Pronunciation

 

Only Two O’s in the Word!

 Please don’t think I’m picking on Southerners or uneducated people. I am not. I’m only trying to help all of us speak better.

Here’s a word frequently mispronounced by educated people. The way it is said grates on my nerves like fingernails on an old-fashioned chalkboard. I honestly don’t make a habit of correcting others except for my closest relatives, who know I love them and have to tolerate me, but I’ve had the audacity to correct a smart aleck who insists on mispronouncing pronunciation. He denied his mistake. If I’d recorded him, I could have proved the point.

The standard way to say the word is  pruh-nuhn-see-ey-shuhn, according to Dictionary.com.  To pronounce it pruh-nown-see-ey-shuhn is substandard.

Listen to the pronunciation of pronunciation. When you hear a confident, highly educated person say the word wrong, hide your smile and swallow your laugh.

As one who grew up in Mississippi, the daughter of parents who did not attend college, I have worked all my life to speak standard English. When someone corrects me, I say “thank you” and rush to the dictionary to discover what is correct. I’m grateful for any help I get. I do not know anyone who can pronounce all the words and speak in grammatically proper sentences all the time. I’ve learned to appreciate the humanity of others. At the same time, I strive to improve, just as I want you to.

On the other hand, the message is more important than the way it is delivered.

Its and It’s

 A Popular Violation of the Rules

It is not unusual to read material written by educated writers who have misspelled its. Long ago in the time of Middle English, our words were male and female, not in meaning but in form. If you’ve studied Latin or a Romance language, your teacher told you during your first week about this peculiar trait of nouns.  It was something you had to accept if you planned to pass the course. Eventually speakers of English started using neuter words. It referred to antecedents (words coming before the pronoun), unless their meaning was female or male, for example, girl or boy.

Around 1600, writers started placing an apostrophe after it to show possession. For about three hundred years this use of an apostrophe in a possessive pronoun was a common practice.

An old way of writing it is was ’tis.

'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.

Louisa M. R. Stead wrote the lyrics to that beautiful old hymn after she watched her husband drown as he tried to rescue a drowning boy. It is believed she wrote the hymn in the 1880’s.

In the nineteenth century, the apostrophe in its showing possession disappeared. The expression ’tis in our conversations and writings also vanished. Those of us who love Stead’s hymn will sing ’tis forever.

Now, in the twenty-first century, it is considered inappropriate to place an apostrophe in the pronoun its, which means belonging to it.

It’s is a contraction meaning it is or it has. In accepted usage, we seem to need to distinguish between its and it’s. If you think about the rule, it may not make sense. The solution is not to think too hard about this peculiarity of our English language. It is not ours to reason why. Just do it.

The house needs its paint refreshed.

It’s been a long time since we saw our cousins.

It’s snowing.

The accepted usage of it’s has switched back and forth throughout the centuries. In the current time, its means belonging to it. It’s means it is or it has. Multiple references express the same sentiments about the way to write its and it’s. One useful source is Merriam-Webster.com.

Fixin’

 

Fixing to Do Something

 

Using Idioms

 

“Fixing” in the sense of fixing to is usually pronounced “fixin’” but sometimes it is “finna.”

 I’m fixing to go to town.

He’s fixin’ to make a mistake.

I’m finna to leave.

 In the South, “fixin’” seems to be necessary to express the idea that someone is preparing to do something. The Midwesterners don’t need to say it, but folks say it all over the South and as far north as Maine and the state of Washington. Throughout New England some speakers say it, while others frown on it.

 Southerners have other ways of expressing the idea, which are not much better.  Some of these expressions have slightly different nuances of meaning. 

I’m going to finish my homework.

She’s gonna take her brother to the amusement park.

We’re getting ready to catch the bus.

           Some people trying to sound slightly more sophisticated are heard using the word about, but about isn’t grammatically logical.

We’re about to go.

Here’s a grammatically correct expression acceptable to most North Americans’ ears, but it does not convey the sense of immediacy as “fixing to.”                                                                                        

 Jeff is planning to…

The purpose of this discussion is not to make speakers sound stuffy by speaking in a formal, affected way, even though there are times when writers of business correspondence need to use formal English.

