| Your daily usage tip hot off the press. | | | | obtainment; *obtention; *obtainance; *obtainal. | obtainment; *obtention; *obtainance; *obtainal. What noun corresponds to the verb obtain? Though none of these four is common, obtainment is the most natural and the most frequent. The others are NEEDLESS VARIANTS. Of course, the gerund obtaining is always available for use, and it’s more frequent than obtainment.
| Current ratio in books (in order of headwords): 382:275:2:1
| Quotation of the Day: "Never set headlines using capital initials and lowercase on every word—unless your intention is to create visual hiccups. This is a bad and outmoded convention left over from nineteenth-century newspapering days . . . . [S]uch heads are extremely difficult to read and there is no longer any functional reason . . . to continue using them. . . . Use all-capital setting only when the lines are very short . . . . In bulk, [all caps] are hard to read . . . .” | | | | | | | Bryan A. Garner's Writing Seminars: Come see what he has to offer at www.lawprose.org. View the new Garner's Modern English Usage and other Garner books here. For a guide to the Language-Change Index, click here. Never miss a tweet from Professor Garner on Twitter. Follow @BryanAGarner. Watch interviews with writers and judges: YouTube videos. | By subscribing to this service, you agree to notifications of Bryan A. Garner's seminars. | | Copyright © 2019 LawProse & Bryan A. Garner, All rights reserved. | Our mailing address is: PO Box 195989, Dallas, Texas 75219 info@lawprose.org www.lawprose.org | | | | | |