Common English usage misconceptions

This list comprises widespread modern beliefs about <a href="/facts/English_language/tpkxGt7b">English</a> <a href="/facts/Usage_(language)/arBgNK1u">language usage</a> that are documented by a reliable source to be misconceptions.

With no authoritative <a href="/facts/Language_academy/3n3dLmfY">language academy</a>, <a href="/facts/Linguistic_prescription/B8KvsTEf">guidance</a> on English language usage can come from many sources. This can create problems, as described by Reginald Close: Teachers and textbook writers often invent rules which their students and readers repeat and perpetuate. These rules are usually statements about English usage which the authors imagine to be, as a rule, true. But statements of this kind are extremely difficult to formulate both simply and accurately. They are rarely altogether true; often only partially true; sometimes contradicted by usage itself. Sometimes the contrary to them is also true.
Many <a href="/facts/Usage/arBgNK1u">usage</a> forms are commonly perceived as <a href="/facts/Nonstandard_dialect/H6jyeQwE">nonstandard</a> or <a href="/facts/Error_(linguistics)/acb1lDmy">errors</a> despite being widely accepted or endorsed by authoritative descriptions.[a]
Perceived violations of correct English usage elicit visceral reactions in many people. For example, respondents to a 1986 <a href="/facts/BBC/qFateIz8">BBC</a> poll were asked to submit "the three points of grammatical usage they most disliked". Participants stated that their noted points "'made their blood boil', 'gave a pain to their ear', 'made them shudder', and 'appalled' them".

Common English usage misconceptions open-in-new

Common English usage misconceptions