Page:A Desk-Book of Errors in English.djvu/134

 in the street, on the street: Distinctions between these phrases are invariably wiredrawn. Both forms are permissible; the writer's preference, which may be modified according to circumstances, is for the first. "His home is in Eighty-seventh street" is preferable to "on Eighty-seventh street." One should not say "his home is on Bermuda," but "in Bermuda." "He lives at Hamilton, in Queen street." Compare.

invest: Properly used only of considerable transactions, and always with a suggestion of permanent proprietary right. One does not invest (except in a humorous sense) in a postage-stamp.

invite: Used in the sense of "invitation" this term, a colloquialism formerly in wide use, is condemned as illiterate and bordering on vulgarity.

involve is to be distinguished from implicate. The latter has a suggestion of wrong-doing or crime, whereas the former contains no such implication.

irritate. Compare.

irruption. Compare.

I seen him: Vulgar and incorrect; say "I have seen him" or " I saw him."

Is that so? One of a class of vulgar phrases of which other examples are "You don't say"; "Don't you know"; "You know"; "Well I never," commonly used but all of which should be avoided as ill-bred and undesirable locutions. 118