Our company is preparing to change its policy.

 Fixing is a well-established, colorful idiom, which doesn’t sound good to most of us when we stop to think about it. English spoken in different countries is full of a variety of useful idioms. English is an idiomatic language. The idioms used differ from one area to another, and they give our language a richness. Saying “fixing” may provoke ridicule from some people. If you are making a presentation or giving a speech, consider using a less colorful expression.

 Omitting the g at the end of an ing word is another subject.

 For more information about fixing to, google Yale Grammatical Diversity Project, English in North America, https://ygdp.yale.edu 

or The Free Dictionary, https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com

 

Etc. is more than most of us think.

 

Misused, Confused, Abused, Etc.

Most of us know what et cetera means. Some dictionaries define it as “and so forth.” Others say it means “and others” or “and others of the same kind.” A problem comes with knowing how to spell it. Frequently we see ect, and we’re supposed to think the writer is trying to spell the abbreviation for et cetera. Hardly anyone writes et cetera these days, but some of us seem to have a problem remembering the abbreviation is etc.

Sometimes it appears in all capital letters, ECT. A few writers believe it’s okay to spell it ect. They say, “What’s wrong with spelling it that way. It’s just some old Latin abbreviation.”

Here’s the reason we cannot afford to transpose the T and C. ECT is an acronym used for another term, electroconvulsive therapy, which is often called “shock treatment.” So, using ect for etc can shock readers.

Scholars say the abbreviation etc. has been appearing in written English for approximately six hundred years. Up until one hundred years ago, it was sometimes written as &c. If we keep in mind that et means and, we shouldn’t become confused about the correct way to spell it. Not long ago, it was acceptable to write the expression as one word, etcetera, but it is seldom seen that way these days.

Usually it refers to a list of similar items that are too long to list. In no circumstances should a writer or speaker place and before it because the et means “and,” even though Charles Dickens wrote “and et cetera” in his novels. “And et cetera” is redundant.

Sometimes people write or say “such as” followed by a list with “etc.” at the end. This kind of writing, which appears in advertisements and infomercials, has a pompous air. Instead of impressing listeners and readers, it can be a turnoff. Equally revolting is the use of “such as…and others.”

It’s okay to use etc. It is best to use it sparingly though. Excessive use of it can leave the reader with a frustrating curiosity about what was omitted.

Have you seen The King and I? King Mongkut of Siam, played by Yul Brynner, frequently says, “Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.” He wants everyone to think he possesses vast amounts of knowledge about many subjects.

Using etc.

On the farm, we kept cows, horses, pigs, sheep, goats, etc.

Etc. adds nothing. The information is factual, not imaginary. The facts you conjure in your brain will be different from the ones in mine.

3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, etc.

In the above example, the meaning, and so forth, is clear. We can infer what will come next.

“Congress has to get to work on government funding, etc.”

A newscaster said the above sentence in real time as I write this page. Etc. does not always have to be used in a series. We know what Congress does, don’t we? Therefore, the sentence makes sense.

In his descriptions, the writer used frequent etceteras.

Rarely the word appears in a plural form. To use the plural, it is essential not to abbreviate. Also, the plural form appears as one word.

The politician presented his plans for lowering the taxes, increasing the benefits, cleaning up the corruption, etc.

Blah, blah, blah. We’ve heard it all before, and we know how to finish his list. It’s easier to say etc.

Playing with the word

At the end of the entry in our Compact Oxford English Dictionary, three words are listed without definitions. When I Googled these words, I discovered two of them being used as names of products and blog names. Those who used them spelled them in creative ways. If you need a new word, feel free to use these:

Etcetarist—Could an etcetarist be one who uses etc. often? Or perhaps an etcetarist studies the term extensively.

Etcetarize—Maybe it means to add frequent etceteras in writing.

Etcetaraly—Could this word describe a manner of talking or writing? She speaks etcetaraly.