Common English Blunders

“Reoccur”

Common English Blunders, Verbs

I often hear this.

Problem:
This is either a mispronunciation or an unnecessary invention.

Explanation:
Some people know the verb “occur” and assume that the repeat form of it should be pronounced “reoccur”; this is wrong.

Other people know the verb “occur” and assume that they must invent “reoccur” as the repeat form of it; this is wrong.

The correct verb — “recur” — already exists (and has no “oc” sound within it).

Wondering whether this speech problem also occurred in writing on the Web, I searched Google for “reoccur” and “recur” and got about 455,000 and 3,800,000 matches, respectively. That tells me that Web authors have written the word correctly by a ratio of 8.35:1, which is okay. And, because the most popular “reoccur” matches returned by Google talk about why this is a misspelling / mispronunciation of “recur”, the ratio of correct use to incorrect use probably is higher.

Solution:
“Recur”

“He don’t.”

Common English Blunders, Contractions, Outsider's Perspective

Although this is illustrative of bad grammar, it is somewhat logical.

Problem:
The contraction “don’t” is not a contraction of “does not”.

Explanation:
Forget about the source of contractions while you consider these plural forms:

  • We won’t. We don’t.
  • You won’t. You don’t.
  • They won’t. They don’t.

Now, consider these singular forms:

  • I won’t. I don’t.
  • You won’t. You don’t.
  • He won’t. He doesn’t.

In other words, only the third-person, singular contraction for not doing something uses “doesn’t” instead of “don’t”.

The reason for this is that the third-person, singular, non-contracted form for not doing something is “does not”, whereas all of the other non-contracted forms are “do not”.

From an outsider’s perspective, though, “He don’t.” is somewhat logical, especially when going by sound alone and when failing to remember that “don’t” is a contraction of “do” and “not”.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following phrases (with the quotation marks) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “He doesn’t” — 5,770,000 matches
  • “He don’t” — 5,230,000 matches

This tells me that Web authors have written the phrase correctly vs. incorrectly by a ratio of 1.10:1, which is a bit pathetic.

Solution:
“He doesn’t.”

“Classic” vs. “Classical”

Adjectives, Common English Blunders, Versus

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

Problem:
The adjectives “classic” and “classical” are best not treated as synonyms.

Explanation:
The adjective “classic” means of the highest quality or class.

The most common definitions of the adjective “classical” are pertaining to Greek and Roman antiquity, consistent with classicism, and, in music, pertaining to the most enduring types of music.

So a classical song typically is classic, but not all classic songs are classical.

Solution:
Use “classical” when referring to antiquity or music. Use “classic” when referring to something of highest quality.