Tag Archives: Grammar

I was wrong this whole time.

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Being wrong is not easy to admit, especially for a proud man such as myself.  But, I was wrong this morning: I had no idea that the preferred plural for “octupus” is “octopuses,” NOT “octopi.”

Shock me like an electric octopus.

Reading an article on Wired.com this morning about new species of octopuses (from whence the above image came), I was stunned that the author and/or editor used “es” instead of “i.”  The grammarian in me was SURE the plural was octopi; after all, that’s how I learned it.  However, in these rapidly changing times, where technology changes in the blink of an eye and the English languages seems to change almost as quickly, I had to look it up for myself.  Lo and behold, what did I find on Dictionary.com but octopuses listed first.  Not only that, but “octopi” is actually incorrect, due to the word’s Greek origin (words with Latin origins ending in “-us” get the “-i” plural ending).

Needless to say, I’m shocked.  So shocked, in fact, that I had to look it up in The Oxford American College Dictionary (yup, that’s right: a paper dictionary.  Hardback cover and everything!  Ah, old school.) just to make sure.  Here’s what I found:

My world = thrown for a loop.

Whoa.

Utterly.  Flabbergasted.

Yeah, I know, it’s only the word octopus, but the way I see it, since I’m usually a stickler for proper grammar, this is blowing my mind.  I wonder how many other “rules” I’ve learned incorrectly.

If you know of any such errors, please enlighten me.

Different FROM

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English is a quirky language, one of the most difficult to master simply because there are so many rules and an equal number of exceptions to those rules.  To be sure, no one follows all the rules all of the time, but being a grammatical purist, I try my best to uphold as many of the rules as I know.  The way I see it, everyday English has deteriorated because of sheer laziness, or because the correct grammar “doesn’t sound right.”  Many of the commonly broken rules in everyday English can be corrected easily with just a little bit of effort.

Here’s a phrase I hear uttered just about every day that makes my skin crawl: “different than.”  I can safely bet that 99% of Americans don’t know that that phrase is wrong and it drives me crazy.  When juxtaposing two or more things using the adjective “different,” the word “FROM” should be used, not “than.”  The reason?  “Different” is the adjective form of the verb “differ,” as in “A differs FROM B.”  So, it stands to reason that when using the adjective (or adverb) form of the verb, we need to use the same modifier.  “The color red is different FROM the color blue.”  Or, “The Cubs are playing differently this year from last year.”  One thing doesn’t differ THAN another thing; it differs FROM it.  See: easy correction.

Remember: Different from.