The Complete Guide to English Spelling Rules (47 page)

Fore
means
“before or in front of.”
There are a number of words that contain this prefix:

The prefix
for
often has a negative meaning of opposition or rejection. There are only about a dozen words in this group.

With the
e
and without
it,
we have two words with quite different meanings.

Note that a number of other words begin with for or fore but the syllable is not a prefix:

C
HAPTER 52

Using
anti, ante, anto

T
hese prefixes can be confusing, but they are good examples of how one small letter can make a remarkable difference in the meaning of a word.

The Latin prefix
ante
means “before or in front of”:

The Greek prefix
anti
means “against or opposed to.” There are hundreds of words that use this prefix and new ones are created every day.

But there is only one commonly used word that begins with
anto
—antonym, a word opposite in meaning to another word.

There are numerous other words that begin with
ante
or
anti
but do not contain either of these prefixes:

Probably the most commonly used example of
ante
is the A.M. abbreviation we use to indicate the time before noon. It means
ante meridian.
This is the only time that the prefix is separated from the rest of the word.

C
HAPTER 53

Using in, into, on, onto

I
n, into, on,
and
onto
are often used incorrectly, not only in casual conversation, but also in formal discussion and in the pages of newspapers and periodicals whose editors should know better.

Some writers seem to think that
in
and
into
are interchangeable or have the same meaning. They are wrong.
In
states a place.
The man was
in
the car. Into
states a direction or movement.
The man got
into
the car.
Likewise, the common expression
Go jump
in
the lake
ought to be
Go jump
into
the lake
, but it’s too late to change it now. Those of us who care about clear communication should always insist that
The lady walked
in
the room
means that she was already in the room when she decided to walk.
The lady walked
into
the room
means that she was outside and she entered the room.

Similarly,
on
means a location or position.
The stamp was
on
the letter,
but
She stuck the stamp
onto
the letter
means that she attached the stamp to the letter.

The word
onto
seems to be gradually vanishing. It appears less and less in conversation or in print and its place is being taken by the simple
on
which now serves double duty as position and action. “
The passengers got
on
the plane,”
and “
The passengers were
on
the plane,”
are both quite common now. This is unfortunate because if clarity in communication is our primary aim, then the misuse of one word that aids clear communication is to be regretted.

C
HAPTER 54

The Schwa

T
he schwa, which is given as the symbol
in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), was introduced into English barely one hundred years ago. It comes from a Hebrew word meaning “no vowel,” and was first used to indicate those instances where the vowel was not clearly defined but sounded vaguely like
uh.

Probably the most commonly used example of ante is the A.M. abbreviation we use to indicate the time before noon. It means ante meridian. This is the only time that the prefix is separated from the rest of the word.