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MICHAEL S WAN Practical English Usage Fully Revised International Edition • complete topic-by-topic grammar • guide to over 250 vocabulary problems O X FO R D PRACTICAL ENGLISH USAGE Michael Swan PRACTICAL ENGLISH USAGE Fourth Edition OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, X2 dp, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in ccrtain other countries © Michael Swan 2016 The moral rights of the author have been asserted First published in 2016 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 10 No unauthorized photocopying All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the ELT Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this work ISBN: 978 o 19 420246 Printed in China This book is printed on paper from certified and well-managed sources A C KN OW LE D GE M EN TS The authors and publisher are grateful to those who have given permission to reproduce thefollowing extracts and adaptations ofcopyright material: Entry 282.2 - Extracts from “Errors & Omissions: Another distinctively British usage gets lost on its way across the Atlantic" by Guy Kelcny, www.independent.co.uk, 27 August 2010 Reproduced by permission of The Independent Sources: Entry 287.3 - The Old Man and the Sea (Kindle Edition) by Ernest Hemingway (Scribner, 2002) Entry 287.3 - Tortilla Hat (Penguin Modem Classics - Kindle Edition) by John Stcinbeck (Penguin, 2000), Enti> 316.5 Scots Leid Associe, www.lallans.co.uk Although every effort has been made to trace and contact copyright holders before publication, this has not been possible in some cases We apologisefor any apparent infringement ofcopyright and, if notified, the publisher will be pleased to rectify any errors or omissions at the earliest possible opportunity Dedication To John Eckersley, who first encouraged my interest in this kind of thing Acknowledgements I am grateful to all the people who have helped me with the preparation of this fourth edition I owe a particular debt to Professor Bas Aarts of University College, London, and Dr Catherine Walter, of Linacre College, Oxford, who both read all of the material in draft, and whose detailed comments and suggestions have substantially improved the book I am equally indebted to Professor Loretta Gray of Central Washington University, who also read the whole text, and whose comprehensive advice on questions of American usage has provided valuable support for this aspect of the revision Many teachers in different countries were good enough to respond to a request for suggestions for possible additions and improvements: my thanks to the individuals and organisations concerned My thanks also to members of the staff of the London School of English, who kindly participated in a very constructive workshop designed to explore ways of using the book Several specialists have generously shared their knowledge of specific areas of language and usage, and numerous teachers, students and colleagues have taken the trouble to make comments and suggestions regarding particular entries Their input, too, has benefited the book considerably I must also reacknowledge my debt to the many consultants and correspondents whose help and advice with the preparation of earlier editions continue as an important contribution to the fourth Any pedagogic grammarian owes an enormous debt to the academic linguists on whose research he or she is parasitic There is not enough space to mention all the scholars of the last hundred years or so on whose work I have drawn directly or indirectly, even if I had a complete record of my borrowings But I must at least pay homage to two monumental reference works of the present generation: the Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, by Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech and Svartvik (Longman, 1985), and the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, by Huddleston, Pullum and others (Cambridge University Press, 2002) Their authoritative accounts of the facts of English structure and usage constitute an essential source of information for anyone writing pedagogic grammar materials today Finally, it is with particular pleasure that I express my gratitude, once again, to the editorial, design and production team at Oxford University Press, whose professional expertise is matched only by their concern to make an author's task as trouble-free as possible page vi Contents summary Page Acknowledgements vi Introduction viii-xii Contents overview xiii-xix Language terminology xx-xxix Phonetic alphabet XXX Practical English Usage Grammar Sections 1-28: entries 1-320 Vocabulary Sections 29-31: entries 321-635 Index page vii Introduction What is Practical English Usage? Practical English Usage is a combined usage guide and learner's grammar It is intended mainly for advanced students and teachers of English as a foreign or second language; it may also be useful to teacher trainers and materials writers It is not addressed to native speakers of English, who need a rather different kind of reference book A usage guide Usage guides deal with problem points: words and structures that people have difficulty with, or disagree about English, like all languages, is full of problems for the foreign learner Some of these points are easy to explain - for instance, the formation of questions, the difference between since and for, or the meaning of after all Other problems are more