Ten words or phrases you’re (probably) getting wrong

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the poker table… the dreaded card shark!

HAVE you ever got a word wrong?

I mean one of those linguistic blunders you’re blissfully oblivious to until the fateful day you overhear someone uttering a strange word that sounds oddly familiar, and you suddenly realise you’ve been mispronouncing it all these years?

We’ve all done it. It’s all too easy to get misled by a word’s appearance. For instance, there are many people who enthuse about the “picture-skew” beauty of the small ‘picturesque’ town they grew up in.

And then there’s the problem of getting misled by how a word sounds. To give a “pacific” example, confusing a word for one that sounds similar can cause an ocean of confusion.

Now, applying the Sticks and Stones Principle, you might well believe that there’s no real harm in mixing up your words so long as it doesn’t affect your meaning.

But mistaking one word for another can be downright dangerous — as can be attested by the poor paediatrician burnt out of his house by the illiterate lynch mob!

So here is a list of the top ten words or phrases you’re (probably) getting wrong:

• A moot point

People often say something is “a mute point”, but ‘mute’ means silent. The word they’re after is ‘moot’, meaning debatable.

So when in doubt, stay mute on the matter.

• Tenterhooks

A tenter is a frame for hanging cloth on to dry.

Now, being hung on a hook may well leave you tender, especially if you’re a slab of beef, but that still doesn’t make the word “tenderhooks” correct.

• Mischievous

Befitting such an impish word, an extra syllable often sneaks into the proper pronunciation of mis-cheev-us, with many people adding a gratuitous ‘i’ to stretch it out to mis-cheev-ee-us.

Sometimes that unwanted little vowel even makes its way into the written spelling (‘mischievious’).

• Spit and image

Despite the ubiquity of the phrase “spitting image” — helped no doubt by the popularity of the satirical TV show of the same name which featured latex likenesses of famous people — the actual wording is ‘spit and image’, which is believed to be derived from a biblical reference to the creation of Adam.

• Should have/could have/would have

It’s all too common to hear people say they “should of” done something, but they shouldn’t have said ‘should of’, they should have said ‘should have’.

The error comes from the contraction ‘should’ve’ — should have — with many people subsequently applying in speech what they’ve (“they of”) misheard.

• Infer

Possibly one of the most mistreated of words, ‘infer’ is forever being whipped out like a duelling gauntlet by pompous orators who mistake it as a fancy synonym for ‘imply’.

The actual difference between ‘infer’ and ‘imply’ is the same as the difference between ‘listen’ and ‘speak’: the speaker ‘implies’ something with their words, while the listener ‘infers’ something from what is said.

• Another think coming

As peculiar as it may seem, the actual phrase is not “another thing coming” but another “think”.

The original idiom was “if you think that, you have another think coming”, so no matter how odd this looks to modern eyes, you really need to have another think before using the wrong thing here.

• Card sharp

This is one that even the most persnickety language maven must surely be ambivalent on, as the commonly misused “card shark” aptly conveys the dangers of playing poker against a ruthless opponent.

But the original — and correct — phrase is ‘card sharp’, derived from the word ‘sharper’ which means a rogue or cheat.

• Derring-do

Despite all those swashbucklers he starred in, Errol Flynn never accomplished a stunt with “daring-do” as you might think, he actually performed it with ‘derring-do’ instead.

Yes, it’s basically an archaic spelling of the same thing, and the use of ‘daring’ is not only logical but arguably scans better, but it takes ‘derring-do’ to go against the flow on this one and spell the word right.

• Literally

It “literally” makes my blood boil when people misuse ‘literally’.

Well no, of course it doesn’t, it only figuratively makes my blood boil, because ‘literally’ refers to something that happens in actuality.

That’s literally its meaning.