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January 2006 -- Page Two
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Confusion of common words has to be among the most baffling and irritating errors that people make with English usage. How they can remain oblivious to the distinctions between words and phrases that they use every day is one of the mysteries of the universe. Are these individuals simply careless? Are they stupid? Are they, perhaps, brain-damaged?
Confusion of it's and its is the first example that comes to mind. We do not use I's, you's, he's, she's, we's, or they's as possessive pronouns. Why do otherwise intelligent people think that it's is the possessive form of it? It's is a contraction for "it is" and nothing else – and anyone smart enough to tie shoe laces should be able to learn and remember that. It's not that people make an occasional slip (that is pardonable) but that they do it constantly, even in headlines and ads printed in 60-point fonts: "SEARS IS HAVING IT'S BIGGEST SALE EVER." Perhaps teachers were correct in the old days when they prohibited the use of contractions altogether. We had to write out "it is" and were not allowed to use "it's." Of course, complete avoidance of contractions leads to stuffy style, but perhaps some individuals need to be insulated against their own intractable idiocy.
Another obvious example is the confusion of there and their. They are, after all, entirely different words. Why shouldn't they be spelled differently? It helps to recognize that their is the possessive of they, formed by changing the y to ir, but it's not necessary to know even that. Why do people persist in making this mistake? Is it because they don't think, because they don't read, or both? When we add they're (they are) to the mix, some people are utterly lost.
To and too constitute another distinction that many people seem incapable of grasping. The words have nothing in common except their sound. Too, of course, is an intensifier, used to denote "very" or "extremely" or to mean "also." To is used as a linking word (a preposition, to be precise) or to introduce an infinitive verb (such as to be or to introduce). What sort of breakdown in the synapses causes some people to be incapable of grasping this difference? Indeed, it's easy when typing or writing in haste to omit the second o in too, but that doesn't excuse the many students who repeatedly write "to much," "to far," "to soon," and the like.
To be sure, English contains many words that sound alike but have different spellings and meanings. A few of these, miraculously, can be kept straight by even the most retarded among us. Even people who constantly confuse to and too somehow manage to remember that two denotes a numeral. Most of us would consider someone who writes that something is "two little" to have too little intelligence. Well, I feel that way about people who can't distinguish between to and too, it's and its, or there and their.
A favorite alibi among individuals who repeatedly make such blunders is that "nobody is perfect" (or, as my students might write, "nobodies perfect"). That is true enough, but it's a copout. We aren't demanding perfection; we are asking only for a modest amount of care and common sense.
I will concede that certain words with different meanings and spellings but the same sounds (homophones) do require some effort to distinguish. Although principle and principal, for example, have absolutely no meanings in common (see this entry), some thought – but really not a great amount of though – may be required to keep them straight. However, many commonly used homophones do not fall into this category.
Failure to differentiate between common, everyday words or phrases (such as everyday and every day – see this entry) is a symptom of ignorance, indolence, or both. Some people claim that they don't care ("Hey, what does it matter? You know what I mean"), but they are just rationalizing their ignorance or laziness.
I could list several other examples of words that are commonly confused, but I would like to move on to a similar, equally irritating confusion that is apparently becoming more prevalent. Why do people persist in creating plural nouns by adding 's? Just today, I received this abomination in an e-mail message from my Internet provider: "Controlling Spam for our customer's is a priority for Comcast." This was not a casual slip in a personal e-mail; it appeared in boilerplate that is sent to all customers who ask Comcast about its policy in controlling Spam. If Comcast is sloppy enough to let this kind of error go out in mail to hundreds or thousands of customers, how much confidence can anyone have in its attention to detail in other matters? To be fair, the rest of the message was surprisingly free of errors, but since this one appeared near the beginning of the piece, it made me skeptical about the validity of the rest of the content, whether or not such skepticism was justified.
You may contend, if you like, that blunders such as these are trivial. Well, maybe the crowd that you hang out with is of the same mind, but be warned: There are enough individuals in positions of authority who do care about correct usage that they will question your intelligence about anything if you make basic blunders with language. You may be a genius in a dozen other areas, but you will still be branded as someone of dubious education and intelligence if you confuse its and it's, there and their, or to and too, or if you write simple plurals as possessives. Never mind that this is an unfair verdict or that millions of others do it also; you still appear to be a fool.
As I remarked earlier, don't use the excuse (which I've heard often from those too lazy or negligent to learn correct English): "People will understand me anyway." That's nonsense, and you know it. How we say or write something can be as important as, or more important than, what we say. The same idea can be expressed clearly or confusingly, correctly or incorrectly. We can choose to flaunt ignorance and laziness, or we can try to appear intelligent and considerate of our readers. When what we say orally is confusing, we'll be asked to repeat it or rephrase it. When what we write is confusing, which it will be (if only for a moment) when we use words incorrectly, we require the reader to reread it – to work at getting our meaning. Either way, we are being discourteous and inconsiderate. We are shirking our responsibility – the writer's job is to make the reader's job as easy as possible.
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