Some words in the English language take a whipping every day. Here is my pick for the most abused word in the English language.
Pop quiz time. Please read the following four sentences and tell me what’s wrong with them:
- He only ate the green peppers.
- They only had ten minutes to get there.
- She only wants a few firecrackers.
- We only ate a dozen hamburgers.
“Only” is a word with an unspoken implication – that there are many possibilities, but all are false except one. [Read more…]