Adverbs

“… no more frequent then usual.”

Adjectives, Adverbs, Common English Blunders, Mispronunciations, Nouns, Prepositions

I heard this recently during a radio broadcast.

Problem:
The word “then” is not a preposition.

Explanation:
The radio broadcaster said a sentence such as “The telephone calls to the radio station during this hour were no more frequent then usual.”

The problem with this sentence is that the word “then” — spelled T-H-E-N — is not a preposition.

Instead, this word is any of the following:

  • adverb, as in “Prices were higher then.”, where “then” means “at that time” in this sentence;
  • adjective, as in “The then president of the club was a nice guy.”, where “then” means “existing” in this sentence;
  • noun, as in “We have not seen a show at the Alley Theatre since then.”, where “then” means “that time” in this sentence.

What the phrase “no more frequent then usual” requires is a preposition, given that the speaker is comparing “more frequent” with “usual”.

The required preposition is “than” — spelled T-H-A-N, not T-H-E-N.

I believe that the common English blunder of using “then” where the preposition “than” is required is due in part to mispronunciation of the preposition “than”, but simple ignorance about these two words certainly could play a part, too.

Solution:
“… no more frequent than usual.”

“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 …”

“It tastes different.” vs. “It tastes differently.”

Adjectives, Adverbs, Common English Blunders, Verbs, Versus

I frequently see one of these used when the other is required.

Problem:
These two sentences do not mean the same thing.

Explanation:
The sentence “It tastes different.” means that “It” has a different taste than something else.

In other words, “It tastes different.” effectively is an abbreviated sentence for something like “It tastes different than ice cream.”

The sentence “It tastes differently.” means that “It” now tastes things differently than it formerly tasted things.

The source of the confusion between using the adjective “different” and the adverb “differently” is due to the fact that the verb “taste” has definitions when used with an object and other definitions when used without an object.

  • The most common definition of the verb “taste” with an object is to test the flavor of [the object] by putting some in the mouth or on the tongue;
  • The most common definition of the verb “taste” without an object is to have a particular flavor.

Solution:
Use “It tastes different.” when referring to the taste of something. Use “It tastes differently.” when referring to the ability of something to test the flavor of other things.