Adverbs

“… a tool to manage the project end to end.”

Adverbs, Common English Blunders, Prepositions

I saw this in a presentation.

Problem:
A preposition is missing.

Explanation:
The presenter wanted to tell his audience about the extent to which the tool would let the tool’s users manage the project.

When I first read “a tool to manage the project end to end”, I put “project” and “end” together. I believed that the presenter meant “project’s end” when I saw “project end”. However, I then was thrown by the seemingly extraneous “to end” that followed “project end”.

As I listened to the presenter, I realized that the tool lets its users manage “the project” (not “the project end”) from the beginning of the project to the end of the project.

Another way to state this is from one end of the project to the other end of the project.

Simplifying this phrase, we get the adverbial phrase from end to end and therefore the simplest solution to the problem.

Solution:
“… a tool to manage the project from end to end.”

“A while” vs. “Awhile”

Adverbs, Common English Blunders, Nouns, Versus

I often see these two used interchangeably.

Problem:
“A while” is not the same as “awhile”.

Explanation:
The noun “while” means period or interval of time.

The noun phrase “a while” means a short time, so one correctly can say “He stayed for a while.”, which means He stayed for a short time., or one correctly can say “He stayed a while.”, which means He stayed a short time..

The adverb “awhile” means for a short time. Notice the “for” in the definition of “awhile”. So the meaning of “He stayed awhile.” would be He stayed for a short time. And it would be INCORRECT to write “He stayed for awhile.” because one would then have two “for”s in the translation: He stayed for for a short time.

Solution:
Use “a while” when you need a noun phrase; use “awhile” when you need an adverb.

“Las Vegas was beat out by Liverpool.”

Adverbs, Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Passive Voice, Verbs

I heard this on a Travel Channel show about “extreme Christmas” celebrations.

Problems:
1. The verb “beat” is incorrect here.
2. The adverb “out” is unnecessary.

Explanation:
The statement is written in passive voice, albeit incorrectly. In particular, “beaten” — not “beat” — is the passive form of the verb “to beat”. (The statement in active voice would be “Liverpool beat Las Vegas.”)

I believe that the use of “beat” instead of “beaten” when the latter is appropriate represents

  • ignorance about passive voice, and
  • a laziness that favors shorter, fewer-syllable words over longer words.

The one-syllable “beat” is simpler than the two-syllable “beaten” to say, which is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” hypothesis about American English. Throw in a common lack of understanding how sentences in the active voice are converted to sentences in the passive voice, and it’s no wonder that many English speakers choose “beat” (incorrectly) instead of “beaten” in a statement posed in the passive voice.

The other problem with the original statement is that the adverb “out” is unnecessary. Even in active voice — “Liverpool beat out Las Vegas.” — the adverb “out” is unnecessary. I have noticed a trend in American English (I can’t say whether the trend exists in other English-speaking countries.) to add one or more unnecessary adverbs after verbs, and this problematic statement contains yet another example of this trend.

Solution:
“Las Vegas was beaten by Liverpool.”