English Language Usage Mistakes

Speaking, listening, reading, and writing are not entirely separable entities.


The English language has comparative and superlative endings for some words. Those word endings indicate degree of intensity. For example, consider the word pretty.

pretty, prettier, and prettiest

During August 2003 a very prominent American political person toured an ourdoor area where some renovation work was in progress and made the following unscripted remark on national television:  "This area will be more pretty when the work is completed."

The substitution of more in usages that require comparative endings is widespread in America at the outset of the twenty-first century, perhaps reflecting the commercialization of society. There are, of course, some appropriate uses of the word more to intensify degree. However, it is more appropriate to use comparative or superlative word endings for many words. It is not correct to say or write appropriate(er). If you are in doubt regarding the correct way to express degree of a word, consult your dictionary.

The following is from an August 30, 2003, TV promotion for a face cream.

After application pores in the facial skin are "less smaller."


A local school board, assessing the criteria for a new school superintendent, decided that the new superintendent should be "proactive." The prefix (pro-) means for. America's infamous "couch potatoes" are proactive. They favor activity. They can sit and watch activity for endless hours: football, basketball, baseball, golf, tennis, and staged scuffles on TV shows featuring disfunctional behavior. The school board wanted to find a superintendent who would provide efficient administration and who would also actively pursue opportunities for improved student performance. They wanted an active person.

The word proactive has become a buzzword among the elite who provide news media and entertainment media commentary on affairs of the day and affairs of state. Perhaps the extensive use of the word proactive reflects America's change from an active society to a sedentary society. Choose the word active.

you know

There was a time when a speaker could pause. A pause is not acceptable in the electronic media era. "Dead time" causes "channel flipping." Speakers interject the phrase, you know, to buy thinking time. Some speakers, because they are are inadequately prepared or incompetent, use the phrase almost continuously. Some of us use the phrase, you know, because it has become an unconscious habit. This author once endured a two-hour lecture class in which the lecturer used the phrase, you know, 18 times each minute of every two hour class session, thus inadvertently making horologists of the students!

Teachers know that young students have a tendency to write the language as they have heard it spoken. If students have customarily heard the language misused, they must relearn the language to make satisfactory academic progress.

move forward

A phrase spoken with reliable frequency by politicians, business executives, and administrators who want to avoid accountability, want to avoid answering a critical question, is move forward. The accountability dodge may be expressed as in the following sentence.

I don't want to dwell on these negative things; I want to move forward.

Forward, as used in the above context is meaningless. It is neither a physical location nor a policy position. We have no obligation to develop masterly writing skills, but we the people have a requirement to understand the language if we expect democracy to function.


Computer electronic communication brings us the problem of maintaining our humanity while interacting with strangers in absentia. When we deal with other human beings, face-to-face, we read facial expressions, tone of voice, and body movements, and that enables us to better understand how our own expressions are being received. It tempers our behavior. The possibility of adverse reaction to inappropriate face-to-face expression provides a certain discipline. It helps insure our humanity. We have become accustomed to this feed-back over the millennia, and we are dependent on it. All of this is missing when we communicate electronically.

Communication is facilitated by respect and courtesy. People who have held leadership positions are aware that familiarity can breed contempt. Rephrased for the electronic era that observation becomes: unwarranted familiarity is contempt. Familiarity is by invitation only. If you were to send an email message to a former President of the United States and opened the message with, Hi Bill, Hi Jimmy, Hi George, or Hi Jerry you would be sending an unflattering message about yourself. Use appropriate courtesy titles when communicating on-line, e.g., Mr., Mrs., Ms., or Miss, unless you are communicating with a close personal friend.

The physical inaccessability obtainable in the era of electronic business enables businesses and individuals to avoid accountability and acceptance of responsibility. Effective communication in the electronic era requires the same hard work and discipline that was required in previous eras. Communicate responsibly.


Those of us who have read history or made history will recall the V for Victory gesture used so effectively by British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and by General of the Armies, Dwight Eisenhower. It was an effective form of communication in the context of WW II. It may have been the only gesture the eloquent Churchill ever used. Gestures are effective when they are rarely and appropriately used. You can observe ineffective use of gestures by turning on a television "talk" show and watching the hands and arms vigorously and aimlessly flailing, thus revealing the owner's inability to address the issue being discussed. Beware, when you gesture, you send a signal, a message about yourself.


The purpose of language is, obviously, to communicate. We know, however, that false messages date to early recorded history. Our contemporary era is fraught with a new communication deception: image. Politicians, governments, corporations, and celebrities employ professional image manipulators. The intent is to replace crude reality with a designed image. Image manipulation is deception. Image manipulation for profit, personal gain, or to avoid accountability is a perversion of the language, and it does a disservice to society. Read "between the lines" with skepticism.

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