CORRECTIONS & EXPLANATIONS - January 25, 2009

Here are the corrections and explanations for last week's entries.

Monday

PRECEDENCE/PRECEDENTS

“Precedence” (n.) means priority in order, rank or importance, as in the General takes precedence over the Corporal in rank.

“Precedents” (n.) is the plural form of “precedent” as in preceding or prior incidents.


Tuesday

Fix the error in the following entry.

“Adrian College, which plays as a Division III independent in Adrian, Mich., is 11-5-1 this season and the quality of several of those wins are the type that'll catch the eye of the NCAA selection committee.”

“Quality”, which is singular, is the subject of the second clause and needs a singular verb.
"That'll" probably should be written out fully: "that will".

“Adrian College, which plays as a Division III independent in Adrian, Mich., is 11-5-1 this season and the quality of several of those wins is the type that will catch the eye of the NCAA selection committee.”


Wednesday

Correct the error in the following piece.

“Details about the shooting remain murky, but initial accounts described Rettig being shot through the closed window of his vehicle by someone wearing a bandanna over their face.”

The pronoun “their” refers back to the word “someone”, which is singular, so “their” is incorrect; it, too, must be singlear.

“Details about the shooting remain murky, but initial accounts described Rettig being shot through the closed window of his vehicle by someone wearing a bandanna over his face.”


CREDITABLE/CREDIBLE

“Creditable” means bringing honour, reputation credit or esteem to some act or person.

“Credible” means believable or trustworthy.


Thursday

DISSEMBLE/DISASSEMBLE

“Disassemble” means to take apart, the opposite of “assemble”.

“Dissemble” means to be dishonest or to try to hide what one is doing.


Friday

TAKE BACK/TAKEN ABACK

“Take back” means to be returned or to have been taken back to a previous time in history.

“Taken aback” is a reaction meaning to be startled or shocked.


CONSIDER THIS

“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790) is the creator of this quote.


LAST WEEK’S WORDS

“Abrogate” (v.) means to abolish summarily, to annul by an authoritative act or to repeal.

“Imbue” (v.) means to instil, to fill or to permeate.

“Divination” (n.) is a prediction, a forecast or a foretelling often through supernatural means.

“Ominous” (adj.) means threatening, menacing, gloomy or portentous.

“Poltroon” (n.) means a wretched coward or a craven.


NOTICE

There will be no postings next week.

Posts will resume on Monday, February 2, 2009.

If you really need a grammar, punctuation or some other form of English usage fix, access the blog archives listed in the column to the right. There are over 500 entries and you can have a field day.