Common+Usage+Problems3

 Nonstandard: Carl dove in the water.   Standard: Carl dove into the water.   Nonstandard: I drove the car in the garage.   Standard: I drove the car into the garage.   Both inside of and outside of are appropriate when inside or outside is a noun followed by an of phrase: "The inside of the house is attractive"; "He painted the outside of his boat dark green."   Not accepted: I feel like Susan Anderson does about consumers' rights.   Better: I feel as Susan Anderson does about consumers' rights.   Not accepted: Ralph looked like he had seen a ghost.  <span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> Better: Ralph looked as if he had seen a ghost. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> Nonstandard: Most everyone attended the game. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> Standard: Almost everyone attended the game. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">
 * __<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">hopefully __**<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> Opinion is divided about the acceptability of attaching this adverb loosely to a sentence and using it to mean "I hope": "Hopefully, the plane will arrive on schedule." This usage is gaining acceptance, but there is still strong objection to it. In college writing the safe decision is to avoid it. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">
 * __<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">imply, infer __**<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> Imply means to suggest something. Infer means to derive a certain meaning from a remark or an action. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">
 * __<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">in, into __**<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> In means "inside something." Into tells of motion from the outside to the inside of something. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">
 * __<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">inside of, outside __**__<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> **of** __<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> Inside of and outside of generally should not be used as compound prepositions. In place of the compound prepositions in "The display is inside of the auditorium" and "The pickets were waiting outside of the gate," write "Inside the auditorium" and "outside the gate." Inside of is acceptable in most formal writing when it means "in less than": "I'll be there inside of an hour." The more formal term is within. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">
 * __<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">irregardless __**<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> A nonstandard variant of regardless. Do not use it. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">
 * __<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">lead, led, lead __**<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> Lead (pronounced leed) means to go first ("You lead because you know the way"). Led is the past tense of lead ("He led us five miles out of the way"). Lead is a heavy metal; also the graphite in a pencil ("The books are as heavy as lead"). <span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">
 * __<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">lie, lay __**<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> **Lie** means to recline. Lay means to put or place something. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">
 * __<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">like, as, as if __**<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> While the use of like as a conjunction is common in speaking, its use as a conjunction is not fully established in writing. Like is better used as a preposition. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">
 * __<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">loose, lose __**<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> Loose means to be free, not close together ("He has two loose front teeth"). To lose means to suffer loss ("Do not lose your tickets"). <span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">
 * __<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">moral, morale __**<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> Moral means good ("We admire a moral person"); it is also a lesson on conduct ("The moral of the story. . . "). Morale is a mental condition, spirit ("The team's morale was low?"). <span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">
 * __<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">most, almost __**<span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> Almost is an adverb meaning "nearly." Most is an adjective meaning "the greater part." <span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">