Dashing English – – –

Normally, we don’t cross-post. However, here is an exception.

We poke fun at so many wikiHow entries that we thought it only fair to call upon a well-written and grammar-related post from its:

Home > Categories > Education and Communications > Subjects > English > English Grammar > Punctuation section.

Enjoy the following:

How to Use a Dash in an English Sentence

Source: wikiHow.com

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What’s the use?

Today there is lots of buzz around usage of use vs. utilize. What fodder for us!

The tweets (from Twitter) that got us started …

@phoefling to @GrammarCops: “*grammar rant* Whatever happened to the word ‘long’? A perfectly good word that’s been replaced by ‘lengthy’. Yuck!”

@Ms_Austen to @GrammarCops: “your description of ‘long’ similar applies to the word ‘use,’ a perfectly good word often replaced by ‘utilize.'”

@mightyredpen to @GrammarCops: “Up there with perfectly good word ‘use‘ being replaced by ‘utilize.’ Ugh.”

@mattimago (a Grammar Police Deputy) to @GrammarCops: “Utilise vs. use: I fully intend (split infinitive!) to utilise any pertinent points you post. I have no use for poor grammar.”

Then, the topic quickly turned to split infinitives … (upon which we shall dutifully follow-up and utilize in a future post). he he

@ChristinaGayle to @GrammarCops: “I like to use split infinitives from time to time. It makes me feel dangerous.”

Although the word utilize has origins as far back as the early 1800s, it seems that the computer age has put this term front and center. And, regardless of its standing as an official word in most dictionaries, it gets some people riled. Consider this usage note from dictionary.com:

Usage Note: A number of critics have remarked that utilize is an unnecessary substitute for use. It is true that many occurrences of utilize could be replaced by use with no loss to anything but pretentiousness, for example, in sentences such as ‘They utilized questionable methods in their analysis’ or ‘We hope that many commuters will continue to utilize mass transit after the bridge has reopened.’ But utilize can mean ‘to find a profitable or practical use for.’ Thus the sentence ‘The teachers were unable to use the new computers’ might mean only that the teachers were unable to operate the computers, whereas ‘The teachers were unable to utilize the new computers’ suggests that the teachers could not find ways to employ the computers in instruction.

Here’s a simple and functional distinction:

Use is the general word: (What is used often has depreciated or been diminished, sometimes completely consumed: a used automobile; All the butter has been used.) As applied to persons, use implies some selfish or sinister purpose: to use another to advance oneself. Utilize implies practical or profitable use: to utilize the means at hand, a modern system of lighting.

Plus, the dictionary definitions:

use. verb (used with object).

• to employ for some purpose; put into service; make use of: to use a knife. 
• to avail oneself of; apply to one’s own purposes: to use the facilities. 
• to expend or consume in use: We have used the money provided. 
• to treat or behave toward: He did not use his employees with much consideration. 
• to take unfair advantage of; exploit: to use people to gain one’s own ends. 
• to drink, smoke, or ingest habitually: to use drugs. 
• to habituate or accustom.
• Archaic. to practice habitually or customarily; make a practice of.

use. verb. (used without object).

• to be accustomed, wont, or customarily found (used with an infinitive expressed or understood, and, except in archaic use, now only in the past): He used to go every day. 
• Archaic. to resort, stay, or dwell customarily.

use. noun.

• the act of employing, using, or putting into service: the use of tools. 
• the state of being employed or used.
• an instance or way of employing or using something: proper use of the tool; the painter’s use of color. 
• a way of being employed or used; a purpose for which something is used: He was of temporary use. The instrument has different uses. 
• the power, right, or privilege of employing or using something: to lose the use of the right eye; to be denied the use of a library card. 
• service or advantage in or for being employed or used; utility or usefulness: of no practical use. 
• help; profit; resulting good: What’s the use of pursuing the matter? 
• occasion or need, as for something to be employed or used: Would you have any use for another calendar? 
• continued, habitual, or customary employment or practice; custom: to follow the prevailing use of such occasions. 
• Law. a. the enjoyment of property, as by the employment, occupation, or exercise of it. b. the benefit or profit of lands and tenements in the possession of another who simply holds them for the beneficiary. c. the equitable ownership of land to which the legal title is in another’s name.
• Liturgy. the distinctive form of ritual or of any liturgical observance used in a particular church, diocese, community, etc.
• usual or customary experience.

use. verb phrase.

