Comments on: Forgo or Forego? http://belletra.com/editor-at-large/forgo-or-forego/ English Translation from German, Spanish and Catalan; English Editing and Writing Fri, 22 Aug 2008 01:51:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Casey http://belletra.com/editor-at-large/forgo-or-forego/#comment-480 Casey Wed, 28 May 2008 21:23:51 +0000 http://belletra.com/?p=83#comment-480 Hi Daniel, thanks for your comment. I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you on your variance point: while forego is a listed variant of forgo, the reverse is not true. You could say that the small difference in spelling might mean that the two will one day converge into one word with both meanings, but that clearly hasn't happened yet since they are not interchangeable. Which is why I'll be using forgo when I'm giving up something, and forego when it's just coming first. And yes, that sentence started with which. Rules are relative. Please do keep me posted if you use any of my entries in your lesson plans! Hi Daniel, thanks for your comment. I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with you on your variance point: while forego is a listed variant of forgo, the reverse is not true. You could say that the small difference in spelling might mean that the two will one day converge into one word with both meanings, but that clearly hasn’t happened yet since they are not interchangeable. Which is why I’ll be using forgo when I’m giving up something, and forego when it’s just coming first.

And yes, that sentence started with which. Rules are relative. Please do keep me posted if you use any of my entries in your lesson plans!

]]> By: Daniel http://belletra.com/editor-at-large/forgo-or-forego/#comment-479 Daniel Wed, 28 May 2008 11:42:42 +0000 http://belletra.com/?p=83#comment-479 After checking with various online dictionaries, I'm confident that forgo and forego are simply variants. And since English is such a consistent and systematic language, I think we can afford to forego overwrought distinctions between the two and simply go with whatever convention we're familiar with. And yes, I ended with a preposition. Because I've been teaching ESL all day and now all I want to do is break rules. After checking with various online dictionaries, I’m confident that forgo and forego are simply variants. And since English is such a consistent and systematic language, I think we can afford to forego overwrought distinctions between the two and simply go with whatever convention we’re familiar with. And yes, I ended with a preposition. Because I’ve been teaching ESL all day and now all I want to do is break rules.

]]> By: Casey http://belletra.com/editor-at-large/forgo-or-forego/#comment-315 Casey Sat, 26 Apr 2008 10:18:59 +0000 http://belletra.com/?p=83#comment-315 Funny you should mention <i>verbieten</i>, skg046--it's the one that always slips my mind in German (I always want to say vor-)! Your definition of for- as an intensifier is much easier to remember than the definition given in Random House. Thanks for that. Funny you should mention verbieten, skg046–it’s the one that always slips my mind in German (I always want to say vor-)! Your definition of for- as an intensifier is much easier to remember than the definition given in Random House. Thanks for that.

]]> By: skg046 http://belletra.com/editor-at-large/forgo-or-forego/#comment-314 skg046 Sat, 26 Apr 2008 04:23:13 +0000 http://belletra.com/?p=83#comment-314 The for- in "forgo" is akin to the intensifying sense of completion that ver- has in various German words. Vergangenheit, verstehen, Verlangen, verbieten.... Actually, the last one might help to reinforce your mnemonic, since it has an obvious English analogue that hardly anyone would misspell. The for- in “forgo” is akin to the intensifying sense of completion that ver- has in various German words. Vergangenheit, verstehen, Verlangen, verbieten…. Actually, the last one might help to reinforce your mnemonic, since it has an obvious English analogue that hardly anyone would misspell.

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