Non-errors in English

[mdlbear]

Non-Errors -- (Those usages people keep telling you are wrong but which are actually standard in English.

Split infinitives

For the hyper-critical, “to boldly go where no man has gone before” should be “to go boldly. . . .” It is good to be aware that inserting one or more words between “to” and a verb is not strictly speaking an error, and is often more expressive and graceful than moving the intervening words elsewhere; but so many people are offended by split infinitives that it is better to avoid them except when the alternatives sound strained and awkward.

Hopefully

This word has meant “it is to be hoped” for a very long time, and those who insist it can only mean “in a hopeful fashion” display more hopefulness than realism.

People should say a book is titled such-and-such rather than entitled.

No less a writer than Chaucer is cited by the Oxford English Dictionary as having used “entitled” in this sense, the very first meaning of the word listed by the OED. It may be a touch pretentious, but it’s not wrong.

It's part of an excellent website entitled "Common Errors in English" (from BoingBoing)

Comments

[madfilkentist]

It's interesting that the German "hoffentlich" is used in exactly the same idiosyncratic sense as "hopefully."