Guide to Grammar and Style -- V
From the Guide to Grammar and Style by Jack Lynch.
Comments are welcome.
Verbal means
"related to words"; a written agreement is just as verbal
as an oral one. People increasingly use it as the opposite of
"written," but there's still a band of brave souls who resist it.
If you mean something spoken, use oral. Samuel Goldwyn
ignored this distinction in his quip, "A verbal agreement isn't
worth the paper it's written on."
Very.
See Wasted Words.
Having a large
vocabulary can never hurt, but you should use your energy wisely.
Though knowing words like obnubilate, hebetic, and
tergiversation can make you the envy of your
crossword-puzzle-playing friends, in writing you'll get more mileage
out of knowing the precise meaning of
more common words. Can you distinguish climatic from
climactic? -- tortuous from torturous? --
incredible from incredulous? -- turgid from
turbid? They're very different, but often confused. For a
good guide, to these pairs and others, see Maxwell Nurnberg in the "Additional
Reading" section.
Don't use obscure words just because you can; ostentation leads only
to obfuscation. Using mirific
where amazing or wonderful will do is just showing off
and intimidating your audience. See also
Long Words.