132. Tricky Word Contrasts 4

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It is useful to analyse similar-looking English expressions in order to prevent or stop their confusion

THE PROBLEM OF TRICKY WORD CONTRASTS

Most users of English have encountered vocabulary items that are easily confused because they resemble each other in spelling and/or meaning. A well-known example – often explained in English language coursebooks – is principle versus principal. However, many others are not found there and can remain unexplained and sometimes not even recognised.

It is vocabulary pairs like this, especially ones that are likely to occur in professional writing, that are the focus of the present post, just as they are of various others with a similar title (see the “Posts on Specific Words” page for a complete list). Other Guinlist posts that deal with vocabulary confusions include 16. Ways of Distinguishing Similar Words,  44. Troublesome Prepositional Verbs,  94. Essay Instruction Words and 211. General Words for People.

For some grammar confusions, see 129. Differences between Necessity Verbs, 133. Confusions of Similar Structures and 217. Tricky Grammar Contrasts. For some pronunciation ones, see 144. Words that are Often Heard Wrongly.

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EXPLANATIONS OF CONTRASTS

1. TAKE PLACE versus EXIST

TAKE PLACE, a synonym of OCCUR and HAPPEN, expresses an action, EXIST a state:

(a) Registration takes place every year in July.

(b) The Roman Empire existed for 1000 years.

The ability of verbs to express a state is sometimes underestimated. There are, in fact, very many English verbs that have it (see 66. Types of Passive Verb Meaning).

The indicator of whether an action or a state verb is needed is the verb’s subject. Registration in (a) is an “action” noun, similar in meaning to the verb registering (see 131. Uses of “Action” Nouns). The Roman Empire in (b) is clearly not an action. If the wrong choice is made between an action verb and a state one, the sentence is likely to sound illogical (see 170. Logical Errors in Written English).

Here is a confusion of the above two verbs that I once encountered:

(c) *An ethnic conflict area took place nearby.

The subject here is area, a clear candidate for EXIST. Perhaps the writer wrongly took conflict – a candidate for TAKE PLACE – as the subject instead (for a reason why it is not, see 12. Singular and Plural Verb Choices). It is also possible that the true subject area induced the wrong verb because it has a similar meaning to place.

Note, finally, that TAKE PLACE is not always the best choice with an action subject. Some action subjects may alternatively or even compulsorily link with the passive form of a “dummy” verb like MAKE, GIVE or UNDERTAKE, e.g. an effort was made, a presentation is being given, a study has been undertaken. For details, see 173. “Do Research” or “Make Research”?.

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2. REALISE versus EFFECT

The most usual meaning of REALISE is “appreciate” or “discover”, e.g.:

(d) New parents quickly realise the demands made by babies.

A common mistake is to think that the meaning is “make real”, or “cause to exist”. Sentence (d) does not mean that parents always meet the demands of their babies! The mistake is an understandable interpretation of REAL + ISE, especially by speakers of a mother tongue where a similarly-spelt word actually has that meaning (see 284. Words with a Surprising Meaning). In English, EFFECT is the verb that means “cause to exist”, like this:

(e) Change must be effected at the highest level.

Care must be taken not to confuse EFFECT with AFFECT (see 81. Tricky Word Contrasts 2).

A further cause of confusion is that REALISE can very occasionally mean the same as EFFECT, for example in the expressions realise an ambition and realise one’s assets. I suspect, however, that very few object nouns allow REALISE instead of EFFECT.

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3. GIVE ATTENTION versus PAY ATTENTION

These alternatives might be used in sentences like the following:

(f) Einstein gave/paid attention to the problem of gravity.

Gave here suggests that Einstein merely turned his attention away from something else (see 244. Special Uses of GIVE, #5). Paid, however, suggests that he increased his attention to the maximum: perhaps he had been only a little interested before in the problem of gravity, or even daydreaming!

A grammatical point to note is that GIVE allows his (or other possessive adjective) after it while PAY does not. An alternative to GIVE is TURN, but then you must also have his or equivalent. Whichever verb is used, the whole phrase is an example of both a “collocation” and a “prepositional” verb (see 123. Prepositional Verbs Containing a Noun).