tricky, and cause difficulty even for advanced students and teachers How exactly is the present perfect used? When we use past tenses to be polite? What are the differences between at, on and in with expressions of place? We can say a chair leg - why not a cat-iegi When can we use the expression so? When is the used with superlatives? Is unless the same as if not? What are the differences between come and go, between each and every, between big, large and great, or between fairly, quite, rather and pretty? Is it correct to say There's three more bottles in thefridge? How you actually say X = 12? And so on, and so on Practical English Usage is a guide to problems of this kind It deals with over 1,000 points which regularly cause difficulty to foreign students of English It will be useful, for example, to a learner who is not sure how to use a particular structure, or who has made a mistake and wants to find out why it is wrong It will also be helpful to a teacher who is looking for a clear explanation of a difficult language point There is very full coverage of grammar, as well as explanations of a large number of common vocabulary problems There are also some entries designed to clarify more general questions (e.g formality, slang, the nature of standard English and dialects) which students and teachers may find themselves concerned with Problems are mostly explained in short separate entries This makes it possible to give a dear complete treatment of each point, and enables the user to concentrate just on the question that he or she needs information about In longer entries, basic information is generally given first, followed by more detailed explanations and discussion of more advanced points A complete student's grammar The grammatical entries in Practical English Usage are grouped into 28 Sections, each dealing with a major grammatical topic (e.g present tenses, passives, nouns and noun phrases, prepositions, relative clauses) So the book can be used not only as a guide to particular usage problems, but also as a systematic reference grammar For users who like to work in this way, each Section begins with one or two pages giving a general introduction to the grammatical topic, together with a list of common mistakes that are dealt with in the entries that follow page viii Vocabulary The grammar Sections include a good deal of information about the structures used with particular words In addition, the last three Sections of the book deal specifically with vocabulary questions, and include an A-Z guide to over 250 common word problems of various kinds Approach and style I have tried to make the presentation as practical as possible Each entry contains an explanation of a problem, examples of correct usage, and (when this is useful) examples of typical mistakes In some cases, an explanation may be somewhat different from that found in many learners' grammars; this is because the rules traditionally given for certain points (e.g conditionals or indirect speech) are not always accurate or helpful Explanations are, as far as possible, in simple everyday language Where it has been necessary to use grammatical terminology, I have generally preferred to use traditional terms that are simple and easy to understand, except where this would be seriously misleading Some of these terms (e.g future tense) would be regarded as unsatisfactory by academic grammarians, but I am not writing for specialists There is a glossary of the terminology used in the book on pages xx-xxix The kind of English described The explanations deal mainly with standard everyday southern British English, but contrasts between British and American English are given detailed attention There are also brief notes on several other varieties (e.g Australian and Indian English) Information about stylistic differences (e.g between formal and informal usage, or spoken and written language) is provided where this is appropriate Correctness and rules If people say that a form is not 'correct', they can mean several different things They may for instance be referring to a sentence like bhtweseen her yesterday, which normally only occurs in the English of foreigners They may be thinking of a usage like less people (instead offewer people), which is common in standard English but regarded as wrong by some people Or they may be talking about forms like ahrt or 'double negatives', which are used in speech by many British and American people, but which not occur in the standard dialects and are not usually written This book is mainly concerned with the first kind of 'correctness7: the differences between British or American English and 'foreign' English However, there is also information about cases of divided usage in standard English, and about a few important dialect forms The rules given in this book are descriptive: they explain what actually happens in standard spoken and written English Some usage guides give prescriptive rules - rules devised by people who feel that the language should be tidied up or protected against corruption Such rules not always correspond to actual usage (the rule about not using less with plurals is an example) In Practical English Usage, I avoid giving rules which not describe the language as it is actually used, though I mention their existence where this is useful page ỈX What this book does not Practical English Usage is not a complete guide to the English language As the title