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Book: Troublesome Words
Quotes of Book: Troublesome Words

Bill Bryson _ Troublesome Words
needless to say is a harmless enough expression, but it often draws attention to the fact that you really didn't need to say it.
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Bill Bryson _ Troublesome Words
blueprint as a metaphor for a design or plan is much overworked. If the temptation to use it is irresistible, at least remember that a blueprint is a completed plan, not a preliminary one.
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Bill Bryson _ Troublesome Words
growth. Often used contrarily by economists and those who write about them: 'It now looks as if growth will remain stagnant until spring' {Observer}; '… with the economy moving into a negative growth phase' {The Times}. Growth obviously indicates expansion. If a thing is shrinking or standing still, growth simply isn't the word for it.
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Bill Bryson _ Troublesome Words
avenge, revenge. Generally, avenge indicates the settling of a score or the redressing of an injustice. It is more dispassionate than revenge, which indicates retaliation taken largely for the sake of personal satisfaction.
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Bill Bryson _ Troublesome Words
disturb, perturb. They can often be used interchangeably, but generally the first is better applied to physical agitation, the second to mental agitation."
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Bill Bryson _ Troublesome Words
amoral, immoral. Amoral describes matters in which questions of morality do not arise or are disregarded; immoral applies to things that are evil.
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Bill Bryson _ Troublesome Words
An is indisputably correct before just four words beginning with 'h': hour, honest, honour and heir.
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Bill Bryson _ Troublesome Words
successfully. 'Japanese researchers have successfully developed a semiconductor chip made of gallium arsenide' {Associated Press}. It was thoughtful of the writer to tell us that the researchers had not unsuccessfully developed a gallium arsenide chip, but also unnecessary. Delete successfully.
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Bill Bryson _ Troublesome Words
second largest and other similar comparisons often lead writers astray: 'Japan is the second largest drugs market in the world after the United States' {The Times}. Not quite. It is the largest drugs market in the world after the United States or it is the second largest drugs market in the world. The sentence above could be fixed by placing a comma after 'world'.
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Bill Bryson _ Troublesome Words
replica. Properly, a replica is an exact copy, built to the same scale as the original and using the same materials. To use the word when you might better use 'model', 'miniature', 'copy' or 'reproduction' devalues it, as here: 'Using nothing but plastic Lego toy bricks, they have painstakingly reconstructed replicas of some of the world's most famous landmarks' {Sunday Times}.
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Bill Bryson _ Troublesome Words
if. Problems often arise in deciding whether if is introducing a subjunctive clause {'If I were …'} or an indicative one {'If I was …'}. The distinction is straightforward. When if introduces a notion that is hypothetical or improbable or clearly untrue, the verb should be in the subjunctive: 'If I were king …'; 'If he were in your shoes …'. But when the if is introducing a thought that is true or could well be true, the mood should be indicative: 'If I was happy then, I certainly am not now'. One small hint: if the sentence contains would or wouldn't, the mood is subjunctive, as in 'If I were you, I wouldn't take the job'.
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Bill Bryson _ Troublesome Words
As a rough rule, I would suggest that a company's orthographic eccentricities should be noted, possibly even observed, but never overindulged. Just because a company chooses to put a backward letter into its title or to spell its name in small capitals does not entitle it to become a distraction in print.
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