Grammar: All about (R)

Grammar: Which word to use (R)

https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-r

 

1. CORRECT USAGE

1.1. Similar words mean different things…

rack or wrack?

You “rack your brains”, “face rack and ruin”, and “are racked with guilt, shame or pain”; wrack is seaweed.

rackets or racquets?

rackets not racquets, except in club titles.

ravage or ravish?

To ravage is to destroy or severely damage something. To ravish, confusingly, can mean one of two distinct things: to seize someone and carry them off, or to enrapture. The OED gives examples, both from the 1990s, of “a child being ravished by a lion and a wine lover being ravished by a glass of chablis.”

re-form or reform?

re-form to form again; reform to change for the better. Do not take the initiators’ use of the word at its face value, particularly in cases where no improvement is believed to be likely. The latest set of changes to education or the health service may, or may not, be reforms.

regrettably or regretfully?

regrettably unfortunately; regretfully with regret.

reign or rein?

A ruler reigns, but a horse is reined in.

repellant or repellent?

repellant noun, repellent adjective: you fight repellent insects with an insect repellant.

repertoire or repertory?

repertoire an individual’s range of skills or roles; repertory a selection of works that a theatre or dance company might perform

riffle or rifle

riffle to flick through a book, newspaper or magazine; often confused with rifle, to search or ransack and steal from, eg rifle goods from a shop.

routeing or routing?

They are routeing buses through the city centre after the routing of the protesters

1.2 Use the right word in context…

radiographer

a radiographer takes medical images; a radiologist reads them

rebut, refute or repudiate?

To rebut is to contest or deny something; to refute is to prove that it’s wrong. So when a politician claims to have refuted an allegation, what they mean is rebut. To repudiate someone is to disown them.

If you don’t know the difference, you could always try “refudiate”, a word coined by Sarah Palin, perhaps inspired by George W Bush’s “misunderestimate”

recourse, resource or resort?

You might have recourse to your mother to comfort you when your hamster dies. She would, therefore, be a resource you could turn to. As a last resort, you might resort to your brother as well

recur not reoccur

register office not registry office

reticent unwilling to speak; do not confuse with reluctant

ridden, riddled or raddled?

crime-ridden, disease-ridden; riddled with errors, riddled with bullets; a raddled appearance

2. SPELLINGS

re/re-

Use re- (with hyphen) when followed by the vowels e or u (not pronounced as “yu”): eg re-entry, re-examine, re-urge.

Use re (no hyphen) when followed by the vowels a, i, o or u (pronounced as “yu”), or any consonant: eg rearm, rearrange, reassemble, reiterate, reorder, reread, reuse, rebuild, reconsider, retweet.

Exceptions (where confusion with another word would arise): re-cover/recover, re-creation/recreation, re-form/reform, re-sent/resent, re-sign/resign

2.1 To hyphenate (or not)?

YES

race-fixing

ready-made

rip-off

re-form BUT reform (see 1.2)

runner-up

run off, run up

verbs

runoff, run-up

nouns

EXCEPTIONS

Range Rover (no hyphen)

right to buy, help to buy, buy to let no initial caps; hyphenate before a noun, eg right-to-buy scheme, help-to-buy programme, buy-to-let mortgages

2.2 One word or two?

One word

reelect

reestablish

refill

reuse

raincoat / fall / proof /water BUT rain check

reinstate

reopen

replaceable

ringfence, ringtone

riverbank, riverbed

rock’n’roll

rollercoaster

roundtable

(adjective); round table (noun): you might hold roundtable discussions at a round table

round up

verb; roundup noun

Two words

right wing, the right, rightwinger

nouns

rightwing

adjective

2.3 Frequently misspelt

rarefy, rarefied

rateable

rating agency not ratings

razzmatazz

referred NOT refered

reforestation NOT reafforestation

relevant NOT relevent

restaurateur NOT restauranteur

reveille

rickety

ricochet, ricocheted, ricocheting

riveted, riveting

rottweiler

2.4 Change with form or plural

radius, plural radii

referendum, plural referendums, not referenda

re-form = to form again

regalia plural, of royalty

roofs

plural of roof

2.5 Take note of capitals

[ic = initial capitals | lc = lowercase]

R&B

the Ramblers, Red Cross

Ray-Ban

Regent’s Park

retail prices index (RPI)

Royal Marines marines after first mention

Royal Navy, or the navy

Royal Air Force, or RAF

Royal Mail

for the company, not “the Royal Mail”

royal family

royal parks

3. EXPRESSIONS

refute

This much abused word should be used only when an argument is disproved; otherwise contest, deny, rebut

regard

with regard to, not with regards to (but of course you give your regards to Broadway)

rivers

The “river” part comes first in the names of British rivers: river Severn, river Thames, etc; elsewhere, it normally comes second: Amazon river, Hudson river, Yangtze river, etc.

Most of the time it can be left out altogether, however: Amazon, Thames, Yangtze, etc

4.PUNCTUATION & STYLE

rear admiral

Rear Admiral Horatio Hornblower at first mention, thereafter Adm Hornblower in leading articles, otherwise just Hornblower

the Rev

at first mention, thereafter use courtesy title: eg the Rev Joan Smith, subsequently Ms Smith if honorific is needed; never say “Reverend Smith”, “the Reverend Smith” or “Rev Smith”

5. GRAMMAR

reported speech

When a comment in the present tense is reported, use past tense: “She said: ‘I like chocolate’” (present tense) becomes in reported speech “she said she liked chocolate”.

When a comment in the past tense is reported, use “had” (past perfect tense): “She said: ‘I ate too much chocolate’” (past tense) becomes in reported speech “she said she had eaten too much chocolate” (not “she said she ate too much chocolate”).

Once it has been established who is speaking, there is no need to keep attributing, so long as you stick to the past tense: “Alex said he would vote Labour. There was no alternative. It was the only truly progressive party,” etc