Let it Reign, Let it Rein, Let it Rain

Which is correct?

1. I reigned in my excitement.
2. I reined in my excitement.

Since the above is a metaphor that originated with slowing down a horse by pulling back on the reins, the correct answer is number 2. You cannot "reign in" anything; you "reign over" things. You know, like a king?


reign  [reyn]
noun
1.the period during which a sovereign occupies the throne.
2.royal rule or authority; sovereignty.
3.dominating power or influence: the reign of law.
verb (used without object)
4.to possess or exercise sovereign power or authority.
5.to hold the position and name of sovereign without exercising the ruling power.
6.to have control, rule, or influence of any kind.
7.to predominate; be prevalent.



rein  [reyn]
noun
1.Often, reins. a leather strap, fastened to each end of the bit of a bridle, by which the rider or driver controls a horse or other animal by pulling so as to exert pressure on the bit. See illus. under harness.
2.any of certain other straps or thongs forming part of a harness, as a checkrein.
3.any means of curbing, controlling, or directing; check; restraint.
4.reins, the controlling or directing power: the reins of government.
verb (used with object)
5.to check or guide (a horse or other animal) by exerting pressure on a bridle bit by means of the reins.
6.to curb; restrain; control.

These are both not to be confused with the water that falls from the sky.


rain  [reyn]  Show IPA
noun
1.water that is condensed from the aqueous vapor in the atmosphere and falls to earth in drops more than 1  / 50  in. (0.5 mm) in diameter. Compare drizzle (  def 6 ) .
2.a rainfall, rainstorm, or shower: We had a light rain this afternoon.
3.rains, the rainy season; seasonal rainfall, as in India.
4.weather marked by steady or frequent rainfall: We had rain most of last summer.
5.a heavy and continuous descent or inflicting of anything: a rain of blows; a rain of vituperation.
(definitions from dictionary.com)

When words sound the same, they are called "homonyms." Usually, the different spellings have different meanings, and should not be mixed up if you don't want to sound completely stupid.

Tenants of Faith?

I read online recently about someone who was "ridiculed for following the tenants of her faith." I immediately started wondering what a tenant of faith was, and imagined someone renting a room in a church or temple. However, how could one follow a person who rented a room in a place of worship? and why would you be ridiculed for doing so? That makes no sense. Obviously, they didn't mean tenants.


ten·ant   [ten-uhnt]
noun

1. a person or group that rents and occupies land, a house, an office, or the like, from another for a period of time; lessee.
2. Law . a person who holds or possesses for a time lands, tenements, or personalty of another, usually for rent.
3. an occupant or inhabitant of any place.

They meant tenets.


ten·et   [ten-it; Brit. also tee-nit]
noun
any opinion, principle, doctrine, dogma, etc., especially one held as true by members of a profession, group, or movement.

Doesn't anyone proofread anything anymore?

Diffusing the Situation

Which of the following sentences is correct?

1. The bomb squad diffused the bomb.
2. The bomb squad defused the bomb.

If you chose number 2, you are correct. The following is dictionary.com's definitions of the two words:

defuse:

verb (used with object)

1. to remove the fuze from (a bomb, mine, etc.).
2. to make less dangerous, tense, or embarrassing: to defuse a potentially ugly situation.

diffuse:

verb (used with object)

1. to pour out and spread, as a fluid.
2. to spread or scatter widely or thinly; disseminate.
3. Physics . to spread by diffusion.

You see that you cannot diffuse a situation. At all. Ever. Please don't write/say that you or someone else did that.

PS: I do not approve of spelling 'fuse' with a zed as above: "fuze." It just looks stupid.

Run On!

Which of the following is a run on sentence?

1. I went to the store I bought milk.
2. I went to store to buy milk and, while I was there, I met my friend George who was buying white bread, so I stopped to talk to him, and I pointed out that whole wheat bread is a much healthier choice—he didn't care though because he likes the taste of white bread.

If you chose number 1, you get a plate of virtual cookies.

I believe that most people would choose number 2, because when they hear "run on" they think of a sentence that goes on and on; therefore, a long sentence. However, that is not the definition of "run on sentence." A run on sentence is "a written sequence of two or more main clauses that are not separated by a period or semicolon or joined by a conjunction." (Dictionary.com) In other words, two sentences jammed together without anything to join them properly into one sentence.

There are actually two kinds of run on sentences: fused sentences and comma splices. In the example above, number 1  is a fused sentence. I don't see these that often, but I do see a lot of comma splices, even in published works. The Song of Ice and Fire books by George R.R. Martin are full of them. A comma splice would look like this: "I went to the store, I bought milk."

Correcting a run on sentence is easy, but there is no one right way to do it. You have a few options. The simplest is to simply add a period: "I went to the store. I bought milk." But if you don't want the reader to make the full stop a period creates, you would use a semicolon: "I went to the store; I bought milk" or a long dash: "I went to the store—I bought milk." If you like, you could also use a conjunction: "I went to the store and I bought milk" or another joining word: "I went to the store where I bought milk."

A really long sentence is not necessarily a run on sentence. As long as you've punctuated correctly, and you have all the joining words you need, there is no limit to the length of a sentence. The only problem you run into then is confusing your reader: by the time a reader gets to the end of a really long sentence, they may forget how it began.

Remember: a run on sentence results when you try to join two sentences together without using the correct mortar. A comma is not strong enough on its own, so use a semicolon or a joining word, or just use a period and leave them separate. If you follow this, you can go on and on without running on. ;)

Stop. Don't Add That 'E'

There's a trend lately online to add extra 'e's to the ends of words. I've noticed this with the exclamation 'aw' and the short-form of 'influenza' -- 'flu.' A lot of people are writing 'awe' when they mean 'aw' and 'flue' when they mean 'flu.' This changes the meaning of your sentence completely.

'Awe' means "an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or the like: in awe of God; in awe of great political figures."(from dictionary.com)

'Flue' means "a passage or duct for smoke in a chimney or any duct or passage for air, gas, or the like."(from dictionary.com)

Another, even more annoying trend I've seen is when a word has a silent 'e' at the end, and the typist adds several more of them. For example, instead of saying "I love you," s/he says "I loveeeeeeeeeee you." How is one supposed to pronounce this? The only way I can think to do so would be "LUV- EE" with the 'ee' sound stretched out. This sounds as stupid as it looks. Please don't do this.

If you didn't, don't say you did!

I keep seeing this lately: people online are writing "did" when they mean "didn't/did not," "does" when they mean "doesn't/does not," or "can" when they mean "can't/cannot." Most of these can be explained away as simple typos; however, these mistakes change the meaning so completely that you are saying the exact opposite of what you meant to say.

The solution is easy: read over what you've written before you press submit. There is no need to post it so fast that you end up saying that you "can imagine living without" your significant other. He/She won't be so happy to read that on your Facebook.

Whoa there!

Which is correct: 'whoa' or 'woah'? Many would pick the latter, or be unsure as to which to choose. Many, when typing, enter the latter without thought. However, that is a mistake, for 'woah' is not actually a word. The correct spelling is 'whoa' - which uses the common 'wh' that is found at the beginning of so many words (which, what, why, where, etc). I'm at a loss as to why this mistake has become so prevalent, for it has no logical basis such as that found in the misspelling of 'lose' for example. Furthermore, 'woah' should look wrong to the reader, as it would clearly be pronounced with two syllables as WO-AH rather than merely the one syllable WO. This is one of those mistakes that makes the writer look very foolish, and cannot be passed off as merely a 'typo.'