CORRECTIONS & EXPLANATIONS - January 24, 2010

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

Monday

OPPRESSION/REPRESSION/SUPPRESSION

“Oppression” is the act of subjugating by cruelty or keeping down by unjust use of force or authority. It is always bad and implies serious persecution.
“The dictator was quilty of extreme cruelty in the oppression of the people.”

“Repression” refers to keeping things under control and can sometimes be a good thing. It can also be a type of defence mechanism to protect oneself.
“I will repress the temptation to jeer at his immaturity even though he should be stopped.”

“Suppression” refers to witholding from publication, to abolish or to stop.
“Suppression of embarrassing and critical blogging is systematically carried out in communist China.”
 

Identify and correct the error in the following piece.

“Especially when that player is being compared to himself.”

The context is that a great, young player should not be compared to other great players and this should be avoided. But, I am not even sure this sentence makes sense even within the context. Read it carefully and then draw your own conclusions. Irrespective of any context, it is still an incomplete thought.

“A young player should not be compared to the greats of the game, especially when that player is being compared to himself.”


Tuesday

MISLEAD/MISLED

“Mislead” is the present tense of the verb “to mislead”.
“Misled” is the past tense of the same verb.
They are not interchangeable.
“So when you mislead your lawyer, you have actually misled him.”


Wednesday

DEMUR/DEMURE

“Demur” is a verb meaning to resist answering questions, to disagree or to differ with.
“I do not like the tone of your questions and I demur answering them.”

“Demure” (adj.) refers to a quiet, reserved person.
“She was a beautiful and demure cherub.”


Thursday

ENAMOURED BY/ENAMOURED OF/ENAMOURED WITH

“Enamoured of” and “enamoured with” are acceptable choices.
If you say “enamoured by” someone or something, you are saying he or it is crazy about you. Would you like to be enamoured by a skunk?


Friday

Find and correct the error in the following piece.

“About 15 minutes later, two men wearing ski masks busted through a side door.”

“Bust” and “busted”, when used as verbs, are not correct and should be avoided. The correct form is “burst”.

“About 15 minutes later, two men wearing ski masks burst through a side door.”


HOW TRUE IS THIS?

“We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us.”
Francois de La Rochefoucauld, a French author penned this.


LAST WEEK’S WORDS

“Debilitate” (v.) means to drain, to make feeble, to fatigue or to wear down.
“Debilitation” is the noun form.
“Debilitative” is the adjective form.
“Debility” is another noun form.

“Mythomania” (n.) refers to lying or exaggerating to an abnormal degree.

“Depredation” (n.) refers to the act of plundering, preying upon or robbing.
“Depredate” is the verb form.
“Depredatory” is the adjective form.
“Depredator” is the noun form referring to someone who lays waste or plunders.

“Empirical” (adj.) means guided by or derived from experience or depending upon experience or observation alone, without using science.
“Empiricism” is a philosophy espousing the doctrine that all knowledge is derived from experience.

“Vindictive” (adj.) Means vengeful, rancourous or showing deep-seated resentment.
“Vindictiveness” is the noun form.
Ironically, “vindication” (n.) and “vindicate” (v.) mean to uphold or justify by argument or evidence.