English Idiosyncrasies
As a writer, I genuinely love language, and as someone who’s unilingual, I am quite partial to English; however, I can’t help but notice that English has a few oddities. And by a few, I mean an abundance. Here are just a sampling of these oddities that I’ve come across recently, for your interest, enjoyment and education:
1. May vs might
According to Mignon Fogarty, AKA Grammar Girl, “might” should be used in situations where the thing you’re referring to is unlikely to happen, whereas “may” connotes a higher likelihood of occurrence. For example, you might get to bed early tonight and go to the gym at 6 in the morning, but you may put off working out until next week instead.
There are two exceptions to this. First, “might” is the past tense of “may,” so technically you shouldn’t say that something “may have happened,” but instead that it “might have happened.” Second, when using “may” in a negative context, it can be clearer to use “might.” For example, if you told someone, “the guys may not wear pink today,” it could be misconstrued that the guys are not allowed to wear pink today. In this case, it is probably clearer to say that “the guys might not wear pink today.”
2. Enquire vs inquire
These words are literally just the same word spelled two different ways, although inquire is somewhat more common.
The single qualification to this is that “enquire” sometimes connotes a general query, whereas “inquire” can refer to a formal investigation.
It’s actually a similar case with the words “embed” and “imbed,” and “among” and “amongst.” The pairs mean the same thing, although “embed” and “among” are respectively more common.
3. Biweekly
Did you know that this word has two meanings? One meaning is “appearing or taking place every two weeks,” and the other is “appearing or taking place twice a week.”
I’m sorry, but in my opinion this is just ridiculous. This is like if we had a word that meant both 0.5 and 2. The etymology probably explains why this has come to be, but either way we really need to do something about it. Unacceptable.
4. Lie vs. lay
The conjugations for these verbs are really confusing, and hearing them used incorrectly all the time only perpetuates the confusion.
First, it’s helpful to understand the difference between “lay” and “lie.” “Lay” is a transitive verb, which means that a direct object will come after it. So you “lay a book on the table,” for example. “Lie” is an intransitive verb, so it doesn’t have a direct object. I lie down on my bed.
To help further clear things up, here is a helpful chart from The Economist:
I think the main source of turmoil is that “lay” is the past tense of “lie.” But if you understand the difference between “lay” and “lie,” and keep this chart in mind, you should have these tricky verbs mastered!
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There’s lots of writing on funny quirks of the English language, like this entire PDF of poems. English is truly confusing and irregular and annoying. However, its nuances are what make it unique and enable us to express ourselves, and I think that’s pretty beautiful. So although I’ve just spent an entire article pretty much laying into the English language and its flaws, and although, biweekly, I struggle with internal enquiries of what to write about, in the end, I feel that it all just may be worth it.