suggests, its purpose is practical: to give learners and their teachers the most important information they need in order to deal with common language problems Within this framework, the explanations are as complete and accurate as I can make them However, it is not always helpful or possible in a book of this kind to deal with all the details of a complex structural point; so readers may well find occasional exceptions to some of the grammatical rules given here Equally, the book does not aim to replace a dictionary While it gives information about common problems with the use of a number of words, it does not attempt to describe other meanings or uses of the words beside those points that are selected for attention Nor does it attempt to cover all the vocabulary problems that learners may meet: for this, another complete book would be needed Changes in the fourth edition After consultation with users, the alphabetical organisation which was used in previous editions has been replaced by a thematic arrangement (see above), so as to make it easier to search for information A number of amendments have also been made to particular entries to reflect recent changes in the language for instance, the reduced frequency of some modal verbs, the disappearance of shall, or cases where British English is adopting American usage How much mistakes matter? It depends on how much people need, or want, a high level of correctness when speaking or writing another language For many learners this is important - for instance for work, examinations, or their own personal goals - and Practical English Usage will help them to approach standard British/American native-speaker usage However, it it is important for such learners not to become obsessed with correctness, or to worry every time they make a mistake It is quite unnecessary to speak or write a language like a native speaker in order to communicate effectively, and very few adults in fact achieve a perfect command of another language For some learners, on the other hand, accuracy is relatively unimportant: people can use English successfully for international communication even when their grammar differs considerably from native-speaker models However, too many such differences can make a speaker or writer difficult to understand, so it is good even for these learners to aim at a reasonable level of correctness Note also that 'mistake' is a relative term The mistakes listed in this book are wrong if produced by someone aiming to write standard British or American English They would not necessarily be incorrect in some other varieties of the language How to find things: the Index The best way to find information about a particular point is to look in the Index at the end of the book Most points arc indexed under several different names, so it is not difficult to locate the entry you need For instance, if you want to know about using to instead of a whole infinitive, in structures like I hope to, I'd like to, you can find the number of the entry where this is explained by looking in the Index under 'to', 'infinitives', 'ellipsis' or 'leaving out words' (On the other hand, it would obviously not be helpful to look under 'hope' or 'want': the rule is a general one about infinitive structures, not about these two verbs in particular.) pagex Determiners: a/an and the; my, your, etc; this, that, etc Section 12 b any one member of a class We can use a/an when we talk about any one member of a class A doctor must like people (= any doctor) / would like to live in an old house (= any old house) c classifying and defining We can use a!an when we classify or define people and things - when we say what they are, what job they do, or what they are used for She's a doctor I ’m looking forward to being a grandmother, A glider is a plane with no engine Don't use your plate as an ashtray d descriptions A/art is common before nouns that are used in descriptions She's a nice person That was a lovely evening He's got a friendly face It's an extremely hot day when a/an cannot be left out We not normally leave out a/an in negative expressions, after prepositions or after fractions 4Lend me your pen / haven't got a pen (n o t ỉ-hứvenk-gờt-pen r ) ' You shouldn't go out without a coat, (not -UHtheui-eeah) three-quarters of a pound (n o t three-quarters of pound) And we not leave out a/an when we say what jobs people have, or how things are used (see above) She's an engineer, (not She’s engineeK) I used my shoe as a hammer, ( n o t .-as-kammer-) when a/an is not used: adjectives alone; possessives A/an cannot normally be used with an adjective alone (without a noun) Compare: It s a good car It's good, ( n o t &$-a good.) A/an cannot be used together with a possessive Instead, we can use the structure a of mine/yours, etc (► 177) He's a friend o f mine, (not He’s a my friend.) a/an and the Instead of a!an, vve use the when we want to say 'You and I both know which one I mean' Compare: She lives in a big house (The hearer doesn't know which one.) She lives in the big house over there (The hearer knows which one.) For details, ►136 a and an: the difference We not normally pronounce the sound / 3/ before a vowel So before a vowel, the article a (/0/) changes to an /311/ Compare: a rabbit a lemon an elephant an orange The choice between a and an depends on pronunciation, not spelling We use an before a vowel sound, even if it is written as a consonant an hour/on 'auafrj/ an MP /on em 'pi:/ And we use a before a consonant sound, even if it is written as a vowel a university /3 ju:ni'v3:s3ti/ a one-pound coin /3 ,WAn paơnd 'kDin/ -» grammar • 137 more about a!an Some people say an, not a, before words beginning with h if the first syllable is unsưessed an hotel (a hotel is more common) an historic occasion (a historic is more common) an hypothesis (a hypothesis is m ore com m on) BUT NOT an housewife - the first syllable is stressed A is sometimes pronounced /ei/ before a hesitation, when we want to emphasise the following word, or when we want to make a conưast with the / think III have a ỈCÌỈ - chocolate ice cream It's a /ei/ reason - it's not the only reason 138 no article with plural and uncountable nouns _ _ a/an not used Plural and uncountable nouns (e.g cats, wool ►137.1) cannot normally be used with a/an (because a/an has a similar meaning to 'one') Instead, we most often use no article There were cats in every room, (not ) Doctors generally work long hours He's got very big ears Her coat is made of pure wool *What's that? think it's sa lt* confusing nouns Some nouns that are countable in some other languages are uncountable in English (► 119.3 for a list) I need information and advice, (not HH-HiJ&nnati&H iềtìil ttff wlcki You've made very good progress, (not .-{ỉ very #(yoả-f>rogressn) And note that we never use a/an with weather or English We're having terrible weather, ( n o t -a-terFible uwlheri) She speaks very good English, ( not some and any Instead of no article, we can sometimes use some or any We met some nice Danish girls in Scotland Have you gotany matches? For details, ►139 the Instead of no article, we use the when we want to say 'You and I both know which [ mean' (► 136) Compare: - Vm working with children (The hearer doesn't know which ones.) How are the children? (= the hearer's children) - We need salt (= any salt) Could you pass the salt? (The hearer can see the salt that is wanted.) But we usually use no article, not the, to talk about people, things, etc in general (► 140) Are dogs more intelligent than cats? ( not tĩn?-deg$r the eate) Everybody likes music, ( n o t the music.) For expressions like a coffee, a knowledge of Spanish, ►119.4, J 19.6 grammar «138 no article with plural and uncountable nouns Determiners: a/an and the; my, your, etc; this, that, etc Section the difference between some/any and no article _ use with uncountable and plural nouns Uncountable and plural nouns can often be used either with some/any or with no article There is not always a great difference of meaning We need (some) cheese I didn't buy (any) eggs Some is used especially in affirmative sentences; any is more common in questions and negatives (for details, ►161) some/any or no article? We prefer some!any when we are thinking about limited but rather indefinite numbers or quantities - when we don’t know, care or say exactly how much/ many We prefer no article when we are thinking about unlimited numbers or quantities, or not thinking about numbers/quantities at all Compare: - We've planted some roses in the garden (A limited number; the speaker doesn't say how many.) / like roses (No idea of number.) - We got talking to some students (A limited number.) Our next-door neighbours are students (The main idea is classification, not number.) - I've just bought some books on computing (A limited number.) There were books on the desk; on the floor, on the chairs, (A large number.) - Would you like some more rice? (An indefinite amount - as much as the listener wants.) We need rice, sugar, eggs, butter; beer; and toilet paper (The speaker is thinking just of the things that need to be bought, not of the amounts.) - Is there any water in the fridge? (The speaker wants a limited amount.) Is there water on the moon? (The interest is in the existence of water, not the amount.) - This heating system hardly uses any oil (The interest is in the amount.) This heating system doesn't use oil (The interest is in the type of fuel, not the amount.) We not use some/any when it is clear exactly how much/many we are talking about Compare: You’ve got some great books You've got pretty toes (A definite number - ten You've got some pretty toes would suggest that the speaker is not making clear how many of them are pretty - perhaps six or seven!) For full details of the uses of some, ►158; for any, ►159 grammar • 139 the difference between some!any and no article talking in general the does not mean 'air We not use the with uncountable or plural nouns to talk about things in general - to talk about all books, all people or all life, for example The does not mean 'air Instead, we use no article Compare: - Move the books off that chair and sit down (= particular books) Books are expensive, (not The books are expensive.) - I'm studying the life of Beethoven (= one particular life) Life is complicated, (not ĩ he Uýe ) - ÊWhere's the cheese? ate it.’ Ị love cheese - Vve joined the local Dramatic Society It's not always easy to fit in with society - I never really understood the nature of my father's work She's very interested in nature, especially animals and birds - Write your name in the space at the bottom of the page Would you like to travel into space? - Why has the light gone out? Nothing can travel faster than light Note that most (meaning ‘the majority of) is used without the Most birds can fly (not ĩke-mest birds- .) Most of the children got very tired (not The most of ike children ) generalisations with singular countable nouns Sometimes we talk about things in general by using the with a singular countable noun Schools should concentrate more on the child and less on exams This is common with the names of scientific instruments and inventions, and musical instruments Life would be quieter without the telephone The violin ỈS more difficult than the piano We can also generalise by talking about one example of a class, using a!an (meaning 'any') with a singular countable noun A baby deer can stand as soon as it's born A child needs plenty of love Note that we cannot use a!an in this way when we are generalising about all of the members of a group together The tiger is ỉn danger of becoming extinct, (not a tiger is in danger efbeeemmf extmet The sentence is about the whole tiger family, not about individuals.) Do you like horses? (not Đe you like a horse?) For the use of the + adjective to generalise about groups (e.g the old, the blind), > 188 grammar • 140 talking in general Determiners: a/an and the: my, your, etc; this, that, etc Section 141 the^difficult cases When we generalise about members of a group, meaning ‘any/every individual', we usually use no article For example, we use no article to generalise with uncountable and plural words (► 140); but we use the to show that the listener/ reader knows which people or things we are talking about (► 136) Sometimes both these meanings come together, and it is difficult to know which form is correct The grammatical distinctions in this area are not very clear; often the same idea can be expressed both with the and with no article The following notes may help groups: nurses or the nurses; railways or the railways? When we generalise about members of a group, we usually use no article But if we talk about the group as a whole - as if it was a well-known unit - we are more likely to use the Compare: - Nurses mostly work very hard, (nearly every individual) The nurses have never gone on strike (the well-known professional body) - Stars vary greatly in size, (every one is different) The stars are really bright tonight (the whole of our familiar night sky) - Farmers often vote Conservative (individuals vote) What has this government done for the farmers? (the whole professional body) - It's difficult for railways to make a profit (any railways) The railways are getting more and more unreliable (our well-known railways) This often happens when we talk about nationalities Compare: New Zealanders don't like to be mistaken for Australians The Australians suffered heavy losses in the First World War French painters; the Impressionists We are more likely to use the if we are talking about a 'closed' group or class with a relatively definite, limited number of members Compare: - French painters (a large indefinite group) the impressionists (a particular artistic movement; we know more or less who belonged to the group) - 19th-century poets the Romantic poets (Shelley, Keats, Byron, Wordsworth and a few others) Specialists are likely to use the for groups or classes that they study or know about Compare: Metals are mostly shiny Next term we're going to study the metals in detail 1960s music; the music o f the 1960s Some expressions are 'half-general' - in the middle between general and particular If we talk about 1960s music, eighteenth-century history or poverty in Britain, we are not talking about all music, history or poverty, but these are still rather general ideas (compared with the music we heard last night, the history Ị did at school or the poverty I grew up in) In these 'half-general1 expressions, grammar • 141 the difficult cases 12 we usually use no article However, the is often used when the noun is followed by a limiting, defining phrase, especially one with of Compare: 1960s music the music of the 1960s African butterflies the butterflies of Africa physical environment: the town, the sea The is used with a number of rather general expressions referring to our physical environment - the world around us and its climate The suggests that everybody is familiar with what we are talking about Examples are: the town, the country, the mountains, the sea, the seaside, the wind, the rain, the weather, the sunshine, the night My wife likes the seaside, but I prefer the mountains British people talk about the weather a lot I love listening to the wind But note that no article is used with nature, society or space when these have a 'general' meaning (► 140) on the bus; at the gym We use the (with a singular countable noun) when we talk about some kinds of thing that are part of everybody's lives, like 'the bus or 'the hairdresser' In this case the bus, for example, does not mean 'one bus that you know about'; we use the to suggest that taking a bus is a common experience that we all share / have some of my best ideas when I'm on the bus Most of my friends go to the gym two or three times a week Do you sing in the bath? I've stopped reading the newspaper because it's too depressing For similar expressions with no article (e.g in bed, in hospital), ►142.1 She kicked him on the knee.; He sat at the side We sometimes use the even when it is not exactly clear which of several particular persons or things we are talking about This can happen when there are several similar possibilities, and it is unnecessary to be more definite Lying by the side of the road we saw the wheel of a car (\