Page:A Desk-Book of Errors in English.djvu/246

 witness. Compare.

woman. Compare.

worse: An adverb sometimes used for more; as, "He disliked tea worse than coffee": a vulgarism.

worst kind: For much or extremely; as, "I need (or want) a new pen the worst kind ": a vulgarism, besides equivocally suggesting "the worst kind of a pen."

would better. Compare.

would say: A hackneyed expression used by many commercial correspondents; inelegant and useless.

would seem should not be used for "seems."

wrath. Compare.

write you: This expression, for "write to you, " though common,is not grammatically correct. Where an object is expressed the dative "to" may be omitted. "He shipped me costly fabrics," for "he shipped costly fabrics to me" is permissible, but "he shipped me" without any objective, or rather other objective of me would imply that the person speaking had been shipped. Of the expression "I will write you," the only justification for it that can be found is in the supposition that the words "a letter" are understood.

  yappy: A slang term used as an equivalent of "foolish" which is to be preferred.

yes: Discard such vulgarisms as yeh and yep and pronounce as a single syllable, and not with  230