There are many forms of a thesaurus from Roget’s Thesaurus, authored by Peter Mark Roget and published in 1852, to online materials available from companies that specialize in educational resources. For example, if you were to look up the word “ beautiful,” you might get a listing of more than thirty words that have similar meanings. A thesaurus is a general phrase that describes a type of dictionary that provides a list of words that have the same or similar meaning as the word referenced. When speaking or writing, one of the best ways to expand your vocabulary and to avoid using the same words repeatedly is to use a thesaurus to find synonyms (similar meaning words). It comes from the Greek “syn” and “onym,” which mean “together” and “name,” respectively. The writer is the author of “The Joy of Syntax: A Simple Guide to All the Grammar You Know You Should Know.” She can be reached at our coverage by becoming a digital subscriber.A synonym is simply a word that means the same as the given word. It’s a shame more people don’t realize it. “English syntax does allow for final placement of the preposition, as in ‘We have much to be thankful for.’”Īll credible language authorities agree: It’s not a grammar error to end a sentence with a preposition. Here’s Bryan Garner in Garner’s Modern American Usage: “The spurious rule about not ending sentences with prepositions is a remnant of Latin grammar, in which a preposition was the one word that a writer could not end a sentence with.” (See what he did there?)Īmerican Heritage Dictionary also traces the superstition to misapplied rules of Latin and sets the record straight. English speakers have been doing so since the days of Old English.” “There is nothing wrong with ending a sentence with a preposition like ‘to,’ ‘with,’ ‘for’ or ‘at,’” Merriam’s notes. “Who are you going with,” “That’s one person I’m impressed by” and “Hamburgers are the food I eat the most of” all end with a preposition followed by nothing, so people figure these must be grammar mistakes. If a preposition takes an object and is, as Merriam’s notes, “usually followed by” that object, it calls into question a sentence like “What did you do that for,” in which the preposition “for” is followed by nothing. Some of the most common prepositions are: at, by, for, from, in, of, on, to, with, above, across, after, against, along, among, around, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, during, except, inside, instead of, into, like, near, off, on top of, onto, out of, outside, over, past, since, though, toward, over, under, until and without.Īs Merriam’s noted, these words usually take a noun or pronoun as their object, like “cheese” in “with cheese” or “the office” in “at the office.” And therein lies the germ of our grammar myth. Prepositions are typically followed by an object, which can be a noun (noon), a noun phrase (the door), or a pronoun (you).” “A preposition is a word - and almost always a very small, very common word - that shows direction (to in ‘a letter to you’), location (at in ‘at the door’), or time (by in ‘by noon’), or that introduces an object (of in ‘a basket of apples’). But a usage note in Merriam’s explains it better. Here’s Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary’s definition of preposition: “a function word that typically combines with a noun phrase to form a phrase which usually expresses a modification or predication.” Professional editors often avoid capitalizing words that are treated like proper names elsewhere. So it’s a good idea to understand the underlying grammar concepts and why this supposed rule is wrong.Ī Word, Please: Lowercase treatment in newswriting can humble ‘important’ words In fact, this fake rule has been exposed so many times in recent years that I figured it was fading into memory. It’s a superstition - one that’s been debunked over and over by every credible authority under the sun. In casual conversation, this type of error is no big deal, but you should avoid this mistake in your writing.įor example: Incorrect: ‘What reason did he come here for?’ Correct: For what reason did he come here?’” “A preposition, by its nature, indicates that another word will follow it. Another common grammar mistake is ending a sentence with a preposition,” the author wrote. It’s the author who’s mistaken.īut that experience didn’t prepare me for a post I came across recently on titled “18 Most Common Grammar Mistakes.” Though this list contained more than one bit of misguided advice, No. That is, in every published list of the grammar mistakes you’re supposedly making, there’s usually one or two that aren’t mistakes at all. And, over the years, I’ve learned they’re almost always wrong. Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of “most common grammar mistakes” lists on the internet.