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4. NOTE versus NOTICE

Noticing is becoming aware of something that is not immediately obvious or significant, probably without having specifically looked for it. On the other hand, noting something is seeing a possible significance in it and making an effort to remember it, regardless of how it was observed. Consider the following:

(g) Astronomers noted a strange brightness in the sky.

We cannot tell from this whether the strange brightness was observed accidentally or through a deliberate search. The message is that astronomers considered it important enough to be remembered or communicated, perhaps in writing.

Both verbs can introduce a that statement. The kind that constitutes reported speech is likely to follow NOTE (see 150. Verb Choices with Reported Speech); other that statements – typically indicating an event or situation – may follow either verb. This means that, in literature reviews, the ideas of another writer should be introduced with NOTE (usually in the present simple tense), while their research actions may have either NOTE or NOTICE (in the past simple with -ed: see 76. Tenses of Citation Verbs). Compare:

(h) Williams (2015, p. 62) noted/noticed that the colour changed.

(i) Williams (2015, p. 62) notes that the colour will change.

Both verbs can also introduce a how statement (see 271. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 3, #5).

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5. “Until” versus “Till”

It is not so much meaning or grammar that distinguishes these as where they are used – their “register” (see 16. Ways of Distinguishing Similar Words, #1). Both indicate the end of a duration whose beginning is already established (see 258. Saying How Long Something Lasts, #2). Both can be either a conjunction or a preposition (see 174. Eight Things to Know about Conjunctions, #8). Till is more likely in speech and poetry, until in formal writing.

It is easy to mix up the spellings of the two words. There is a need to remember that it is the longer word that ends with a single “l”, the shorter with a double one. This apparent discrepancy in fact follows the general English spelling rule that a final consonant after a short vowel (represented by “i”) is doubled in one-syllable words but not in longer ones (see 248. When to Double a Consonant, #1).

Occasionally, I have seen till written as *’til. This shows awareness of the rule, but is not an actual possibility.

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6. “in search of” versus “in a search for”

While both of these involve the idea of chasing something lost, only the latter suggests a formal organised operation. Compare:

(j) The police are out in a search for the murder weapon.

(k) Socrates spent his whole life in search of Truth.

We understand here that Socrates’ search was not formally organised in the way the police one was.

The grammar of the two expressions is a clue to their meaning. The presence of a before search in (l) marks it as countable, while its absence in (m) marks it as uncountable (see 110. Nouns without “the” or “a”). The difference that this makes to the meaning is the one examined in depth in the post 19. Activity Locations: a search (+ for) is a typical context or location of an activity, while uncountable search (+ of) is the activity itself. The idea of organization is perhaps suggested more by the first of these meanings than the second.

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7. “Apparent” versus “Obvious”

Most people know that obvious describes easily-seen facts that do not need to be explained. The real question is the meaning of apparent. It is confusing because there are two rather contradictory possibilities.

The first meaning of apparent – often the one that new users of English appreciate first – is very like that of obvious: A close synonym is observable. If there is a difference between obvious and apparent used with this meaning, it is perhaps that obvious implies visibility that hardly anyone will fail to notice, while apparent is a little less certain in this respect.

The second use of apparent is almost the opposite of the first: it says that what it describes seems to be real but is not actually so. Thus, an apparent success and apparent difficulties can imply no success or difficulties at all (see 13. Hidden Negatives). The meaning is similar to that of seeming.

The ability of apparent to express these two different meanings should not be a great surprise given that it is derived from the verb APPEAR, which has similar variability. APPEAR before a complement (e.g. appears easy), or a to verb (e.g. appeared to fail) means “seem”, but before other types of word “become visible”. For more words that can express either a positive or a negative meaning, see 319. Superficiality.

The meanings of apparent also have grammatical requirements: the “seeming” one usually needs the partner noun directly after – not before with BE or similar in between (see 184. Adjectives with Limited Mobility, #6). By contrast, apparent meaning “observable” can go in either position.

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8. “tiring”versus “tiresome”

Only the first of these means “causing tiredness”. It could describe causes of either physical or mental tiredness, such as exercise or concentration. Tiresome, on the other hand, suggests a challenge to interest and patience, making it close in meaning to irritating. Typical words that it might describe include childishness, chores and complaints.

