Publisher's Synopsis
"English as she is spoke" is often no worse than "as she is wrote." This being true, even lawyers will welcome this edition of compact book written by Frank H. Vizetelly, under the title, "A Desk-Book of Errors in English." Vizetelly, who was managing editor of the New Standard Dictionary of the English Language, has brought to his task the benefits of an experience which very few men have enjoyed. For this reason his observations and recommendations are quite valuable to the busy worker who wishes competent advice on the proper use of words in doubtful cases.
Opening the book at random, we notice the comment on the use of the present or the passive participle of the word "build." Shall we follow the author when he writes, "While the Temple of the Lord was building" instead of being built; or with Dr. Johnson, in writing to Boswell of his "Lives of the Poets," where he says, "My Lives are reprinting'" instead of are being reprinted; or with Macauley when he writes, "Chelsea hospital was building." On this point, after quoting various examples, the author says: "Being has a very special modern use with passive forms of verbs to express progressive action. For example, is, are or was being built expresses what is expressed also by is, are or was building. Both forms are permissible, but "is being built" is more frequently heard and, perhaps, is preferable.
The above is an illustration of the concise yet satisfactory explanation given regarding the use of doubtful expressions. Since also these observations are arranged alphabetically under the expression, the meaning of which is in doubt, the work is quite accessible to the busy writer and is, In fact, what its name implies-a desk-book.
