"A trifling defect"; "a trifling error."

There are few trusts; capitalists have mostly abandoned the trust form of combination.

An experiment is a trial; we cannot try a trial. Say, make.

"I will try and see him." This plainly says that my effort to see him will succeed – which I cannot know and do not wish to affirm. "Please try and come." This colloquial slovenliness of speech is almost universal in this country, but freedom of speech is one of our most precious possessions.

What is ugly is the temper, or disposition, not the person having it.

See Off-handed.

"This is very unique." "The most unique house in the city." There are no degrees of uniqueness: a thing is unique if there is not another like it. The word has nothing to do with oddity, strangeness, nor picturesqueness.

"The United States is for peace." The fact that we are in some ways one nation has nothing to do with it; it is enough to know that the word States is plural – if not, what is State? It would be pretty hard on a foreigner skilled in the English tongue if he could not venture to use our national name without having made a study of the history of our Constitution and political institutions. Grammar has not a speaking acquaintance with politics, and patriotic pride is not schoolmaster to syntax.

Unkempt means uncombed, and can properly be said of nothing but the hair.

"The inmates were badly used." "They use him harshly."

Utter has a damnatory signification and is to be used of evil things only. It is correct to say utter misery, but not "utter happiness;" utterly bad, but not "utterly good."

"Various kinds of men." Kinds are various of course, for they vary – that is what makes them kinds. Use various only when, in speaking of a number of things, you wish to direct attention to their variety – their difference, one from another. "The dividend was distributed among the various stockholders." The stockholders vary, as do all persons, but that is irrelevant and was not in mind. "Various persons have spoken to me of you." Their variation is unimportant; what is meant is that there was a small indefinite number of them; that is, several.

"The statesman ventilated his views." A disagreeable and dog-eared figure of speech.

All language is verbal, whether spoken or written, but audible speech is oral. "He did not write, but communicated his wishes verbally." It would have been a verbal communication, also, if written.

This is American, but as all Americans are not in agreement about it it is better to use the English word.

"He lives in this vicinity." If neither of the other words is desired say, He lives in the vicinity of this place, or, better, He lives near by.

"He invested with the view of immediate profit." "He enlisted with the view of promotion." Say, with a view to.

It is from vulgus, the common people, the mob, and means both common and unrefined, but has no relation to indecency.

"Way out at sea." "Way down South."

"A squirrel ran a little ways along the road." "The ship looked a long ways off." This surprising word calls loudly for depluralization.

"They were wed at noon." "He wed her in Boston." The word wed in all its forms as a substitute for marry, is pretty hard to bear.

As a mere meaningless prelude to a sentence this word is overtasked. "Well, I don't know about that." "Well, you may try." "Well, have your own way."

See Bet.

"Where there is reason to expect criticism write discreetly."

"The boat which I engaged had a hole in it." But a parenthetical clause may rightly be introduced by which; as, The boat, which had a hole in it, I nevertheless engaged. Which and that are seldom interchangeable; when they are, use that. It sounds better.

To whip is to beat with a whip. It means nothing else.

The whisker is that part of the beard that grows on the cheek. See Chin Whiskers.

"Who do you take me for?"

"The man whom they thought was dead is living." Here the needless introduction of was entails the alteration of whom to who. "Remember whom it is that you speak of." "George Washington, than whom there was no greater man, loved a jest." The misuse of whom after than is almost universal. Who and whom trip up many a good writer, although, unlike which and who, they require nothing but knowledge of grammar.

Omit woman.

Proficiency in the use of these apparently troublesome words must be sought in text-books on grammar and rhetoric, where the subject will be found treated with a more particular attention, and at greater length, than is possible in a book of the character of this. Briefly and generally, in the first person, a mere intention is indicated by shall, as, I shall go; whereas will denotes some degree of compliance or determination, as, I will go – as if my going had been requested or forbidden. In the second and the third person, will merely forecasts, as, You (or he) will go; but shall implies something of promise, permission or compulsion by the speaker, as, You (or he) shall go. Another and less obvious compulsion – that of circumstance – speaks in shall, as sometimes used with good effect: In Germany you shall not turn over a chip without uncovering a philosopher. The sentence is barely more than indicative, shall being almost, but not quite, equivalent to can.