intense / intensive The meanings of intense and intensive overlap considerably, but the two adjectives often have distinctive meanings. When you describe human feeling or activity, intense often suggests a strength or concentration that arises from inner dispositions and is particularly appropriate for describing emotional states: intense pleasure, dislike, loyalty, and so forth. But you use intensive when the strength or concentration of an activity is imposed from without: intensive bombing, intensive training, intensive marketing. Thus a reference to Mark’s intense study of German suggests that Mark himself was responsible for the concentrated activity, whereas Mark’s intensive study of German suggests that the program in which Mark was studying was designed to cover a great deal of material in a brief period.    interface The noun interface has been around since the 1880s, meaning “a surface forming a common boundary, as between bodies or regions.” But the word did not really take off until the 1960s, when it began to be used in the computer industry to designate the point of interaction between a computer and another system, such as a printer. The word was applied to other interactions as well—between departments in an organization, for example, or between fields of study. Shortly thereafter interface developed a use as a verb, but it never really caught on outside its niche in the computer world, where it still thrives. The Usage Panel has been unable to muster much enthusiasm for the verb. Thirty-seven percent accept it when it designates the interaction between people in the sentence The managing editor must interface with a variety of freelance editors and proofreaders. But the percentage drops to 22 when the interaction is between a corporation and the public or between various communities in a city. Many panelists complain of interface being pretentious and jargony. Certainly, there is no shortage of synonyms. Cooperate, deal, exchange information, interact, and work present themselves as ready substitutes    ironic In its nonliterary uses, irony often refers to a perceived incongruity between what is expected and what actually occurs, especially if what actually occurs thwarts human wishes or designs. People sometimes misuse the words ironic, irony, and ironically, applying them to events and circumstances that might better be described as simply coincidental or improbable, in that the events suggest no particular lessons about human vanity or folly. Thus 78 percent of the Usage Panel rejects the use of ironically in the sentence In 1969 Susan moved from Ithaca to California where she met her husband-to-be, who, ironically, also came from upstate New York. Some panelists noted that this particular usage might be acceptable if Susan had in fact moved to California in order to find a husband, in which case the story could be taken as exemplifying the folly of supposing that we can know what fate has in store for us. By contrast, 73 percent accepted the sentence Ironically, even as the government was fulminating against American policy, American jeans and videocassettes were the hottest items in the stalls of the market, where the incongruity can be seen as an example of human inconsistency.     its / it’s Its is the possessive form of the pronoun it and is never written with an apostrophe: The cat licked its paws. The contraction it’s (for it is or it has) always has an apostrophe: It’s the funniest show I’ve seen in years.    lack You normally use the verb lack in the sense of “to be wanting or deficient” as the present participle with in: You will not be lacking in support from me. When you use lack in the sense “to be in need of something,” you often use for with it: “In the terrible, beautiful age of my prime,/I lacked for sweet linen but never for time” (E.B. White)     late If the late director of your glee club did a superb job, don’t say so in public, for late can mean “having recently left office” or “having recently died.” If the director is still alive, use former instead; it will ensure that you create no embarrassing misunderstanding   lay / lie People have confused lay (“to put, place; prepare”) and lie (“to recline; be situated”) for centuries. They will probably continue to do so. Lay has been used to mean “lie” since the 1300s. Why? First, there are two lay s. One is the base form of the verb lay, and the other is the past tense of lie. Second, lay was once used with a reflexive pronoun to mean “lie” and survives in the familiar line from the child’s prayer Now I lay me down to sleep. It is not a long leap from lay me down to lay down. Third, lay down, as in She lay down on the sofa sounds the same as laid down, as in She laid down the law to the kids Here’s how to keep them straight. Lay is a transitive verb—it takes an object. Lay and its principal parts (laid, laid, laying) are correctly used in the following examples: She lays down her pen and stands up. He laid (not lay) the newspaper on the table. The table was laid for four. Lie is an intransitive verb and cannot take an object. Lie and its principal parts (lay, lain, lying) are correctly used in the following examples: She often lies (not lays) down after lunch. When I lay (not laid) down, I fell asleep. The rubbish had lain (not laid) there a week. I was lying (not laying) in bed when he called.    leave / let You can use leave alone as a substitute for let alone in the sense “to refrain from disturbing or interfering.” A majority of the Usage Panel in an earlier survey approved the following examples: Leave him alone and he will produce. Left alone, he was quite productive. Those who do not accept these examples generally feel that leave alone should mean simply “to depart from someone who remains in solitude”: They were left alone in the wilderness Remember, however, that in standard usage you cannot use the simple verb leave as a substitute for let in the sense “to allow or permit.” Thus in the following examples you can only use let: Let me be. Let him go. Let us not quarrel. Let it lie   lifestyle When lifestyle became popular a generation ago, some people objected to it as voguish and superficial, perhaps because it appeared to elevate habits of consumption, dress, and recreation to categories in a system of a social classification. But the word has stayed with us, if only because such categories figure importantly in the schemes that Americans commonly invoke when explaining social values and behavior, as in “an anticonventional lifestyle is no sure sign of feminist politics, or indeed, of any politics at all” (Rachel Brownstein). The Usage Panel accepts the word, but more so when the context requires a term that implies categorization based on habits of consumption. Thus 53 percent of the Usage Panel accepts the word in Bohemian attitudes toward conventional society have been outstripped and outdated by the lifestyles of millions of young people. But 70 percent accept the word in Salaries in the Bay Area may be higher, but it may cost employees as much as 30 percent more to maintain their lifestyles    ize The suffix -ize has been and continues to be a productive means of turning nouns and adjectives into verbs, as in such well-established forms as formalize, criticize, jeopardize, and hospitalize. In many cases, -ize creates verbs with more than one meaning. Thus computerize may mean “to furnish with computers” (as in The entire office has been computerized) or “to enter on a computer” (as in The records are not yet computerized). In some cases this can cause ambiguity. For example, the sentence Earthquake relief requirements must be prioritized may mean that all relief requirements must be assigned a high priority or that the relative priority among requirements must be determined. It is important therefore that the context make clear which sense is intended. Many words formed with -ize come from bureaucratic and corporate jargon, and for this reason they often meet with resistance when the general public first sees them. The verbs Americanize, nationalize, and jeopardize were all objected to when they were introduced, but they have since become standard. Although some recent words of this type have been quickly accepted—for example, computerize, institutionalize, and radicalize—many others cannot shake their association with bureaucratese. Among these are accessorize, incentivize, prioritize, privatize, and finalize. You should be careful with coinages of this sort, especially when writing for a general audience 