131. Uses of “Action” Nouns

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There are various reasons why writers might prefer to express an action with a noun instead of a verb

CHARACTERISTICS OF “ACTION” NOUNS

Various Guinlist posts highlight the fact that in English an action can sometimes be expressed as easily by a noun as by a verb. Nouns with this use (e.g. movement) are usually very similar to a particular verb (MOVE). Many have a characteristic suffix (-ment, -tion, -al, -ure, -ence etc.), but some, like change and increase, do not (see 249. Action Noun Endings). Most action nouns are uncountable but also usable in a countable way to express a different, non-action meaning (see 280. Alternative Meanings of “Action” Nouns).

The properties of action nouns make them very similar to gerunds – verbs given noun-like properties by the addition of -ing (see 70. Gerunds); the two forms are indeed often interchangeable:

(a) Success (= Succeeding) in examinations follows hard work (= working hard).

However, action nouns are not exactly the same as gerunds. They cannot, for example, replace a gerund referred to by an earlier it (see 103. Representing a Later Statement with “It”), whereas in some other places they are the better choice. This post is about situations where action nouns are common. Much should be understood as applicable to gerunds as well (though perhaps with slightly less formality), unless there is a statement to the contrary.

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ACTION NOUN USES

1. Saying Something about an Action

Compare the following:

(b) Penicillin was discovered by Fleming.

(c) The discovery of penicillin (by Fleming) has saved many lives.

Sentence (b) is focussed on naming an event, and does so with a verb. Sentence (c) names the same event, but is more focussed on adding something extra about it (perhaps assuming the event itself to be already familiar to the reader – see 156. Mentioning what the Reader Knows Already). To achieve this new focus, the event is made into the subject of another verb, causing it to be a noun. Its own subject and object then need prepositions before them (see 31. Prepositions after Action Nouns 1).

In other cases, an action might be the object of a verb or follow a preposition:

(d) Doctors celebrate the discovery of penicillin.

(e) Many lives have been saved since the discovery of penicillin.

Gerunds also have a focus-changing use, but are rarely a straight swap for an action noun. They seem to link their action more closely with the subject of the sentence. Sentence (d) gives no information about who discovered penicillin, but replacing the discovery of with discovering would say doctors were responsible. In (e), no replacement is possible at all: discovering would nonsensically attribute the discovery to many lives.

One kind of information that professional writers seem especially fond of providing about actions is their relation to other actions – a function typically associated with conjunctions, e.g.:

(f) If excess alcohol is consumed, consciousness is lost.

The conjunction if here expresses the relation of cause-effect between the two underlined verbs (see 179. Deeper Meanings of “If”). For other common conjunction meanings, see 174. Eight Things to Know about Conjunctions, #2.

Sentences like (f) often allow paraphrase with an action noun:

(g) Consumption of excess alcohol causes loss of consciousness.

Here, verb-linking if has become the noun-linking verb causes. Common conjunction-replacing verbs are:

as, because, if, since, when (All Sentence-Starting)
ALLOW, CAUSE, CONTRIBUTE TO, BRING ABOUT, ENABLE, ENSURE, FACILITATE, INDUCE, LEAD TO, NECESSITATE, PERMIT, PREVENT (+ negative result), RESULT IN

as, because, if, since, when (All Mid-Sentence)
DEPEND ON, INVOLVE, REQUIRE, RESULT FROM

after, before, when
FOLLOW, PRECEDE

when, while
ACCOMPANY, PARALLEL

As this shows, cause-effect verbs are particularly common. For more about them, see 32. Expressing Consequences and 65. Verbs that Mean “Must” or “Can”. For more on the while correspondence, see 225. Simultaneous Occurrence.

A valid question when an action noun can replace a conjunction is why it should do so, given that conjunctions are simpler. I think action nouns are sometimes overused, but one possible advantage is that, like connectors, they – or rather the verb accompanying them – allow the relation to be expressed more precisely, since conjunctions can be quite vague (see 40. Conjunctions versus Connectors). Some action nouns, moreover, are technical terms with no verbal equivalent.

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2. Showing a Link between Sentences

One possible reason for a noun action being familiar to its reader is its mention in a previous sentence, like this:

(h) Moisture evaporates in the sun’s heat. This evaporation enables clouds to form.

