This is the 2021 update of the 2009 second edition of English Like It Is, which was first published by Puff Adder in 2001. About 3200 words were deleted from the 2017 update and replaced by 6500 words to expand the entries to 432 and replace some citations with fresh ones. Word count: 106,631.This is not a comprehensive usage guide. It focuses on changing usage (such as “like” in the title) and persistent errors, with occasional anomalies – see Miscellaneous Errors – included as warnings and for their entertainment value. The citations come mainly from the four “quality” British Sunday papers – The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph, The Observer and The Independent on Sunday – and The Irish Times, between 1994 and the present. Ninety books and other publications are also quoted for comparison, and 55 usage guides and dictionaries are cited as authorities or examples of obsolete or bad advice. Where American usage differs from UK usage, note is taken of the variations. Irish usage generally follows that of the UK.Many of the errors that appear here, committed by professional writers and ignored by editors of prestigious and influential publications, are unchanged since this collection began in 1994. However, some new and startling ones, such as the use of “approbation” for its polar opposite “opprobrium”, and increasing instances of the confusion between “been” and “being”, "where" and "were" are worrisome signs of the deterioration of the language.As in a workshop where all the craftsmen use the same tools in common, writers and editors have a special responsibility to keep their common tool, the language, in good working order by not blunting or breaking it through misuse.
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