel sound e.g. "an officer", "an honorary degree".

The word "historical" and its variations cause missteps, but since the 'h' in these words is pronounced, it takes an 'a' e.g. "an hour-long talk at a historical society".

Likewise, an initialism (whose letters are sounded out) may be paired with one article while an acronym (which is pronounced as a word) beginning with the same letter is paired with the other e.g. "an HTML website for a HUD program".