More Wrong English

• to recap and expand on the item in my list of dislikes...
  
  Words With Spurious -ate Suffix That I Have Actually Heard People Use
  
  

  wrong word	right word	comment
  obligate	oblige	this is in very common usage and is even in the dictionary (as a concession to popular usage).
  orientate	orient	also somewhat common.
  conversate	converse	now we're really going downhill.
  certificate	certify	are you kidding me?
  exploitate	exploit	simply unbelievable. i heard this one on TV! from an irate caller on CNN! (moments later, as if to ice the cake, the host said "hippocratic... or hypocritic" to mean hypocritical, thinking she had corrected herself, but not quite making it all the way.)

  
  
• "rate of speed": speed is already a rate. it is defined as the rate of change of distance with respect to time. that makes "rate of speed" a "rate of rate of change..." . it is like saying "PIN number" (= personal identification number number).
  
  military people especially like to talk about things "moving at a high rate of speed". is it confusing to just say "moving at high speed"? or "moving quickly/rapidly"?


• "you're" and "it's" instead of "your" and "its". "you're" and "it's" are often used as possessives: "did you fill up you're gas tank?", "the cat licked it's fur". this is incorrect. "you're" and "it's" are only used as contractions for "you are" and "it is".
  
  this error is more reasonable than the previous one, since possessive forms of names and other nouns (but not pronouns) do include apostrophes: "did you fill up tim's gas tank?", "the cat's fur is quite lickable... tasty, even."
  
  for further information about apostrophes, see here.


• "deduct" used to mean "deduce": "from the footprints in the snow, i was able to deduct where he had been!". this one is not so common, which makes it merely amusing rather than annoying, but i did hear it recently, so i've got to include it. be careful! "deducting" is something an accountant might do, or perhaps a duct maker looking for salvage materials! "dear god! they deducted $300 from my paycheck for social security!"
  
  this mistake is understandable because "deduce" and "deduct" both correspond to the noun "deduction": "a brilliant deduction, holmes!" (deduce) and "paycheck deduction" (deduct).


• certain words ending in -ex have the plural ending -ices: vertex -> vertices, index -> indices, matrix -> matrices, and more. this leads to the amusing singular "vertice" (pronounced vertissey), "indice", "matrice" and so on, which i hear frequently, since these words are common in mathematics.
  
  guess what: it sounds dumb. i know it just slips out sometimes, but it still sounds dumb. in this case i think english is at fault. it should be fixed. plurals such "vertexes" are starting to gain some respectability and i think this is a good thing. it is time to cast off the shackles of our latin past!


• this isn't really wrong english, but, speaking of latin, the adjective "Venusian", used by astronomers to describe things pertaining to Venus, is made up. The proper adjective is "Venereal". as in "venereal disease". are astronomers afraid that people will perceive the planet as unclean, maybe even immoral? well guess what? *i* wouldn't touch it! now stop being a bunch of pussies.
  
  also, jupiter --> jovian. not jupiterian.