Month: February 2008

“Continually” vs. “Continuously”

Adverbs, Versus

I was wondering the other day about the difference between these two words.

Problem:
These two adverbs are not synonyms (except in sloppy speech or writing).

Explanation:
The adverb “continually” means at frequent or regular intervals.

The adverb “continuously” means without cessation, or uninterrupted in time.

In other words, “continually” applies to events, whereas “continuously” applies to processes.

Solution:
Use “continually” when talking about an event that occurs frequently or regularly. Use “continuously” when talking about a process that does not stop.

“It doesn’t cut mustard.”

Idioms, Mispronunciations

I heard someone say this recently.

Problem:
This sometimes is a mispronunciation of another idiom.

Explanation:
The other idiom is “It doesn’t cut muster.”

The noun “muster” means an assembly of military troops for inspection.

The verb “cut” in the idiom refers to “making the cut” — that is, “meeting a certain standard, below which whatever is being inspected is cut”.

So “It doesn’t cut muster.” means that something does not meet a certain standard following inspection.

Given that the noun “muster” is not as commonly used as the noun “mustard”, I suppose that it is not surprising that some say or write the idiom as “It doesn’t cut mustard.”

For fun, I searched Google — with the quotation marks included in the search box — for “doesn’t cut mustard” and “doesn’t cut muster” and got about 61,700 and 1,070 matches, respectively.

According to a post at Washington State University’s website, “cut the mustard” first appeared in a 1902 O. Henry story and was used there to mean to achieve the required standard.

Solution:
“It doesn’t cut muster.” or “It doesn’t cut mustard.” — your choice! Simply be conscious about which one you’re using — and why!

“We have to error on the side of caution.”

Common English Blunders, Mispronunciations, Nouns, Verbs

I heard U.S. Congressman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) say this yesterday on Fox News Channel.

Problem:
The Congressman used the wrong word for the verb in this popular expression.

Explanation:
The word “error” is a noun and not a verb.

What the Congressman should have used is the word “err”, which looks like “error” but is a verb that means to be mistaken or incorrect.

Perhaps the Congressman simply mispronounced “err” (the verb) as “error” (the noun).

Wondering whether this could be more than a pronunciation problem, I searched Google — with the quotation marks included in the search box — for “error on the side of caution” and “err on the side of caution” and got about 20,200 and 441,000 matches, respectively. That tells me that Web authors have written the expression correctly by a ratio of 21.8:1, which is very good.

Still, over 20,000 matches for “error on the side of caution” indicates a substantial number of confused writers!

Solution:
“We have to err on the side of caution.”