Month: September 2008

“I’ll relate it back to …”

Adverbs, Common English Blunders, Self-negation

I heard this a few days ago in a conference call.

Problem:
The adverb “back” in “relate it back” is redundant.

Explanation:
A man promised on the conference call to send some information to a woman who also was on the conference call.

In turn, the woman on the call began a sentence with “I’ll relate it back to …” so as to indicate that she would take the information — the “it” in the sentence — and connect it to something else.

The “re” in “relate” means back.

Therefore, one could argue that “relating back” would never establish the connection.

I believe that the growing tendency, at least in American English, to add words such as “back” after many verbs reflects a growing ignorance about the meanings of the roots of English words.

Solution:
“I’ll relate it to …”

“Release trigger and repress while touching object.”

Hyphens, Verbs

I saw this recently on a voltage detector.

Problem:
The word “repress” in this imperative is incorrect.

Explanation:
The verb “repress” — spelled R-E-P-R-E-S-S — means to keep under control.

The verb “re-press” — spelled R-E-HYPHEN-P-R-E-S-S — means to press again.

The imperative sentence that appeared on the label of the hand-held device for detecting voltage was directing the reader to press the trigger again after releasing the trigger.

This tells us that the solution should contain a hyphen in the second verb and optionally the pronoun “it” as the object of the second verb.

Solution:
“Release trigger and re-press [it] while touching object.”

“Respondent” vs. “Responder”

Nouns, Versus

I saw these two words the other day and wondered whether their definitions are identical.

Problem:
These two nouns are not quite synonyms.

Explanation:
The noun “respondent” means a person who responds.

The noun “responder” means a person or thing that responds.

So a respondent can be a responder, but a responder is not necessarily a respondent.

Solution:
Use “responder” as the generic noun. Use “respondent” when referring to a person.