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Could you look into the proper spelling of the term inkjet? I see it spelled 3 ways: ink jet, ink-jet and inkjet. There are differences between various dictionaries as well. How do I know which is correct?

Here was my response:

Jennifer,

Thanks for contacting me. It’s an excellent question!

If you are referring to an individual jet built into a printer, then “ink jet” would be correct. For example: “An ink jet in the printer became clogged with ink residue.”

But you should never use “ink jet” to modify a noun (such as “printer”). When you use two nouns together to modify a third noun, you must hyphenate the first two nouns. Otherwise, for example, you leave the reader wondering whether “ink jet printer” refers to a printer that uses one or more ink jets OR to a “jet printer” (whatever that is!) that uses ink (versus, say, toner(s) or color stick(s)).

This leads to the question about when to use ink-jet and when to use inkjet.

You may not like the answer, but in my opinion the answer is that you may use either one.

It depends on whether you prefer hyphenated or non-hyphenated compound nouns.

The German language is full of non-hyphenated compound nouns.

In contrast, British English is full of hyphenated compound nouns.

My impression is that many Americans prefer the German approach, and this approach is fine when combining ink and jet.

Omitting the hyphen does not always work, though. For example, “pen-island” can easily be misinterpreted when you omit the hyphen!

But, again, the non-hyphenated “inkjet” form is just as clear as the hyphenated “ink-jet” form.

And it seems to me that many people now prefer “inkjet” over “ink-jet” when you are omitting the word “printer” from your sentence — as in, “My inkjet died last week.” (or “Do you have any inkjets for less than $100?”).

…

Best,
Kirk

One suggestion: Buy my How to Use Hyphens book. It will help you further with questions like this.

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- Kirk

Problem:
Some people follow one “is” by a comma and another “is” when speaking.

Explanation:
Here is Kyle’s first example:

“What I’m trying to say is, is that I can’t remember his exact words.”

Read this example aloud, and you will recognize the pattern.

Read this example silently, though, and you will see the problem. The speaker, perhaps out of a sense of hypercorrection, has put a pause (the comma) after the first “is” and has put a second “is” after that pause — as if the listener has forgotten about the first “is” instance.

Correcting this example gives us:

“What I’m trying to say is that I can’t remember his exact words.”

Read this example, and you see that the “is” connects (or “equates”) the phrase on the left side of it to the phrase on the right side of it.

Here is reader Kyle’s second example:

“The thing is, is that I’m having a hard time remembering his exact words.”

Again, the solution is simple: replace “is, is” with “is”:

“The thing is that I’m having a hard time remembering his exact words.”

Solution:
Avoid the dreaded double “is” by replacing “… is, is …” with “… is …”.

Thanks, Kyle, for this excellent submission of what, unfortunately, is becoming yet another common English blunder!

And it was only because of the context that I could be sure that the interviewee said “can’t” after the conjunction.

This got me to thinking: The popular use of “can’t” instead of “cannot” in spoken American English is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis.

In other words, it is simpler to say the one-syllable “can’t” than the two-syllable form.

But “can’t” can be difficult to hear (to distinguish from “can”).

Recommendation: Be nice to your audience by saying “cannot” instead of “can’t” in interviews, speeches, telephone calls, etc.

Also known as Emotional Freedom Techniques, or EFT, meridian tapping lets you use tapping on certain acupressure points to eliminate negative beliefs and reduce emotional sensitivity to physical trauma.

The ten-day summit, called the 2010 Tapping World Summit, has several excellent speakers, including Dr. Carol Look, a tapping expert who has published several books.

One of those books is Improve Your Eyesight with EFT.

I had to smile the first time that I found this book online.

After all, the author’s surname is Look, and book is about eyesight!

Yes, indeed. Names mean things.

Reader Brian P. wrote to me yesterday with “It’s third ten on the forty.” as an example of a statement that he heard recently while watching an NFL football game on television.

The statement meant “It’s third down and ten yards to go on the forty-yard line.”

