One of the things I like most about being an editor is my exposure to a wildly diverse array of books. Over the years, I’ve worked on everything from novels to prescriptive nonfiction to memoir to cookbooks, and I’ve learned something new from each manuscript I’ve touched.  

Despite the variability of the content I’ve edited, however, what remains a constant is authors’ misuse of certain phrases and expressions in their writing. Sometimes called eggcorns, these terms retain their original intended meaning but employ the wrong words to do so. I’ve been keeping a tally of the ten most common examples of these errors, and while I’m no etymologist, I’d love to know where things went awry for the following:

1) Incorrect: I could care less

Correct: I couldn’t care less. Just think about it—if you could care less, that means you care more than you want to. If you really don’t care about something, you couldn’t possibly care any less about it.

2) Incorrect: all of the sudden

Correct: all of a sudden. If you don’t know which article to use—a or the—just stick with suddenly.

3) Incorrect: center around

Correct: center on or revolve around. The incorrect version forms an illogical hybrid of a verb connoting a precise point with a preposition connoting circularity, while either of the correct options pairs a verb with a more applicable preposition.

4) Incorrect: case and point

Correct: case in point. Since 1722, according to Merriam-Webster, this phrase has meant “an illustrative, relevant, or pertinent case.” In this scenario, the point in question makes the whole case clear.

5) Incorrect: pour over

Correct: pore over. This comes down to a simple spelling error. Pour means “to flow or move continuously in a steady stream,” and pore means “to gaze intently; to read or study attentively.”

6) Incorrect: one in the same

Correct: one and the same. This expression uses repetition to make its point. One and the same are synonyms in this context; one is not subsumed in the same to suggest part of something bigger.

7) Incorrect: equally as [adjective]

Correct: equally [adjective]. As Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage explains, “The reason equally as is considered redundant is that either equally or as can stand alone in most of the contexts in which the phrase is used.”

8) Incorrect: flush out

Correct: flesh out. Flush out means “to cause to flow,” whereas flesh out means “to give substance to” or “to make fuller or more nearly complete.”

9) Incorrect: low and behold

Correct: lo and behold. These two spellings designate entirely different parts of speech with entirely distinct meanings. Low is, among other things, an adjective meaning “not rising or extending upward a great distance”; lo is an interjection “used to call attention to something or to show wonder or surprise.”

10) Incorrect: for all intensive purposes

Correct: for all intents and purposes. Just as one and the same in example #6 are used synonymically, so are intents and purposes in this expression; both refer to “things that you plan to do or achieve.”

Have a grammar question? Leave it in the comments below.