Some of the sources that consider some of the following examples incorrect consider the same examples to be acceptable in dialects other than
Standard English or in an informal register; others consider certain constructions to be incorrect in any variety of English. On the other hand, many or all of the following examples are considered correct by some sources. •
Generic you – e.g., "Brushing
your teeth is a good habit" as opposed to "Brushing '''one's
teeth is a good habit" or "My friend
left their''' sweater here" •
Flat adverbs – e.g., "Drive
safe" as opposed to "Drive
safely" "It
sure is" as opposed to "It
surely is." •
Split infinitives – e.g., "
To boldly go where no man has gone before" as opposed to "
To go boldly where no man has gone before" • The use of
less or fewer with
count nouns •
Double negatives as negative concord – e.g., "
We '''don't need no''' education" • Certain
double modals – e.g., "You
might could do it" – not considered standard, but used for example in
Southern American English •
Double copula – e.g., "What has to happen
is, is that the money has to come from somewhere" •
Preposition stranding – e.g., "You have nothing to be afraid of" (vs. "You have nothing of which to be afraid") – criticized by grammarians in the 1600s by analogy with Latin grammar and by some teachers since, though many have always accepted it as part of standard English • Distinction or lack of it between the past and past participle forms of the verb – e.g. "I should have
went" and "I
done that yesterday". •
Order of quoted punctuation marks, i.e., American style ("Many dreams were characterized as 'raw,' 'powerful,' and 'evocative) vs. British style ('Many dreams were characterized as "raw", "powerful" and "evocative). Some American authorities (such as the
APA and
CMS) require the former, while others (such as the
LSA) allow, prefer, or require the latter. • Whether the verbs
open/close to denote
turn on/turn off can be used as
English collocations (i.e. "Open the lights, please" for "Turn on the lights, please"). The expression is a
metaphrase and is common among
nonnative English speakers of Hebrew, Croatian, Filipino, French, Thai, Chinese, Greek, Italian descent, and also among
French Canadians (or some speakers of
Quebec English), where "open" and "close" for "on" and "off" are used instead. This construction is grammatically correct but only out of context. The
calquing and
linguistic transfer make this construction foreign to other English speakers. Several proscriptions concern matters of writing style and clarity but not grammatical correctness: •
Dangling modifiers (including dangling participles) are often cited as potentially causing confusion. • Various style guides warn writers to avoid the
passive voice. •
Gender neutrality in English: •
Gender-specific and gender-neutral pronouns – Replacing masculine pronouns where they are meant to refer to a person of either gender with both masculine and feminine pronouns, alternative phrasing, the
singular they or
newly invented words such as "hir" and "ze" • Terms for humans in general – Replacing nouns such as "mankind" with "humankind" •
Gender marking in job titles – Replacing nouns such as "chairman" and "manpower" with alternatives such as "chairperson" and "staffing levels" • Use of
Ms. for equality with
Mr., as opposed to
Miss and
Mrs., which specify whether a woman is married; there are no similar titles for men that specify whether a man is married, though
Mstr. (pronounced "master") is occasionally used for a male child. For an alphabetical list of disputes concerning a single word or phrase, see
List of English words with disputed usage. ==Factors in disputes==