When to use utilize and how can you utilize use?

Does the misuse of utilize get up your nose? Do you feel like the author is trying to come across as more knowledgeable than they really are by using that word? You are not alone. Utilize (or utilise) is one of those words that was picked up from its little niche and dropped into the place usually occupied by use, presumably on the grounds that seven letters were better than three. It is commonly found in the company of other business jargon and it has been bugging me for years.

Use

Use is a perfectly helpful word that everyone understands but just for the record, the Oxford Dictionaries gives the following definition:

Take, hold, or deploy (something) as a means of accomplishing or achieving something.

We can use use as I have in this sentence. We use a toothbrush to clean our teeth. I use my blue teeshirt to bring together the other colours of my outfit. I use cardboard boxes to hold my belongings when I shift house.

Use is easy. We use it all the time and never even think about it. But, somehow, this seems to devalue it in the eyes of those trying to make their writing look more important. These people want more, they want a longer and more impressive sounding word...they want utilize.

Utilize

Utilize has its own meaning and it is not quite the same as use. According to our friends at Oxford Dictionaries again the definition is:

Make practical and effective use of

Bill Bryson in Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors writes that we can also use utilize for 'making use of something that wasn't intended for the purpose...or for extracting maximum value'.

I can utilize my blue teeshirt to make a cat house. I can utilize the offcuts of dress fabric to make rag rugs. If the cardboard box maker utilizes the cardboard carefully they will be able to get more than one box out of each sheet of cardboard.

So, there is a place for utilize, just not as a replacement for use. The (almost) final word must go to Eric Partridge who says in Usage and Abusage says that utilize is

   '...99 times out of 100, much inferior to use...the one other time [it is] merely inferior.

Think carefully before using utilize.

A number of vs the number of

I'm going to let you into a little secret: proofreaders don't remember everything and sometimes we have to look things up. And we double-check a lot because people like to point their fingers in a superior way when a proofreader makes a mistake. Consequently, I take twice as long as anyone else does to send emails and texts (was that double check, double-check or doublecheck?).

That's written English, though. Spoken English is quite another thing. When I'm speaking I'm more worried about getting my idea across (before someone talks over the top of me) and less concerned with being absolutely and grammatically correct all the time. So, late one evening, after watching an episode of War and Peace and still recovering from the amputation scene at Borodino, my mind wasn't quite up to the casual question thrown at me by a family member. I chickened out and said 'I dunno, I'll look it up.'

Here's the question:

When I'm using 'a number of' do I use a singular or a plural verb?

 Well, you could add another question to that one.

When I'm using 'the number of' do I use a singular or a plural verb?

Did you see the subtle difference? 'A number of' and 'the number of'. Don't be fooled by how alike they look. We treat them differently.

A number of

A number of soldiers are in the medical tent.
(Not a number of soldiers is in the medical tent.)

The soldiers (more than one so it's a plural noun) are what we need the verb to agree with (match). For one soldier we would use the singular form of the verb ('a soldier is...'). For more than one soldier we use the plural form ('the soldiers are').

The number of

The number of soldiers in the medical tent is horrifying.
(Not the number of soldiers in the medical tent are horrifying.)

This time the noun we want the verb to agree with is 'the number of' and this is a singular noun. So we use the singular form of the verb ('the number of...is...).

Simple Rule

A number of needs a plural verb.

The number of needs a singular verb.

Handy tip:
If you are having trouble with what the singular form of a verb is for this situation then just use the verb that goes with 'he/she'.   he runs, she congratulates, he was, she has
For a plural form of the verb use the form that goes with 'they'.   they run, they congratulate, they were, they had

  

Sorry, was that Dr Whom or Dr Who?

Before we begin, I know you are wondering why I am even mentioning whom. Who uses it these days, anyway?

I remember sitting in a quality control meeting over twenty years ago engaged in a discussion started by Fred, the minute taker, as to whether he should use whom when recording the minutes. The general feeling was that whom was archaic and nobody used it anymore. But apparently it was still important enough to Fred to raise this matter before he started to record the minutes. I loved that guy!

So, apart from Fred, who can be bothered to use whom? In The Penguin Dictionary of Troublesome Words Bill Bryson writes that Theodore Bernstein asked that very question in 1975. Bernstein asked twenty-five usage experts 'if...there was any real point in preserving whom except when it is directly governed by a preposition (as in 'to whom it may concern').' A staunch six said we must keep it, four couldn't make their minds up and fifteen said get rid of it.

Bryson goes on to mention that even 200 odd years ago Noah Webster called whom needless. It is left over from the times in our dim, distant past when we used to decline our pronouns. Well, whom is the only relative pronoun still hanging in there after we declined all the others and it just doesn't seem to know how to leave the party. And, what's worse, if you use it the wrong way People Will Notice. What we need are some simple rules to help us so that our writing gets noticed for the right reasons and not because some grammar snob is sniffing at our syntax.

Sorry, not quite up to the simple rules yet because first we need a very short grammar lesson.

We use nouns to label things, places and people. eg.Jim, saucepan, school, TARDIS

We use pronouns to take the place of nouns to make our sentence sound less repetitive. There are eight different types but we are particularly interested in relative pronouns, in this case whom and who.
  
Grammar lesson over, let's get on to the simple rules.

Simple Rule Number One

Try a different pronoun in your sentence.
Who went to see Amy Pond? The Doctor (he) went to see Amy Pond.
If 'he', 'she', 'they' or 'we' fits in you should use who

Simple Rule Number Two

Try a different pronoun in your sentence. This is not a mistype!
Whom did the Doctor go to see? The Doctor went to see Amy Pond (her).
If 'him', 'her', 'us' or 'them' fits in you should use whom.

Simple Rule Number Three

If there is a preposition in front of it you should use whom.
To whom it may concern.

Sometimes it will sound a bit old-fashioned.
From whom did you receive your Valentine cards?

In that case it's OK to change it around so that the preposition is at the end of the sentence and just use who.
Who did you receive your Valentine cards from?

You will be able to get away without using whom in your day to day conversation but someone will always notice if you get it wrong in your writing. We are stuck with it for now but, armed with your three simple rules, you can impress the snobbiest of grammar purists. 

Summer and grammar

In my part of the world it has been a long hot summer. El nino and global warming have combined to bring us the most consistently warm summer we have had in several years. The flies and mosquitoes have fed and bred in a riotous celebration of their favourite season. We have lit citronella tea light candles and dipped ourselves in potent chemicals yet still the flies sit on our hands as we eat our dinner. We might as well live in Australia!

When you give up working in an office building you give up free air conditioning. It may comfort you to know that at 95 per cent humidity and 28 degrees Celsius (it's all relative, people) even a self-confessed language freak like me finds it hard to concentrate on the finer points of English grammar.

Happily the mercury has snuck (thank you US English speakers for that most excellent word) down a point or two and my energy levels have risen correspondingly, so I am back into it again.

The next post is coming very soon, but until then consider John Mayer's words:

"Ladies, if you want to know the way to my heart...good spelling and good grammar, good punctuation, capitalize only where you are supposed to capitalize, its done."