| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. |
A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996.
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Page 84
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| interruption”: living in a continual state of fear, enjoying a continuous state of peace. But continual usually refers to something that recurs or is interrupted periodically: the continual pounding of the surf, the continual banging of the shutters in the wind. Only continuous is used to refer to physical continuation: The fans formed a continuous line around the field. | 1 |
continuance / continuation
| | Both of these words mean “the act or fact of continuing,” but only continuance is used to refer to the duration of a state or condition, as in his continuance in office. Continuation applies especially to prolongation or resumption of action (a continuation of the meeting) or to physical extension (the continuation of the street). The continuation of a story is that part of the story following a break in its narration. | 2 |
contrast
| | The noun contrast may be followed by between, with, or to: There is a sharp contrast between his earlier and later works. In contrast with (or less frequently, to) his early works, the later plays are brittle and highly theatrical. When contrast is used as a transitive verb, both with and to may follow, though with is more common: He contrasts the naturalistic early plays with (or to) the brittle later comedies. | 3 |
convince / persuade
| | According to a traditional rule, convince is used to indicate mental acceptance, and persuade to indicate mental acceptance followed by action. Thus you convince someone of the truth of a statement or proposition but persuade someone to do something. By extension you use convince, but not persuade, with a that clause. Thus you should say By convincing me that no good could come of staying, he persuaded me to leave. | 4 |
| If you accept this distinction, then you should not use convince with an infinitive: He persuaded (not convinced) me to go. In an earlier survey, a majority of the Usage Panel upheld this distinction. But the use of convince with an infinitive has become increasingly common even among reputable writers. In addition, both persuade and convince see frequent use with that clauses to indicate the acceptance of truth: I convinced (or persuaded) the receptionist that the matter was urgent. Thus, the traditional rule does not appear to have much of a future. | 5 |
could care less / couldn’t care less
| | I could care less! you might say sometime in disgust. You might just as easily have said I couldn’t care less and meant the same thing! How can this be? When taken literally, the phrase I could care less means “I care more than I might,” rather than “I don’t care at all.” But the beauty of sarcasm is that it can turn meanings on their head, thus allowing could care less to work as an equivalent for couldn’t care less. Because of its sarcasm, could care less is more informal than its negative counterpart and may be open to misinterpretation when used in writing. | 6 |
| The phrases cannot but and can but present a similar case of a positive and a negative meaning the same thing. For more on this, see
cannot under Grammar. | 7 |
| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. Copyright © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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