Nerdology 101: Inadvertent Oversights

What the title says.

Link of the week: Nothing notable that I can think of. :(

Anyway, this post will be about common errors in the English errors. No, I'm not talking about the cliche they're/their/there, past/present verb tense, or any other commonly known error. I'm talking about some of the mroe obscure errors. Anyway, let's get started!

i.e. vs e.g.

While similar, both of these have slightly different uses. I.e. is used to clarify what you said (i.e. adding further information). E.g. is used to show an example (e.g. a synonym, sentence, or other means of clarification).

Datum and Data

I know everyone says "The data is representative..." but the correct usage is "The data ARE representative..." because data is plural. Datum is the singular form of data (i.e. a piece of the data).

Criterion vs Criteria

Same as datum vs data: criterion is singular while criteria is plural.

Imitate vs Emulate

Imitate is to simply copy while emulate is a more specific case. To emulate is to try and match or equal.

Historic vs Historical

Historical is used if historians are interested in something while historic is used for something that is famous in history.

Hysterical vs Hilarious

Though it is informally correct, hysterical actually refers to a state of mind with an excessive amount of emotions. If you want to refer to something as funny, use hilarious instead.

"Would have"

You can use it when you are talking about something that did not happen and a resulting cause (e.g. If I had won the lottery, I would have bought a TV). Otherwise, use had. The problem with "would have" is that sometimes people replace a correct "had" with it.

Check here for clarification.

Less vs Fewer

Use less when you refer to things that can't be counted (e.g. you would say less sand because you don't know the number of grains of sand, probably). Use fewer when you refer to things that can be counted (i.e. Fewer cups of water).

"Different Than"

Once again, this is improper English. Use "different from" instead.

Uninterested vs Disinterested


Disinterested means "to lack bias". It is not a synonym for uninterested.

Insure vs Ensure


Insure means "to take out insurance on" (e.g. I insured my car) while ensure means "to make sure of".

Arguably


This means "able to be shown through an argument" not "able to be argued for".

That's quite a few corrections. Hope this helps you improve your word usage. For some further help, check out parmeciumkid's old blog post about this topic.

I'm switching my name to "Professor" or "Professor of the Blog". I'll still tag my posts under acronym so they can be searched easily.

Signing off,
Professor of the Blog