{"id":483,"date":"2015-01-19T10:35:16","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T10:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/?p=483"},"modified":"2016-03-15T07:05:09","modified_gmt":"2016-03-15T07:05:09","slug":"commonly-confused-expressions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/commonly-confused-expressions\/","title":{"rendered":"Commonly confused expressions"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>In the way and on the way<\/h3>\n<p>These expressions have different meanings. <strong>In the way<\/strong> or in my way is used to talk about obstacles \u2013 things that stop people from getting where they want to.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Please don\u2019t stand in the door \u2013 you are in my way.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u2018On the way\u2019<\/strong> or \u2018on my way\u2019 means \u2018during the journey or movement\u2019 or \u2018coming\u2019.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We had lunch on our way.<\/li>\n<li>Summer is on the way. (= Summer is coming.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Way of and means of<\/h3>\n<p>We do not use<strong> way of<\/strong> before a noun. Instead, we use <strong>means of<\/strong> or <strong>method of.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We tried all possible means of communication, but we couldn\u2019t contact him. (NOT We tried all possible ways of communication, but we couldn\u2019t contact him.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Backward and backwards<\/h3>\n<p>The expressions <strong>backwards, forwards, northwards, outwards<\/strong> etc can only be used as adverbs.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Why are you moving backwards and forwards?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The expressions <strong>backward, forward, northward, outward<\/strong> etc can be used both as adjectives and as adverbs.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You can\u2019t make a forward pass in rugby. (NOT You can\u2019t make a forwards pass in rugby.) (Adjective modifying the noun pass)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Keep going upward and you will get to the top. OR Keep going upwards and you will get to the top. (Adverb modifying the verb going)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Used + infinitive and be used to + -ing<\/h3>\n<p>These structures have quite different meanings.<\/p>\n<p>Compare:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I <strong>didn\u2019t use to live<\/strong> in a big city. (= Once I didn\u2019t live in a big city, but now I do.)<\/li>\n<li>I <strong>wasn\u2019t used to driving<\/strong> in a big city. (= Living in a big city was a new experience \u2013 I hadn\u2019t done that before.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Too and too much<\/h3>\n<p>Before adjectives without nouns and before adverbs we use <strong>too<\/strong>, not <strong>too much.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You are too kind to me. (NOT You are too much kind to me.)<\/li>\n<li>He arrived too late. (NOT He arrived too much late.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Too much<\/strong> is used before a noun.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There is too much noise. (NOT There is too noise.)<\/li>\n<li>You have bought too much meat. (NOT You have bought too meat.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>At what time or what time<\/h3>\n<p>Prepositions are usually dropped before common expressions of time.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I am busy. Can you come another time? (More natural than \u2018Can you come at another time?\u2019)<\/li>\n<li>What time does the train arrive? (More natural than \u2018At what time does the train arrive?\u2019<\/li>\n<li>I won\u2019t lose this time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Surely and certainly<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Surely<\/strong> does not usually mean the same as <strong>certainly<\/strong>. Compare:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You are <strong>certainly<\/strong> not going out in that old coat. (= I am certain that you are not going out in that old coat.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Surely<\/strong>, you are not going out in that old coat? (= I will be surprised if you go out in that old coat.)<\/p>\n<h3>Such and so<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Such<\/strong> is used before a noun with or without an adjective.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>She is such a beautiful woman.<\/li>\n<li>She is such a lady.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>So<\/strong> is used before an adjective without a noun or an adverb.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>She is so beautiful. (NOT She is such beautiful.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Difference between so and then<\/h3>\n<p><strong>So<\/strong> and <strong>then<\/strong> can both be used to mean \u2018since that is so\u2019. There is a slight difference. So is used when the same speaker wants to connect two ideas.<\/p>\n<p>Both so and then can be used when one speaker replies to another.<\/p>\n<p>Compare:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u2018I will need the car,<strong> so<\/strong> I think you will have to hire a taxi.\u2019 (NOT I will need the car <strong>then<\/strong> I think you will have to hire a taxi.) (One speaker)<\/li>\n<li>\u2018I will need the car.\u2019 \u2018<strong>So \/ then<\/strong> I think I will have to hire a taxi.\u2019 (Two speakers)<\/li>\n<li>\u2018He isn\u2019t ready yet, <strong>so<\/strong> we will have to go without him.\u2019 (One speaker)<\/li>\n<li>\u2018He isn\u2019t ready yet.\u2019 \u2018<strong>Then \/ so<\/strong> we will have to go without him.\u2019 (Two speakers)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the way and on the way These expressions have different meanings. In the way or in my way is used to talk about obstacles \u2013 things that stop people from getting where they&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[104],"class_list":["post-483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vocabulary","tag-commonly-confused-expressions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":484,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions\/484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}