52. Uninterested/disinterested

These two are very often mixed up in newspaper articles and even in books written by people who should know better. The difference is quite clear and should definitely be preserved. Uninterested means lacking in interest, by far the more frequently used of the two. Disinterested means unbiased, impartial, without self-interest or personal motive that could influence your attitude. The judge and jury in a court room must be interested in the case being tried, but must at the same time be disinterested. If a company is on trial and one of the jurors owns shares in it, he could not claim to be disinterested, i.e. to be free from the thought that an adverse verdict might hurt his pocket. uninterested=lack of interest; disinterested= disinterest

53. Very/much

Very usually qualifies an adjective to indicate degree: very funny, very deep, very loud, and so on. Much qualifies participles to indicate degree: much admired, much discussed, much appreciated, and so forth. Very can also be used to qualify a few participles that have assumed the meaning of adjectives. All of these have something to do with emotions or state of mind: very pleased, very alarmed, very worried, very frustrated, very impressed, very elated Whenever you are in doubt about very or much, use a simple trick: say rather (weaker than very/much) or greatly (stronger than very/much). They usually fit: greatly perturbed, rather bothered, greatly underrated, etc.

54. Waste/wastage

Waste is usually avoidable: a waste of food, money, time, etc. Wastage is generally unavoidable. It is the natural loss of a substance through evaporation, normal leakage, and similar causes: wastage of fuel in a tank, water in a cistern, and so on.

55. Whisky/whiskey

Whisky is from Scotland; whiskey from Ireland or North America. Plurals? Whiskies and whiskeys, respectively.

56. More [^top]

Sometimes you have the choice between three or even four vaguely similar words. Which do you choose?

57. Beautiful/handsome/pretty

Generalizing a little, we recommend beautiful for male babies and female persons of all ages. Handsome is suitable for males beyond the baby stage and women of slightly advanced age when beauty may be combined with a certain dignity. The description a handsome girl usually indicates a cautious assessment by the speaker, i.e. the girl has perhaps a bit of a horse face, but is otherwise not too repulsive. Pretty is applied to small girls and young women. If you are a woman of forty, you will prefer to be called pretty rather than handsome. Multi-purpose, uni-sex adjective, suitable for babies as well as grandmothers or grandfathers of 80? Good-looking.

58. Boat/ship/vessel

A boat can be of any size, from a rowing boat to an ocean liner. Be careful with professionals, however, because you will not be asked to the captain's table again after telling the master that his forty-thousand ton liner is a beautiful 'boat'. The correct word is ship, an ocean-going vessel. Vessel is the formal or generic term.

59. Former/ex/late

Former means still alive but no longer in the same job or position: our former manager, a former employee, one of my former pupils, etc. Ex- means the same as former, but often with the implication that the departure was not quite voluntary: ex-husband, ex-President, ex-mayor, etc. The late Jock Mac Tavish does not mean that Jock arrived at 4.30 when he should have been there at four o'clock. It means that he is dead. You do not need late when it is generally known that a person is no longer alive: It is attributed to President Truman but it belonged to her late grandfather.