| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. |
A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996.
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Page 67
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| model. Some people think able to should be avoided with passive constructions involving forms of the verb be: The problem was able to be solved by using a new method. Since the problem has no ability to accomplish an action, this reasoning goes, it is not able to do anything; therefore able to should not be used. In such cases, you can usually substitute can or could: The problem could be solved by using a new method. Keep in mind, however, that passive constructions using the verb get ascribe a more active role to their subjects, and here you can use able to: He was able to get himself accepted by a top law school. | 1 |
about
| | The preposition about is traditionally used to refer to the relation between a narrative and its subject: a book about Cezanne, a movie about the Boston Massacre. Lately people have extended this use beyond narratives to refer to the relation between various kinds of nouns and the things they entail or make manifest: The party was mostly about showing off their new offices. You don’t understand what the women’s movement is about. This usage probably originates with the familiar expression That’s what it’s all about, but remains controversial. Fifty-nine percent of the Usage Panel rejected this use of about in the example A designer teapot isn’t about making tea; it is about letting people know that you have a hundred dollars to spend on a teapot. | 2 |
not about to
| | When followed by an infinitive, about to means “presently going to, on the verge of,” as in I’m about to go downtown. The construction not about to may be simply the negative of this, especially in response to questions: I’m not about to go downtown. I’m about to go to the park. But in most instances not about to expresses intention or determination, as in We are not about to negotiate with terrorists. A majority of the Usage Panel considers this usage acceptable in speech but not in formal writing. | 3 |
above
| | The use of above as an adjective or noun in referring to a preceding text is most common in business and legal writing. In general writing, its use as an adjective (the above figures) was accepted by a majority of the Usage Panel in an earlier survey, but its use as a noun (read the above) was accepted by only a minority. | 4 |
access
| | The verb access has become standard in reference to computers, as in This program makes it considerably easier to access files on another disk. In recent years, people have begun to extend access to nontechnical contexts, giving it the broader meaning “to obtain goods, especially by technological means.” But this sense has yet to gain acceptability with the Usage Panel. Eighty-two percent reject the use of access in the sentence You can access your cash at any of 300 automatic tellers throughout the area. | 5 |
accompany
| | A traditional rule states that the preposition to use when accompany occurs in passive constructions should be by in the case of persons and with in the case of everything else. Thus you should say The candidate was accompanied by six burly bodyguards, but The salmon was accompanied with a delicious salad. However, by is quite commonly used in sentences of the second | 6 |
| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. Copyright © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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