Month: January 2009

“Entrance” vs. “Entry”

Nouns, Versus

I saw the word “ENTRY” yesterday over a door that I would have labeled an “ENTRANCE”.

My personal preference is to use “entrance” to refer to a location and to use “entry” to refer to the act of entering, which explains why “ENTRY” on an over-door sign caught my eye.

This prompted me to learn more about each of these nouns.

The noun “entrance” dates back to the mid-1400s (MF).

The noun “entry” dates back to the late-1200s (L).

Dictionaries’ definitions of “entrance” and “entry” are so similar that I would call them synonyms.

Do you make any distinction between “entrance” and “entry”, or do you use them fully interchangeably?

Please contact me, and tell me where you grew up (your hometown) and how you use each of these nouns.

Once I have enough responses, I will share the results — without your name or email address, but with your hometown.

Thanks!

“They are wanting a response by January 31st.”

Hypercorrection, Tenses, Verbs

I heard someone say this yesterday during a conference call.

Problem:
The continuous inflection of the present tense is unnecessary in this statement.

Explanation:
The label “present continuous” refers to a continuous inflection of the present tense.

The phrase “are wanting” is an example of the “present continuous” form of the verb “want”.

As explained at Wikipedia, the “present continuous” form is prevalently used in English to express current action but is rare or absent in other Indo-European languages.

There are at least two hypotheses about why American English speakers often choose the “present continuous” form of a verb over the “present simple” form:

  • One hypothesis is that saying something like “They are wanting …” sounds more educated to the speaker than saying simply “They want …”. One might even label this as a linguistic hypercorrection.
  • Another hypothesis is that using the “present continuous” form instead of the “present simple” form effectively softens the impact on the listener or reader.

No matter which hypothesis you prefer, the “present continuous” form is often unnecessary and tends to interfere with clear, direct communication.

Solution:
“They want a response by January 31st.”

“She’s been competing since she’s been fifteen years old.”

Prepositions

I heard this earlier today.

Problem:
What follows the preposition does not refer to a past event or time.

Explanation:
I heard “She’s been competing since she’s been fifteen years old.”` on the Fox News Channel program “Fox & Friends” this morning.

The host was introducing Katie Stam, the latest winner of the Miss America contest.

I suspect that the host’s statement was a gaffe, but the statement is still worth reviewing.

The preposition “since” should be followed by a reference to a fixed, earlier point in time because “since” means between a past event or time and the present.

“She’s been fifteen years old”, which is equivalent to “she has been fifteen years old”, does not directly refer to a past event or time, so it should not follow “since”.

In contrast, “she was fifteen years old” does directly refer to a past event or time. This gives us the solution.

Solution:
“She’s been competing since she was fifteen years old.”