In such situations, the likely use of repetition incidentally helps readers to follow the flow of a text – it is what I have elsewhere called “good repetition for linking” (see 24. Good and Bad Repetition). It is especially frequent in process descriptions. Adding this is common, as it is with other immediately-repeated nouns (see 28. Pronoun Errors).

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3. Avoiding Undesirable Words

Words may be considered undesirable because they seem informal (e.g. I/we/you), or too obvious (e.g. the police arrested the suspect), or repetitive, or unknown (e.g. someone broke the window), or a secret. A familiar avoidance tool is passive verbs, with which the subject of their active equivalent can be omitted.

Action nouns resemble passive verbs in allowing avoidance of an undesirable verb subject. They are particularly useful when a verb cannot be made passive because it is either intransitive (see 113. Verbs that cannot be Passive) or already passive, as in these examples:

(i) The river flows northwards.

(j) I was interviewed in the summer.

In (i), if river is an obvious or repetitive word, it can be avoided by saying The flow is …, while informal I in (j) disappears with The interview took place … . In both cases, the action noun accompanies an appropriate “dummy” verb (is, took place) to keep the sentence grammatical. The exact verb chosen depends on the action noun (see 173. “Do Research” or “Make Research”?). For more examples of subject avoidance with action nouns, see 46. How to Avoid “I”, “We” and “You”.

Action nouns with a dummy verb can also enable an unwanted object to be avoided, such as the obvious matter in the following:

(k) The committee made a decision (= decided the matter).

For more examples, see 39. “Decide” or “Make a Decision”? Note that subjects and objects of verbs do not have to be dropped with action nouns. For ways of keeping them, see 49. Prepositions after Action Nouns 2.

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4. Avoiding a Passive Verb

Sentence (j) above illustrates a passive verb that is unsuitable because of its subject (I). Sometimes, however, a passive verb is considered unsuitable just because it is passive. This blog frequently defends passive verbs (see 27. How to Avoid Passive Verbs), but admits that sometimes their avoidance might be better. In the following example, an action noun seems preferable to the underlined passive verb:

(l) Failure to declare restricted goods will necessitate their being confiscated (by customs).

The passive here usefully enables the obvious word customs to be unmentioned, but its need for being makes it unwieldy. The action noun confiscation is neater because its passive meaning does not need grammatical additions like being (see 298. Grammar Meanings without Grammar, #6). For similar examples, see 65. Verbs that Mean “Must” or “Can”.

The passive meaning of confiscation in (l) is fairly obvious. Sometimes, however, this meaning needs indicating with a special verb (see 21. Active Verbs with non-Active Meanings). Common ones are HAVE (e.g. have a shower: see 116. Rarer Uses of HAVE), SEE (e.g. see changes: see 315. Ways of Using SEE, #7), EXPERIENCE and UNDERGO.

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5. Naming Actions in Contexts Demanding Nouns

With some action meanings, the surrounding words make a verb ungrammatical. Suppose, for example, the meaning of the verb MEMORISE needed to be added to the following:

(m) Foreign language learning requires motivation and… .

The need here is for a noun, not a verb, because there is continuation of a list starting with a noun (motivation), the rule being that list members after the first must repeat its grammatical form (see 93. Good and Bad Lists). The gerund form memorising could be used in this situation, but the action noun memorisation better parallels motivation.

Another common place requiring a noun is after a preposition (see 84. Seven Things to Know about Prepositions, #1). Some prepositions are more likely than others to introduce an action, including purpose-showing for (see 60. Purpose Sentences with “for”), aim-showing at (see 226. Words with Complicated Grammar 2, # 3) and means-showing by or through (see 73. Prepositions for Saying How), e.g.:

(n) Water leaves the ocean through evaporation.

One advantage of means-showing prepositions is that they can minimise excessively short sentences or overuse of and (as in Water evaporates and leaves the ocean – see 210. Process Descriptions, #5).

Gerunds too are possible after action-introducing prepositions – indeed, they may be preferable when combined with an object-like noun, as they do not necessitate of in between (cp. constructing X versus construction of X – see 70. Gerunds).

Also noun-requiring are titles and headings (see 178. How to Write a Heading). For example, instead of X is Analysed, a heading would normally be Analysis of X. Action nouns in headings seem especially likely to echo essay instruction verbs.

