LANGUAGE!

Those who know me will be aware of my horror of all the Americanisms invading our UK English language. It seems that almost everything I read these days has been infected by American spellings or “politically correct” word forms or expressions, or just errors multiplied in use by people copying but unaware. I have written on this topic before but the situation seems to be deteriorating, and there are changes, undesirable I believe, contaminating our language and consequently deleterious to communication.

I am not just thinking of my pet hate, using “data” as a singular word (it’s a plural – the singular is datum) which you see almost everywhere in the British press or hear on TV nowadays. Only the better scientific articles get it right. “Media” is often incorrectly used as a singular, too!

Here are some more common grumbles:

• Color for colour
• License (the noun) for licence (also practice/practise)
• Gray for grey
• Skeptical for sceptical
• Defense for defence

There are many others.

There is also a trend for unnecessary duplications, saying the same thing twice in one expression, for example “close proximity” – if something is in proximity that means it is close! Similarly, I often hear “very unique” or “most unique”. If something is unique, there is just one!

American grammatical largesse also weirdly adds to prepositions: outside of, for example.

Then there are strange changes resulting from people trying to be politically correct: actresses seem to have eschewed their sex and become only actors – but the whole gender topic is dangerously fraught so perhaps I had better not go there. Also, but again not without controversy, people don’t seem to die any more, they “pass”, though whither I have no idea! Passing away is fine if you are a bit sensitive, I suppose, but “passing” is meaningless.

As a lecturer, I used to insist that students:

• Know the difference between continual and continuous, principle and principal, less and fewer, their and there, its and it’s, your and you’re, effect and affect.
• Avoid using “methodology” when you mean “method”.
• Avoid adding an aspirate to aitch.
• Know the difference between a hyphen, en dash and em dash.
• Avoid the word “herptile” when you mean herpetofauna.
• Use participles correctly (you were not stood or sat by the fire, you were standing or sitting by it).
• Realise that English has a subjunctive tense.

At the risk of being called a pedant (again), here are some other thoughts for good English on this side of the Atlantic:

• Chronic means lasting, not severe.
• Aggravate means to make worse not to vex or provoke.
• Comprise is a transitive verb (no of).
• Avoid using following to mean after.
• Do not use loan as a verb and be careful with rent, let and lease.
• Minimise means reduce to a minimum not simply lessen.
• Oblivious means unaware, not forgetful.
• Protagonist does not mean an antagonist but the first or chief (πρωτος not pro).
• Substitute is not synonymous with replace.
• Transpire means leak out or breathe through, not happen.
• Don’t confuse bring with take.

And finally, a manhole cover is NOT a person-hole cover as I once saw written!

And what about numbers? A billion is not a thousand million which is what the Americans think and is sadly increasingly adopted here in the UK: it is a million million or 10¹². The correct term for 10⁹ is a milliard (a thousand million). And for that matter, a trillion in English is strictly a million million million or 10¹⁸.

The French take a pride in protecting their language – why can’t we? I know languages evolve but surely they should not regress into errors that confuse. The British should learn and apply their grammar and linguistic definitions rather than confusingly copy Americanisms. Yes, I know many disagree with me and it seems a lost cause but so be it.

At Betts Ecology we write very many reports and I encourage all our staff to write good English generally, not just in science. As I see it, that is fundamental to effective communication.