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ImageSMART TALK

by Dr. Shirley Glibb




PREVENTATIVE: Here at the Institute for English as a First Language, we've noticed that this verbal malady is so widespread and commonly used that many think it's OK to use. No. Actually, it's a strong symptom of polysyllabificationitis, brilliantly named by our own Dr. Weiss N. Heimer way back in 1990.

This sad compulsion to add syllables to perfectly adequate words, turning preventive into preventative, often starts with this gateway word and leads to Ecuadorean instead of Ecuadoran and even preprepare in place of prepare.

What's next, spectatator? Or might some extremely poor English speaker commit preventatative? Adding two syllables to a three syllable word, or even adding one, shows that that person needs treatment.

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