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6. Asking “How” Questions Indirectly

Indirect questions begin sometimes with a question word like why or how, and sometimes with a similar-meaning noun like reason or way (see 185. Noun Synonyms of Question Words). However, indirect “how” questions, can instead begin with an action noun made from the verb in their direct equivalent, like this:

(o) This chapter explains demand measurement (= how demand is measured).

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PRACTICE EXERCISE (ACTION NOUNS)

Interested readers are invited to try and reword each of the following with an action noun (Answers below).

1. When temperatures rise, clouds form (Showing a relation).
2. It is necessary to analyse how colds are spread (Asking a “how” question).
3. Forests are being destroyed at an alarming rate (Avoiding a passive).
4. Nobody likes it when they lose vital data (Talking about an action).
5. Herds of wildebeest periodically migrate across Tanzania seeking food. An amazing spectacle is created (Showing text links).
6. Workers can reduce malaria if they minimise mosquito bites (Action after by).
7. To alleviate poverty, the Government must act (Showing a relation).
8. Visual aids will help an audience to enjoy a presentation (Avoiding an unwanted verb subject).
9. You must not take photographs (Avoiding an unwanted subject).
10. It is important to observe changes (Talking about an action).

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Suggested Answers (Action Nouns Underlined)

1. A rise in temperatures causes the formation of clouds.
2. It is necessary to analyse the spread of colds.
3. The destruction of forests is happening at an alarming rate.
4. Nobody likes the loss of vital data.
5. Herds of wildebeest periodically migrate across Tanzania seeking food. This migration creates an amazing spectacle.
6. Workers can reduce malaria by minimisation of mosquito bites.
7. The alleviation of poverty requires Government action.
8. Visual aids will help (audience) enjoyment of a presentation.
9. Photography is prohibited/not allowed.
10. Observation of changes is important.

130. Formal Abbreviations

There are different kinds of abbreviated word, some more likely in formal writing than others

THE PROBLEM OF ABBREVIATIONS IN FORMAL WRITING

Abbreviated words can be a problem in both reading and writing formal English. Readers may find some of them hard to understand, while writers have to know not just how to abbreviate, but also when and when not to do it.

This post aims to help out in all of these areas. It does not offer a comprehensive list of abbreviations in English, since those can be found in most good dictionaries and on many websites. Instead, it indicates which kinds of abbreviations are most possible in formal writing, and focuses on one kind – Latin abbreviations – which is particularly used there but can be quite difficult to understand or remember.

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TYPES OF ABBREVIATIONS IN ENGLISH

An abbreviation is a word or phrase shortened by the removal of letters, for example pg. instead of page. It is not to be confused with abbreviation (uncountable), the procedure of shortening a word, phrase, sentence, paragraph or more by removing some of its parts (for more on this kind of countable/ uncountable contrast, see 14. Action Outcomes). Abbreviations are also not the same as abbreviated sentences (see 158. Abbreviated Sentences). 

The idea of “parts removal” makes it easy to distinguish abbreviations from symbols. Symbols can also be shortened written forms of words, but they are created by replacement of letters rather than their simple removal. Examples are $, @ and &. Symbols are found quite often in formal writing (for a discussion of %, see 201. Words with Complicated Grammar 1, #2); however, they are not the focus of this post.

Some abbreviations, called acronyms, are of multi-word names of people, organizations, countries or institutions, made with just the first letter of each word in the name. Capital letters are normally preferred and in modern usage there are no full stops. Examples are FDR (the 1940s American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt), BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), UAR (United Arab Emirates) and GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education – see 137. Words that Reflect English Culture). Such abbreviations are quite common and easy to handle in formal writing.

Similar to acronyms is aka (= alternatively known as), which introduces an alternative name to one mentioned just before it (see the end of 206. Ways of Conveying a Name). It is formed in the same way as acronyms but is rather informal and uses small-case letters, perhaps because it does not represent a noun-like idea.

Another type of abbreviation is made by removing one or more syllables from a word, especially its end (syllables are defined in the post 125. Stress & Emphasis). Examples are admin(istration), advert(isement), exam(ination), (re)fridge(rator) and uni(versity). This kind of abbreviation is not often found in formal writing because it is usually very informal (though it may appear within graphics – see abbrev. in the table below). It becomes more acceptable only if, after time, it becomes the normal way of saying the word, in which case it ceases even to be thought of as an abbreviation. Words that have evolved like this include cab(riolet), lunch(eon), (omni)bus, rail(way) and perhaps (aero)plane.

