drunk / drunken As an adjective, the form drunk is used after a verb while the form drunken is now used only in front of a noun. Thus you should say They were drunk last night and A drunken waiter at the restaurant ruined our evening. Using drunk in front of a noun is usually considered unacceptable in formal style, but the phrases drunk driver and drunk driving, which have become fixed expressions, present an exception to this. Drunk and drunken are sometimes used to make a legal distinction, whereby a drunk driver is a driver whose alcohol level exceeds the legal limit, and a drunken driver is a driver who is inebriated       due to Due to has been widely used for many years as a compound preposition like owing to, but some critics have insisted that due should be used only as an adjective. According to this view, it is incorrect to say The concert was canceled due to the rain but acceptable to say The cancellation of the concert was due to the rain, where due continues to function as an adjective modifying cancellation. This seems a fine point, however, and since due to is widely used and understood, there seems little reason to avoid using it as a preposition     elder / eldest Elder and eldest generally apply to persons, unlike older and oldest, which also apply to things. Elder and eldest are used principally with reference to seniority: elder sister, elder statesman, John the Elder     elicit / illicit You may elicit guffaws if you confuse these two. Elicit is a verb meaning “to bring or draw out something that is latent or potential,” as in Duke Ellington elicited some amazing sounds from his band. By extension you can elicit a truth or principle, as from a discussion or inquiry. Elicit can also mean “to call forth a reaction,” of which a guffaw is a good example. Illicit, on the other hand, is an adjective meaning “unlawful,” as in money acquired by illicit means   equable / equitable Don’t lose your equanimity over these look-alikes. Equable means “steady, unvarying,” as in an equable climate. It is often extended to mean “unflappable, serene,” as in an equable disposition. Equitable means “characterized by equity, fair”: an equitable distribution of gifts among the children     equal Some people say that equal is an absolute term, that is, that two quantities either are or are not equal and that equal therefore cannot be qualified in degree. Accordingly, it is illogical to speak of making a more equal allocation of resources among the departments. But in an earlier survey 71 percent of the Usage Panel accepted this example. Was the panel being illogical? People who object to the more equal usage assume that mathematics and logic provide a model of accuracy that is appropriate to the everyday use of language. This supposition also underlies traditional grammatical discussions of other words, such as unique, parallel, and center. According to this account   escape Traditionally, escape is used with from when it means “break loose” and with a direct object when it means “avoid.” Thus we might say The forger escaped from prison by hiding in a laundry truck but The forger escaped prison when he turned in his accomplices in order to get a suspended sentence. In recent years, however, escape has been used with a direct object in the sense “break free of”: The spacecraft will acquire sufficient velocity to escape the Sun’s gravitational attraction. This usage is well established and should be regarded as standard.     everyplace / anyplace / someplace / no place The forms everyplace (or every place), anyplace (or any place), someplace (or some place), and no place are widely used in speech and informal writing as equivalents for everywhere, anywhere, somewhere, and nowhere. These usages may be well established, but they are not normally used in formal writing. However, when the two-word expressions every place, any place, some place, and no place are used to mean “every (any, some, no) spot or location,” they are entirely appropriate at all levels of style   exceptionable / exceptional Exceptionable and exceptional are not interchangeable. Only exceptionable means “objectionable” or “debatable”: The teachers were relieved to find nothing exceptionable in the student newspaper Exceptional means “uncommon” or “extraordinary”: That student has an exceptional memory.     fact Fact has a long history in the sense “allegation of fact,” as in “This tract was distributed to thousands of American teachers, but the facts and the reasoning are wrong” (Albert Shanker). This practice has led to the introduction of the phrases true facts and real facts, as in The true facts of the case may never be known. These usages may cause qualms among critics who insist that facts can only be true, but the usages are often useful for emphasis. And that’s a true fact.     farther / further Is it the further you get in your trip, the farther you get in your book or the other way around? Many writers since the Middle English period have used farther and further interchangeably. A relatively recent rule, however, states that farther should be reserved for physical distance and further for nonphysical, metaphorical advancement. Thus 74 percent of the Usage Panel prefers farther in the sentence If you are planning to drive any farther than Ukiah, you’d better carry chains, whereas 64 percent prefers further in the sentence We won’t be able to answer these questions until we are further along in our research. In many cases, however, it is hard to see the difference. If we speak of a statement that is far from the truth, for example, we should also allow the use of farther in a sentence such as Nothing could be farther from the truth. But Nothing could be further from the truth is so common that it has become a fixed expression     fewer / less The traditional rule says that you should use fewer for things that can be counted (fewer than four players) but less with mass terms for things of measurable extent (less paper, less than a gallon of paint). But people use less in certain constructions where fewer would occur if the rule were being followed. You can use less than before a plural noun that denotes a measure of time, amount, or distance: less than three weeks, less than $400, less than 50 miles. You can sometimes use less with plural nouns in the expressions no less than and or less. Thus you can say No less than 30 of his colleagues signed the letter and Give your reasons in 25 words or less finalize Even though finalize has been around since the early 1920s, people still object to it because they associate it with the language of bureaucracy. Seventy-one percent of the Usage Panel finds unacceptable the sentence We will finalize plans for a class reunion. Although finalize has no single exact synonym, you can always find a substitute among complete, conclude, make final, and put into final form     firstly Both first and firstly are well established to begin an enumeration: Our objectives are, first (or firstly), to recover from last year’s slump. Whichever you choose, however, be consistent and use parallel forms in the series, as in first … second … third or firstly … secondly … thirdly     flammable / inflammable Should you be careful with a solvent that’s inflammable? Absolutely. The trouble with flammable and inflammable is that they mean the same thing. The prefix in- is not the Latin negative prefix in-, which is related to the English un- and appears in such words as indecent and inglorious. The in- in inflammable is an intensive prefix that is derived from the Latin preposition in. This prefix also appears in the word enflame. But many people are ignorant of all this and conclude that, since flammable means “combustible,” inflammable must mean “not flammable” or “incombustible.” Therefore, for clarity’s sake, you should use only flammable to give warnings     follow You should use as follows (not as follow) regardless of whether the noun that precedes it is singular or plural: The regulations are as follows     foot Foot and feet have their own rules when they are used in combination with numbers to form expressions for units of measure. You can say a four-foot plank but not a four-feet plank; you can also say a plank four feet (less frequently, four foot) long and a plank four feet six inches long (or four foot six inches long). But when you combine foot with numbers greater than one to refer to simple distance, use only the plural feet: a ledge 20 feet (not foot) away. At that speed, a car moves 88 feet (not foot) in a second forceful / forcible / forced Forceful, forcible, and forced have distinct but related meanings. Forceful describes someone or something that possesses or is filled with strength or force: a forceful speaker, a forceful personality. Forceful measures may or may not involve the use of actual physical force. You use forcible, however, for actions carried out by physical force: There had been a forcible entry. The police had to use forcible restraint in order to arrest the suspect. Use forced for an act or a condition brought about by control or an outside influence: a forced smile, a forced landing, forced labor.