[Physicist]

Is this National Hate A Word Day?

I don't know, but as long as we're getting things off our chests, there are some constructions I hate:

• comprised of: The whole comprises the parts; it is never comprised of the parts. The whole is composed of the parts.
• different than: Two things may be different from each other, but not different than each other.
• convince...to: You may convince someone of something, or convince him that something is true or false, but you can't convince him to do something. You persuade him to do something.

Boy, those grate on me.

I also hate the word "twee".

[longshadow]

.... but you can't convince him to do something. You persuade him to do something.

OR, in more technical terms: "persuade" takes the infinitive; "convince" does not.

[RightWhale]

You may have been a pupil in my grandfather's English class. Not your everyday, ordinary English teacher, he knew rules of grammar such as are not often written in textbooks. He corresponded regularly in seven languages, including with a German he met and took prisoner in the trenches in Flanders during WW I.