Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 74

Today, proper nouns versus common nouns. First, a mangle:

Link: BBC News, ‘for god’s sake’

Nouns identify people, places and things. A common noun refers to general or non-specific items: a cat, a car, an uncle. All of these may be given individual names — Garfield, Ferrari Testarossa, Uncle Tom — but they simultaneously maintain their generality: Garfield is a cat, a Testarossa is a car, Tom is an uncle.

A proper noun relates to something specific, perhaps even unique; and thus it is often a name, whether of a person, a place, a product or whatever. As the above examples show, a proper noun is distinguished by the use of an initial capital letter. Hence a person might be named Rodriguez or Zhi Peng, even if that person is also more generally a father or an uncle. Specific places are also generic types: Tasmania and Goa are, respectively, states in Australia and India. Products follow a similar pattern: Sellotape is a brand of sticky tape; Hibiki is a brand of Japanese whisky.

Sometimes the same basic noun has common and proper variants, and this trips people up. For instance, the Greek deity Zeus and his Roman counterpart Jupiter have individual names, but are also (common noun) gods. However, Christianity, being monotheistic and thus not dealing in general gods, but a single god, converts that common noun into a proper noun: the Christians’ god is called God.

This rule applies even if the writer is an atheist: this is not a religious issue, but a grammatical one. After all, Zeus still has a capital Z even though no-one believes in him any more, and since only God is named God, it would be as incorrect to refer to Zeus and Jupiter as Gods, rather than gods, as it is to use the proper noun without an initial capital.

I before E, or E before I?

Lots of people seem to have trouble spelling words that contain the vowel combinations ei and ie. Combinations like these, with a pair of vowels treated as a single syllable, with a simple sound, are called digraphs or monothongs.

I don't know how it's taught in other countries, but in the UK there's a mnemonic, 'i before e except after c'. Since it's only true for some words, it really doesn't help, and may indeed be why so many people have trouble correctly spelling words that include the ei and ie digraphs… 

The bad news is that there's no absolute rule that works for all words with the ie and ei combination, but there is a rough test that can be used to sort out quite a few. (The others just have to be learned or avoided.)

The test is based on the sound the digraph makes (and in the examples below, on British-English pronunciation).

1. If the sound the digraph makes in the word is ee (rhyming with feet), the 'i before e except after c' rule usually works:

• belief, believe, besiege, brief, cashier, chief,* chieftain, field, grief, grievous, lief, piece, pierce, priest, relief, relieve, reprieve, shriek, sieve, siege, thief, thieve, yield

*handkerchief and mischief work like chief, though they are not pronounced with the ee sound for ie

• ceiling, conceit, conceive, deceit, deceive, perceive, receipt, receive

2. If the sound the digraph makes is not ee (a sound other than ee), the spelling order is usually ei:

• eider, eiderdown, eight, foreign, forfeit, freight, heifer, heir, leisure, neigh, neighbour, reign, rein, skein, sleigh, their, veil, vein, weight, weir, weigh

3. The irregularities: learn them or learn to avoid them…

• ancient, feisty, fierce,* friend, seize, species, weird*

*strictly speaking, the ei in weird and the ie in fierce are not digraphs but diphthongs (a combination of two vowels that requires the mouth to move to a new shape), but for spelling purposes they can be included in this list

Always use a spellchecker and/or a dictionary to check the spelling if you aren't sure.

Its and it's

Lots of people confuse its and it's, possibly because they are taught these around the same time as they are learning about the apostrophes (the ' sign) used to show possession (e.g., John's bike) and it all gets mixed up.

When we speak, there's no problem with its and it's because they sound the same and the context makes it clear what we mean. In writing, however, we need to show which we mean. (Strictly speaking, the context makes it clear in writing too, but if your reader has to stop and think about whether you mean its or it's — which might well happen if you're not clear about how they work and are not consistent in using them — it disrupts the flow and breaks the link between you and your audience.)

In written English, an apostrophe marks a place where something has been taken out of a word or phrase: the new, shortened word is called a contraction. We use these all the time, for instance when we say can't and doesn't: can't is short for cannot, and doesn't comes from does not. You could use either form in the same sentence:

I can't come out on Friday or I cannot come out on Friday.

He doesn't eat salad or He does not eat salad.

The apostrophe replaces the letter (and, of course, the space) omitted when two words are merged into one contraction. These kinds of contractions are easy to deal with because they can only mean one thing.

Sometimes the same contraction abbreviates different phrases, but the context shows what is being shortened:

What's the problem? or What is the problem?

What's happened? or What has happened.

So: its or it's?

If you remember that apostrophes replace something that's missing, you can easily solve the problem of its and it's by expanding the contraction to check whether you've used the right one:
 

• It's sunny today. This means It is sunny today and the contraction needs an apostrophe: It is → it's
• It's been sunny today. This means It has been sunny today and the contraction needs an apostrophe: It has → it's

That is how it's is used. Now for its:

• The dog chews its squeaky toy makes no sense at all if you turn it into The dog chews it is squeaky toy. Nothing is missing and its, without any apostrophe, is right.

That's all there is to it. You can use the same method with other words, for example to distinguish between your and you're:

 

• You're cheerful. This is short for You are cheerful and the contraction needs an apostrophe: You are → you're
• Your book, is it? To say You are book, is it? would be nonsense. Nothing is missing, no apostrophe is needed: the your is correct.

Me, myself, and I…

Found online this morning, on a business website: 

[…] designed by myself in conjunction with top British manufacturers.

This features the common error of using 'myself' when the writer means 'me', resulting here in a contradiction: has the writer done the designs alone (which is what 'by myself' means) or with someone else ('in conjunction with')?

The correct way to express this statement would be:

[…] designed by me in conjunction with top British manufacturers.

Similarly, the word 'myself' is not the same as 'I'. It isn't correct to say

John and myself went to the cinema 

when actually

John and I went to the cinema.

You can check which is right by removing the other person from the statement. You  would say

I went to the cinema

not 

myself went to the cinema

so it won't be correct to change the I to myself if someone goes with you!