1. “The business would suit any one who enjoys bad health.” [From an advertisement in a daily newspaper of New-York.] Few persons who have bad health can be said to enjoy it. Use some other form of expression: as, one in delicate health, or, one whose health is bad.
2. “We have no corporeal punishment here,” said a schoolmaster. Corporeal is opposed to spiritual. Say, corporal punishment. Corporeal means having a body.
3. “She is a notable woman,” as was said of the wife of the Shepherd of Salisbury Plain,—meaning careful, and pronounced as though divided not-able. This word is no longer current, with this pronunciation or signification, except to a slight extent in England. It has become obsolete, and its use now is in bad taste.
4. “Insert the advertisement in the Weekly.” Emphasize vert, and not ise.
5. “He rose up, and left the room:” leave out up, as it is absurd to say rise down. The Irishman who was hoisted down the coal pit, did not observe this rule.
6. “Set down and rest yourself:” say sit down; setting is said of the sun in the west, but cannot be properly applied to a person taking a seat. “Sit down” is not improper, though “rise up” (as in No. 5) should never be used. Sitting down expresses the act of appropriating a chair, while sitting up means sitting erect. Sitting up also refers to watching during the night with the sick.
7. “You have sown it very neatly,” said a seamstress to her apprentice: say sewed, and pronounce so as to rhyme with road. The pronunciation of sew, meaning “to use the needle,” violates its spelling; it is the same as that of sow, meaning “to scatter seed.”
8. “This is a secret between you and I:” say, you and me. The construction requires the objective case in place of I, which is in the nominative. It is in still better taste to say, “This is a secret with you and me.”
9. “Let you and I take a walk:” say, Let you and me, or, Let us. Who would think of saying, Let I go? The expression “Let I and you” is frequently heard, which contains the additional impropriety of putting the first person before the second.
10. “He is going to learn his brother Alfred how to knit nets:” say, teach. The act of communicating instruction is expressed by “teaching,” the act of receiving it by “learning.” The distinction between these words was made as early as the time of Shakespeare, and cannot be violated without incurring censure.