I believe that what bothered Brian the most was the omission of the conjunction “and” between the word “third” and the word “ten” in the statement.

In other words, I believe that Brian would have preferred to hear “It’s third and ten on the forty.” at the very least.

I believe that the omission of the conjunction “and” in the sentence is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It is simpler to omit the conjunction than to include it.

Brian’s impression is that the omission is a broadcasting-school gimmick:

Dropping one[-]syllable words (many prepositions, plus articles, “and”, “if”, “as”, “is”, “are”, “have” and others) is the latest broadcast[ing-]school gimmick, and to my ear the most grating (with constant use of “actually” and “as well” running place and show).

If that is what broadcasting schools are teaching these days, then that is very discouraging.

On a brighter note: Happy New Year!

Colonel (Dr.) Steven E. Braverman appeared at a Fort Hood press conference last week following the cowardly murder of thirteen individuals.

Col. Braverman was identified as the Hospital Commander at Fort Hood. In particular, he is in command of Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center there.

I do not believe that it is a coincidence that someone with the surname “Braverman” is in the U.S. Army.

Names mean things.

And thank you, Col. Braverman, for your service.

Warren, those are excellent questions. The best answers come from rewriting your example in three different ways.

1. “The doctor told me to stop COMING back to him.”
Consider an equivalent form but with a different person being told by the doctor what to do:

(a) “The doctor told Ms. Jones to stop coming back to him.”

Statement (a) puts you as the listener/reader in the location of the doctor. From the perspective of the doctor, Ms. Jones is COMING back to him.

2. “The doctor told me to stop GOING back to him.”
Consider an equivalent form but with a different person being told by the doctor what to do:

(b) “The doctor told Ms. Jones to stop going back to him.”

Statement (b) puts you as the listener/reader in a location OTHER THAN the location of the doctor. From the perspective of someone who is NOT at the doctor’s office, Ms. Jones is GOING back to him.

So #1 and #2 are each correct, but you have to decide as the speaker/writer whether you want to put the listener/reader at the location of the doctor (#1) or at your non-doctor’s-office location (#2).

In other words, you have to decide whether you want to focus the “told me”

• on the act of the doctor (#1)
   
  -OR-
• on what the doctor is requesting from your perspective/location (#2).

But let’s change your original sentence (#1) slightly:

3. “The doctor told me that I should stop ____ back to him.”
Consider an equivalent form but with a different person being told by the doctor what to do:

(c) “The doctor told Ms. Jones that she should stop ___ back to him.”

Statement (c) is equivalent to “The doctor told Ms. Jones that ‘X’.”, where ‘X’ is a complete sentence on its own.

For example, ‘X’ could be “The sky is blue.” — giving us “The doctor told Ms. Jones that the sky is blue.”.

So what should we put in the “___” in #3?

Sentence #3 becomes “The doctor told me that ‘X’.”, where X = “I should stop ___ back to him.”.

Try replacing “___” in this X with “GOING” and with “COMING” to see which one is correct:

(d) “I should stop GOING back to him.”
(e) “I should stop COMING back to him.”

Given that you (the “I” in (d)) are NOT where he (the “him” in (d)) is, you have to GO back to him.

In other words, you, where you are, cannot COME back to him.

So the correct completion of statement #3 is always “The doctor told me that I should stop GOING back to him.”

I have now written 600 daily posts in a row to this blog.

And this milestone marks a new path for me and this website.

I have decided to put more energy into another online venture. (I will tell you more here about that venture as soon as I am ready to share the good news.)

The result: I no longer, as far as I can see or predict, will be blogging daily here.

I instead will add to this site for one of two reasons:

1. I have something super-significant to say here about better communication for smart people, and my other venture affords me the time to say it.
2. You contact me about something that I find of interest to this site’s readers, and writing about it here requires little time.

In the mean time, I encourage you to check out my Articles section for a handful of in-depth discussions related to better communication.

And remember that you can go to the Archives section for access to every one of my blog posts.

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Until next time …