英语词语用法：避免严重错误
Highlights from Appendix C in <<The Craft of Scientific Writing>> by Michael Alley
1.
adverse – unfavorable
averse – in opposition to
affect – influence, verb
effect – result, noun
alot – no such word
alright – no such word
2.
option – a choice among three or more things
alternative (noun) – a choice between two things
alternate (noun) – a choice, but to a substitute
alternate (adjective) – something that occurs in turns, one after the other
3.
amount – for items that cannot be counted
(ex: large amount of water)
number – for items that can be counted
(ex: a number of errors).
An important exception: “a large amount of money.”
4.
anxious – awaiting something with apprehension
eager – awaiting something with enthusiasm
like – a preposition and introduces prepositional phrases
as – a subordinate conjunction and introduces clauses
5.
due to – modifies a noun (ex: The failure was due to the low temperature)
because of – modifies verbs (ex: The steel failed because of the low temperature)
If the phrase follows any verb other than the verb “to be”, use because of.
6.
bi- means twice.
For the most part, bi- means that you multiply by two. For instance, biennial means once every two years, and bimonthly means once every two months. An exception is biannual, which means semiannual, or twice a year.
7.
center around – makes no physical sense. Use either “center on” or “revolve around”.
compare with – when using criteria to compare items of a certain category
compare to – when making an analogy to something from a different category of things
8.
continual – means repeatedly
continuous – means without interruption
contractions – can’t, don’t, and it’s are not accepted
criterion (singular) – criteria (plural)
phenomenon (singular) – phenomena (plural)
9.
datum (singular) – data (plural)
data point (singular) – data (plural)
medium (singular) – media (plural)
stratum (singular) – strata (plural)
different from – use it and you will not be wrong
different than – only use in odd cases such as “different than than which”
10.
enormity – a monstrous or horrible act
enormousness – a huge size
ensure – to make sure or certain
insure – to guarantee with insurance against risk or loss of life.
American English allows insure to have both meanings.
farther – distance
further – time, intensity
11.
fewer – for items that can be counted. (fewer errors)
less – for items that cannot be counted (less water)
Money and time – continuous quantities (less than 100 dollars, less than 100 years ago)
good – modifies nouns and pronouns
well – modifies verbs, adjectives, adverbs
12.
I – Use for subjects
me – use for direct objects, indirect objects, and objects of prepositions.
(ex: write between you and me, not between you and I)
(ex: She does parallel tasks much more efficiently than I)
whether – indicating possibilities
if – indicating condition
13.
irregardless – not proper, use regardless
lie – recline or rest on a surface
lay – place or set down
past tense of lie is lay
past tense of lay is laid
move than – one quantity exceeding another
over – for physical position and for range
14.
more important – what is more important when placed at the beginning of a sentence
(More important, the cancer spread to the liver.)
more importantly – something different “in a more important manner”
(The leak was viewed more importantly than it should have been.)
15.
nauseated – feel sick to one’s stomach
nauseous – causing one to become sick
plethora – meaning an excess or overabundance
Use “host” in place of “plethora” / use “many” in place of “a plethora of” to indicate a large amount
16.
principal – either a noun or an adjective. As an adjective, principal means main or most important.
principle – appears only as a noun and means a law
17.
subject–verb disagreement:
Ex: A series of shocks often precedes a large earthquake.
Ex: Two aftershocks of the earthquake were almost as powerful as the earthquake itself.
In some cases, deciding whether the subject is singular or plural is not straightforward.
For instance, compound subjects are sometimes treated as single units.
(The simultaneous seeding of the fluid’s flow and measuring of the fluid’s temperature is difficult.)
Moreover, words such as none, some, number, and all are singular in some instances, but plural in others.
Ex: The number of observations was twenty.
Ex: A number of observations were made.
Also challenging is determining the number of a verb following the phrase “one of.”
Ex: In the sinking of the Titanic, one of the remaining mysteries is whether the California saw the distress flares of the sinking ship.
In a dependent clause that follows “one of the people who “or” one of the things that,” you should choose a plural verb because the who refers to the plural noun people and the that refers to the plural noun things.
If the subject consists of two singular nouns joined by or, either … or, or neither … nor, the subject is singular and requires a singular verb.
Ex: Neither oxygen nor nitrogen is a noble gas.
If the subject consists of two plural nouns joined by or, either…or, or neither … nor, the subject is plural and requires a plural verb.
Ex: Neither ceramics nor gases conduct electricity at low voltages.
If the subject consists of a singular noun and a plural noun joined by or, either … or, or neither … nor, the number of the second noun determines whether the verb is singular or plural.
Ex: Neither the pilot nor the crew members were present.
18.
That – defining clauses (often called necessary clauses because the information is needed to understand the sentence).
Which – non-defining clauses (often called unnecessary clauses because the information is additional).
A situation in which you might choose which rather than that for a necessary clause is when you have two that clauses in the same sentence. In such instances, many writers use which for stylistic variation:
They selected the option that had an operating value in a range which ..
19.
unique, critical – do not need a modifier
verb tense – In a document, you should maintain the same reference frame for the tenses of verbs. In other words, if in a document, you assume that an event occurred in the past, then that event should remain in the past for the entire document.