Stubborn Stinkaroos

Let’s take a break from commas this week with an entertaining and informative grammar tip from veteran copy editor Tom Stern.

This election year’s political dialogue has divided the country into the obscenely ultra-rich one percent and the ninety-nine percent who comprise the poor, the shrinking middle class and the, I guess you could say, tastefully affluent.

Compare that with the literary one-percenters, a mulish minority of nitpickers who believe “proper” speaking and writing preserve English’s power and beauty. Most other people by contrast are unapologetically indifferent, and tend to dismiss these sticklers as socially challenged nerds and snobs.

When government policies seem to court and coddle the wealthiest one percent, populists call it a violation and betrayal of American principles.

Not so in the world of letters, where the best writers write for the one-percenters — and why not? Who better to appreciate your writing than those who study and cherish English? Besides, it’s not a class thing. Language aficionados come from all walks of life.

America has always been enamored of its rebels and mavericks — and ambivalent toward those who follow the rules. But rules and laws are the distillation of hard lessons learned by our forebears. Rules wouldn’t exist if this flawed species didn’t need them.

When grammarians say a sentence is “right” or “wrong” they mean it adheres to or defies rules that have endured through the years and proved time and again to be the straightest path to the truth.

The following is a list of bad choices that you see and hear all the time. They’re not major blunders, but they’re misguided in a way that can compromise serious discourse.

Utilize All the way back in the 1940s George Orwell blew the whistle on this pretentious word. Orwell advised writers to get over themselves and go with “use.” But use is so humble, so mundane, whereas utilize really sounds like something. Bureaucrats in particular love to use “utilize.”

Fulsome Many people take fulsome to mean “abundant” or “lavish.” But be wary of writing the likes of “He received a fulsome tribute” or “Please accept my fulsome apology.” The word actually means something darker: “excessive,” “fawning,” even “disgusting.”

Youth There aren’t many synonyms for children. After kids, young people, and youngsters, the pickings get slim, especially if you eschew cutesy-poo. So, rejecting non-options like little ones, tykes, and tots, many writers eventually come around to youth. Trouble is, youth is singular; it’s cheesy to say, “Youth today are facing new challenges.” The obvious fix is “youths today,” even though a lot of scribes think “youths” is clunky.

Cliché It’s a noun, not an adjective. Yet more and more you hear things like, “I know it sounds cliché, but …” There’s an easy remedy: just add “like a”: “I know it sounds like a cliché.” What’s so hard about adding two painless syllables? You’ll make a word nerd’s day.

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