• use up, a. to consume entirely. b. to exhaust of vigor or usefulness; finish: By the end of the war he felt used up and sick of life. 

use. Idioms.

• have no use for, a. to have no occasion or need for: She appears to have no use for the city. b. to refuse to tolerate; discount: He had no use for his brother. c. to have a distaste for; dislike: He has no use for dictators. 
• make use of, to use for one’s own purposes; employ: Charitable organizations will make use of your old furniture and clothing. 
• of no use, of no advantage or help: It’s of no use to look for that missing earring. It’s no use asking her to go. Also, no use.
• put to use, to apply; employ to advantage: What a shame that no one has put that old deserted mansion to use! 

And then there’s …

utilize. verb (used with object). Also, especially British, utilise.

• to put to use; turn to profitable account: to utilize a stream to power a mill. 

So, our usage recommendation: use use when not useful to utilize :-).

Source: dictionary.com

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Logic and the English language, part 3

A few days ago, we picked up on a thread that was going around, and we made an original contribution to an existing list.

See our previous post: Logic and the English language, part 2.

Yesterday, we got an email from a friend that took this concept even further, and now it has us on a roll …

Here is more evidence that English may not be the easiest language to learn:

• The bandage was wound around the wound.
• The farm was used to produce produce.
• The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
• We must polish the Polish furniture.
• He could  lead if he would get the lead out.
• The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
• Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
• A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
• When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
• I did not object to the object.
• The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
• There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
• They were too close to the door to close it.
• The buck does funny things when the does are present.
• A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
• To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow. (Later, the farmer also taught the sow to sew.)
• The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
• Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
• I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
• How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

And a few additions of our own:

• The violinist, a master with the bow, took a bow to the audience.
• You wouldn’t want to be late for your morning latte.
• Many decorate with holly in the holy season.
• The judge dared to convict the convict once again.
• The lather worked up quite a lather while cleaning the woodworking equipment.
• Does it take a college course to learn to make a collage?
• The august scholar was introduced in August.
• A rebel with a cause has reason to rebel.
• Do they eat lima beans in Lima, Peru?
• There is a very nice city called Nice, in France.

And, several entries from our friends at fun-with-words.com:

• Please excuse me while I think of an excuse.
• The button was so minute that it was a minute before I found it.
• It’s the referee’s job to record the new world record.
• When people abuse drugs this is called drug abuse.
• To contest the issue they held a contest.
• John became a convert after deciding to convert to another religion.
• If I need a duplicate I can use the copy machine to duplicate the letter.
• The guard will permit you to pass if you show a valid permit.
• Please put my typewriter to use because I never use it.
• They alternate between using the alternate machine and the main one.
• My grandfather is aged ninety-two so he is quite aged.
• I crooked my neck to see the man with the crooked stick.
• Extreme weather may desolate a place making it a desolate place.
• Everything I know I learned from that learned old man.
• The overture took years to perfect, but eventually it was perfect.
• I want you to separate the cards into two separate piles.
• I tried to console the controller as he stood at his console.
• John was content that the content of the box was undamaged.
• The drawer drew a picture of the cupboard and drawer.
• The lavishly decorated entrance will entrance the visitors.
• It will incense the bursar that we have spent so much on incense.
• As my mother moped about, a man on a moped rode by.
• I broke a number of bones in my right hand; it’s number than the left.
• As the charity event proceeds, the proceeds keep pouring in.
• The President will recount the events that led to a vote recount.
• I resent the fact that the letter was lost, but I have resent it.

Now, you’ve had a loose lesson on Heteronyms. wasn’t that fun?

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