Day 9: Word Fussiness Part 1

Many things people say bother me, from an English usage standpoint. Many things also bother me from a dumbness standpoint, but that's for another post.

One of those things is illustrated perfectly in this cartoon from the consistently excellent XKCD.

Another one is 'insure' and 'ensure.' I've looked them up and while technically it's okay to use 'insure' instead of 'ensure,' I don't like it. To my mind 'insure' should relate strictly to the insurance industry To insure some's safety should mean that you've paid money to your State Farm agent in case something happens to them. [Cool side note. I just installed Grammarly on my browser, which checks my spelling and grammar as I go. It's questioning my use of the word 'insure in the previous sentence. So Grammarly agrees with me.]

My last example today is 'on accident.' The correct term is 'by accident.' My kids picked this phrasing up in school and it took me years to break them of it, including, but not limited to washing their mouths out with soap, and shock therapy, which consisted of them being shocked that I actually gave a crap about it.

I'll post more when I think of them.