Mea Culpa: substituting left for right and one word for two

Style, grammar and photo glitches in this week’s Independent

An article on Monday about changes to the UK driving test appeared under the possibly redundant headline, “New driving test aims to cut number of young people killed on the road.” (Presumably, the test aims to cut the number of old people killed in car accidents as well.)

Unfortunately, we illustrated it with a picture of a left-hand-drive car (above), as a number of readers, including John Harrison and Henry Peacock, wrote to tell us. The new test is harder, but it does not include driving on the other side of the road.

The forever campaign: My campaign to separate compound words into two words will last a long time. I prefer every day, for ever, under way and any more. This week we had a comment article calling on MPs to stop Britain leaving the EU “without recourse to anymore referenda”.

I know that “anymore” is a common American usage, often at the end of sentences, such as: “I can’t bear Brexit anymore.” But even Americans I think would have “any more” as two words on this occasion. Thanks to Julian Self for drawing it to my attention. (Incidentally, The Independent’s style is that the plural of referendum is referendums, on the grounds that referendum is an English word, not a Latin one.)

The battle this week between “anymore” (12 uses) and “any more” (11 uses) was quite even. As was that between “underway” (six) and “under way” (four).

“Every day” and “for ever” are more complicated, because the compound form is better when used an adjective, adverb or noun.

We usually had “every day” as two words, except when it was an adjective, “everyday life,” “language” or “banking”. Or a noun, “the everyday”. Those exceptions are fine, I think. The only time it should have been two words was when we quoted Nadine Dorries, the Conservative MP, on the subject of computer security: “My staff log on to my computer on my desk with my login everyday.”

And when we wrote about understanding “how an assault forever changes lives”, or how Janet Leigh is “forever remembered for her defining role” in Psycho, the single-word form is better. We also often wrote about things such as how Britain would be trapped in the transitional post-Brexit phase “forever”, or how the “Harvey Weinstein allegations have changed Hollywood forever”. There is nothing wrong with that, really. It is only my personal taste that finds “for ever” more elegant. When I have won that battle, I shall turn my energies for restoring the hyphen in today.

Put on the substitute: In a review of Guys and Dolls, which is set in Harlem rather than the original Times Square, we wrote: “The production substitutes the fairytale neon of Times Square for something grittier but ultimately no less joyous.” As Mark Miller wrote to point out, this is the wrong way round. To substitute A for B means you end up with A. To replace A with B, which is I think the more natural way of saying it, and which is why the confusion arises, leaves you with B. We should have substituted “replaces ... with” for “substitutes ... for”.