Other abbreviations are made by removing most of a word or phrase, especially the vowels, and representing the rest normally in lower case letters with a full stop at the end. These are not common in formal writing, but there are some notable exceptions, including cm. and other measurements (“centimetre”), cp. (“compare”), ed. or eds. (“editor/s”), Mt. (“Mount”), pg. or p. (“page”), pto. (“please turn over”) and re. (“reference”).

We find ed. or eds. in bibliographies after editor names (see 197. The Language of Bibliographies), pg. or p. before page numbers both inside and outside bibliographies (see 76. Tenses of Citation Verbs), pto. at the bottom of pages in important documents like forms and exam papers, and re. at the start of some formal letters.

The other main type of abbreviation – the one that the rest of this post is about – is derived from words and phrases taken from another language, Latin.

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ABBREVIATIONS DERIVED FROM LATIN

The Latin language is no longer spoken today, but it has had a major impact on English. There are numerous English words derived from Latin (see 45. Latin Clues to English Spelling,  108. Formal and Informal Words,  146. Some Important Prefix Types and 172. Multi-Use Suffixes), while actual Latin expressions are common in some special fields like law, medicine and philosophy (e.g. de facto, a priori, in situ, inter alia). All types of academic writing use special abbreviations of Latin words. Here are the most common ones:

Common Latin Abbreviations

One common Latin abbreviation that is not greatly used in formal writing is NB (= Nota Bene = “This is important” – see 199. Importance and Unimportance). It may occur within a table, chart or graph, and is especially useful in note-making.

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USING LATIN ABBREVIATIONS

The following are noteworthy points regarding the use of the the above-listed Latin abbreviations.

AD – commonly used after dates in history writing – is now rejected by some writers because they feel it could cause offence to readers who are not Christians. The problem is the fact that D stands for Domini, meaning “Lord”, a name for Christ that implies belief in him. The proposed alternative is CE (Christian Era).

ca. is especially common before numbers. In facilitating vagueness, it is a useful device for “hedging” (see 95. Making Statements more Uncertain 1).

e.g. and i.e. (or viz.) are both used, with a comma before and no comma after, to introduce noun-form detail. The former says that what follows is some of a previously-mentioned general class, while the latter says it is all. For example, after the general class primary colours, one might say say e.g. red but i.e. (or viz.) red, yellow and blue.

Note that both abbreviations can be replaced by their corresponding connector (for example and in other words), but the reverse is not always true: these connectors are the only possibility before detail that is in sentence rather than noun form (see 226. Words with Complicated Grammar 2, #4). For more about both abbreviations, see 48. Tricky Word Contrasts 1 and 54. Sentence Lists 1: Incidental.

etc. is similar to e.g. but must come after an incomplete list rather than before. It is especially useful when the list is introduced by a colon (see 1. Simple Example-Giving). It cannot directly follow and (see 303. Confusions of Similar Structures 4, #4).

et al. is occasionally found in the kind of abbreviated reference that academic texts often include next to quoted or paraphrased words originating in another text (see 76. Tenses of Citation Verbs). However, it will not usually be repeated in the corresponding fuller reference in the bibliography at the end of the text (see 197. The Language of Bibliographies). Its message is that at least two other authors collaborated with the one mentioned, the names of whom can be found in the bibliography.

ff. is sometimes written after a page number to show that the page in question is only the first of a sequence to consult.

ibid. and op cit. can both replace a standard abbreviated reference when it is the same as one mentioned earlier. The difference between them is perhaps one of distance from the earlier mention: ibid. after short distances with no other sources mentioned in between, op. cit. otherwise.

q.v. resembles cf.: both invite the reader to view an alternative text (see 128. Imperative Verbs in Formal Writing). However, q.v. follows the name of the text or its topic, while cf. precedes it. Moreover, the text or topic mentioned before q.v. is not likely to be in a different document.

(sic) is found inside quoted words. It emphasizes that the word before it is what the source text says, and not quoted inaccurately. In doing so, it suggests that the quoting writer thinks a different spelling or word would have been more appropriate. It aims, in effect, to shield the quoting writer from any criticism that the wording in question might incur.