The word or phrase | Why it’s nonstandard | Say this instead |
Irregardless | The prefix Ir- and suffix -less both mean ‘without,’ making ‘irregardless’ a one-word double negative. | Regardless |
Impact (as a verb) | Shortening ‘has an impact on’ to ‘impact’ is a sign of laziness. Some nouns just aren’t ready to be verbs. | Affect |
Conversate | Chopping the -ion suffix off a noun doesn’t always make it a verb. ‘Converse’ says the same thing in fewer letters. | Converse |
In route | The intended phrase comes from the French ‘en route,’ meaning ‘on the way.’ | En route |
Could of, would of, should of | In speech, few people can hear the difference between ‘could have’ and ‘could of.’ In writing, ‘could of’ is noticeably wrong. | Could have, would have, should have |
More/most importantly | ‘Importantly’ is an adverb, as is ‘more importantly.’ When a word modifies an entire independent clause, rather than just the verb, it acts as an adjective. So when people use ‘more importantly’ to begin a sentence, they’re using an adverb to do an adjective’s job. Use the adjective form instead. | More/most important |
Try and | ‘Try’ is almost always a transitive verb, meaning you have to try ‘something,’ whether it be a noun, gerund, or infinitive verb. ‘And’ is a coordinating conjunction; it doesn’t work. | Try to |
One of the only | This phrase is used when talking about one member of a small group. ‘Only’ means ‘excluding all others,’ while ‘few’ means ‘a small group.’ Which sounds more appropriate? | One of the few |