Solecisms (2)

From "New English Fourth, GCSE Edition" (1987) by Rhodri Jones, published by Heinemann (London)
Being able to express yourself accurately is important. Here are some more solecisms for you to study and avoid.
1. Hanged/hung. Both of these are the past tense and past participle of theverb 'to hang'. 'Hanged' is the form used when referring to capital punishment, e.g. 'The murderer was hanged at dawn.' 'Hung' is used in all other cases, e.g. 'He hung desperately from the ledge.' 'They hung the picture in a place of honour.'
2. Lay/lie. The forms of these verbs are often confused. The verb 'lay' (asin 'lay the table' or 'lay an egg') has present participle 'laying' and past tense and past participle 'laid', e.g. 'She laid the table for supper.' 'The hen has laid an egg.' 'She laid the baby in its cradle.' 'Lie' (meaning 'to be in a horizontal position') has present participle 'lying', past tense 'lay' and past participle 'lain', e.g. 'He lay in bed until midday.' 'The wallet had lain on the pavement all morning unnoticed.'
3. Like/as. 'Like' should not be used as a conjunction. Use 'as' instead.Incorrect use: 'The old man can't cope with the gardening like he used to.' Correct use: 'The old man can't cope with the gardening as he used to.'
4. Of/have. Beware of using 'of' for 'have' in cases where the pronunciationof the two words is similar, eg. 'You should have (not 'of') reported him.' 'I could have (not 'of') claimed the reward.'
5. Off/of. 'Of' is unnecessary in expressions like these: 'She fell off ofthe chair.' 'She took the tin off of the shelf.'
6. The reason why...because. Expressions like 'the reason why' and 'thereason is' should be followed by 'that', not 'because'. 'Because' merely repeats the idea already expressed in 'the reason why'. Incorrect use: 'The reason why he went to the police was because he was afraid.' Correct use: 'The reason why he went to the police was that he was afraid.' 'He went to the police because he was afraid.'
7. So as/so that. 'So as' is followed by the infinitive; 'so that' isfollowed by a clause. Incorrect use: 'The student worked hard so as he could pass his exam.' Correct use: 'The student worked hard so that he could pass his exam.' 'The student worked hard so as to pass his exam.'
8. Than. This is a conjunction, not a preposition. Therefore it does notgovern pronouns in the objective case as this incorrect example would suggest: 'I am faster than him.' It should be: 'I am faster than he.' If you expand the sentence, you will see why the second version is correct: 'I am faster than he (is).'
9. Try and/try to. The form 'try to' followed by a verb is preferable to'try and'. Thus: 'Try to get help.' not 'Try and get help.'
10. Which/who. Use 'who' when you refer to people, not 'which'. Correct:'People who mistreat animals should be put in jail.' Incorrect: 'People which mistreat animals should be put in jail.'
11. Who/whom. 'Who' is the subjective form of the relative pronoun; 'whom'is the objective form. Therefore when we have the word used as the object or governed by a preposition, the form we need is 'whom', e.g. 'There is the girl whom I saw on the station.' 'Tell me to whom I am to give this parcel.'

Some of the (twenty-two) points made ... may be considered pedantic, that is, they may be regarded as requiring too close attention to the formal rules. People in speech often break some of these rules, and you may find some of these rules ignored in what you read. For instance, the use of 'like' as a conjunction and 'try and' instead of 'try to' are both quite common. This raises two important questions: Do the rules really matter? and Can new rules be made according to how words come to be used by more and more people? Think about these questions.

Adrian

A new song of the month:
http://www.video-c.co.uk/microshow.asp?vidref=ianb001