Of Replies and Returns

"Hey, I just saw Gary's email. I'll reply back to him by the end of the day."
This is one of the most common corporate lingo errors today. When you say "reply", you already mean that you are responding to something that has already been said. By saying "reply back", it is just an unnecessary double emphasis.
So it would just be "I'll reply to Gary's email..blah blah"

Similarly for "return".
Jim's boss asked him, "When are you returning back from your vacation?"
Jim, not being one to let that go, replied "I am returning on the 17th of this month."

You see? When you say "return", you mean "coming BACK", or "giving BACK" or "going BACK".

The BACK is already incorporated into the reply or return. 

Need some Advice?

I read an "Agony Aunt" column in the newspaper the other day, and here was something that caught my eye. It was something that teachers in school repeated every other day during English Grammar classes. Here's the line from the column that is of interest to us:

"Dear Agony Aunt, blah blah blah. Please advice."

I immediately thought of my English teacher and couldn't help smiling when I remembered all those red marks in my exam paper.  Advice vs Advise was a very common error that we made when we were in school.

Advice - is a noun i.e. an opinion that someone gives you or you give someone.

Advise - a verb, i.e to give advice


E.g. The general physician advised me to consult the orthopaedic surgeon

Please give me some advice on which type of investment is the best in this current economic scenario.

Don't lose your mind over loose ends

How often have you seen something like this either in an advertisement or an email or an article somewhere?

"Don't loose sleep over weight you need to loose - we'll help in just 10 days!"

"The team will probably loose their first game if these injuries persist"

Very often. I have seen this usage so often of late. The English language with all its quirks, can be such a confusing cookie at times. "Loose" and "Lose" are many a time used erroneously. More often, "loose" is used instead of lose. While they are pronounced the same way - "looz" being the exact pronunciation for both "loose" and "lose", they are very different in meaning:

loose - not tightly fixed ; not detailed or exact ; immoral
lose - stop being in possession of something you had.

e.g. The dress is of a loose fit for her, she will look like she's floating in it !

Don't lose your mind over weight you need to lose ; very soon you wont need those loose fitting clothes.

Sins with Since

I was interviewing a candidate for a position in my team the other day, and here's an excerpt from the conversation:
Me : "How long have you been in this industry for?"
X: "I've been in the industry since four years."
Me (note to self - verify if this usage is correct, I've heard it too many times in the recent past) : Hmmm, OK.

The problem was that I'd heard this usage "since 4 years" or "since a long time" several times from people whom I usually highly respect for their linguistic skills. I was really in doubt, and I went back to some very trustworthy sources (not Wren and Martin, unfortunately, because I can't seem to find the copy that's been handed down three generations in the mess that's my study).

"Since" - denotes a point in time
"For" - denotes a period of time.

So, he could have answered this question in one of these ways :

"I've been in this industry since June 2007."
"I've been in this industry for four years."

So you see what I mean?

It's Words Words and more of 'em

Some people are fascinated by jewellery, others by cars. Some collect watches, others collect shoes. Some get high on alcohol, others on fame. I have one fascination and obsession, something that I hoard greedily, and guard jealously - words. I just love words. I get high on words. When I read a book, I don't mind keeping the Oxford dictionary next to me and looking up every single word that I don't know on every single page.
Welcome to my world. I'm going to let you have more than just a sneak peak into the world I love. Not just new and unfamiliar words, but words that we everyday use and sometimes misuse. I'm not going to talk about "prepositions" and "adverbs" and drive you away (errmm.. even I don't know what these are :) ), but just some ways of using words which you already know, and some words that are waiting to be discovered by you. Hope you find it interesting and in some way useful.