Given the quirks of English language, it is easy to make
unintentional but wrong usage. Thankfully this is easily remedied by just being
‘aware’ of the pitfalls!
From time to time I keep pointing these out to people I interact with, but today I thought
I will make a decent note and I intend to keep adding to this ‘Donts’
list going forward ! Request submissions from your experience also – as welcome
additions to this initial list !
- Few / Little – Example of wrong usage is ‘I have few friends'. This statement really means ‘I have no friends at all’ and so it is a very sad/negative statement. Intention was actually to state ‘I have some friends’. So it is better use ‘some’ instead of ‘few’ to avoid this trap. If at all we need to use few….then we need to be careful and qualify it with ‘a few’ instead of ‘few’: ‘I have a few friends’.
- Same is the case for ‘little’: if we write ‘There is little time left to....' it actually means 'There is almost no time left to....' ! So here also better to use ‘some’ or ‘a little’ instead of just ‘little’.
- ‘Improvised’
– Does not mean ‘improved upon’. It means ‘quickly cobble up something’
and actually in many occasions (where it is being used) connotes a
negative message ‘ad-hoc act in a hurried manner to make up for lack of advance
preparation’.
- Query
/ Clarification – Example of wrong usage is ‘Attached document on this…..Please
write to me if you have any clarifications on this document’ – What was actually
meant is ‘if you have any queries’. Or better to write ‘…if you need
any clarifications..’.
- Adapt / Adopt – Example of wrong usage is ‘We have adapted Testing-Automation in our pilot projects’.
We are not ‘modifying Testing-Automation to suit our purposes’ nor are we ‘changing
ourselves and our processes to fall in line with expectations of
Testing-Automation’ (this is the meaning of Adapt…Adaptation). What we
really needed to use was ‘Adopt’ meaning – we have ‘made Testing-Automation
part of our own processes' (as we 'adopt' a child into our family).
- ‘I am afraid’/ ‘Suspect’ / ‘Doubt’ – Example of wrong usage is ‘I am afraid we will make the Release
in time’ whereas the intention was to communicate the bad-news / risk that
the Release-timeline will slip. Whenever ‘I am afraid….’ is used, it has
to be followed by the negative statement itself. So the correct statement
is: ‘I am afraid we will not make the Release in time’.
- ‘I suspect we will not make the Release in time’ (usage same as for
‘I am afraid’)
- ‘I doubt if we will make the Release in time’ (usage opposite from ‘I am afraid’)
