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lerouxCommon English mistakes that really pickle my asparagus:
1. "That really begs the question as to what he was doing here, doesn't it?"
If you were intending to suggest that the question as to what he was doing there really needed to be asked, you are doing it wrong. What you have really said is ... well, nothing, actually, as begging the question is actually a logical fallacy and has no place in that sentence at all. That should read:
"That really raises the question as to what he was doing here, doesn't it?"
2. He dragged me over to the console with a firm grip on my bicep.
Your what now? The muscle used to flex the elbow is called the biceps. Really! Two of them would be bicepites if we were going to be wacky with the Latin, but let's not. That said, I repeat; one biceps, two biceps(es). No bicep.
(Its counterpart is the triceps.)
Thusly,
He dragged me over to the console with a firm grip on my biceps.
3. He should charge her with insubordination, but he loathed to mar her perfect record.
Technically that's not nessessarily wrong, though one could argue that it implies that he's marred her perfect record before, which would be impossible. My real point, though, is that you probably meant to use the adjective 'loath' (unwilling, reluctant; averse, disinclined) rather than the transitive verb 'loathe' (To hate, detest, revile), which would make the sentence look like this:
He should charge her with insubordination, but he was loath to mar her perfect record.
1. "That really begs the question as to what he was doing here, doesn't it?"
If you were intending to suggest that the question as to what he was doing there really needed to be asked, you are doing it wrong. What you have really said is ... well, nothing, actually, as begging the question is actually a logical fallacy and has no place in that sentence at all. That should read:
"That really raises the question as to what he was doing here, doesn't it?"
2. He dragged me over to the console with a firm grip on my bicep.
Your what now? The muscle used to flex the elbow is called the biceps. Really! Two of them would be bicepites if we were going to be wacky with the Latin, but let's not. That said, I repeat; one biceps, two biceps(es). No bicep.
(Its counterpart is the triceps.)
Thusly,
He dragged me over to the console with a firm grip on my biceps.
3. He should charge her with insubordination, but he loathed to mar her perfect record.
Technically that's not nessessarily wrong, though one could argue that it implies that he's marred her perfect record before, which would be impossible. My real point, though, is that you probably meant to use the adjective 'loath' (unwilling, reluctant; averse, disinclined) rather than the transitive verb 'loathe' (To hate, detest, revile), which would make the sentence look like this:
He should charge her with insubordination, but he was loath to mar her perfect record.
