English language - Grammar Girls 101 troublesome words youll master in no time

Whats the Trouble? Addicting is sometimes used interchangeably with addictive .

Some technical or medical books use addicting where a typical writer would likely use addictive: Parents are told these drugs are not addicting . Nevertheless, addictive is the more common term for describing something people struggle to quit.

What Should You Do?

Stick with addictive when you are trying to say a noun such as drug, video game, food, or lover has an unhealthy, nearly unbreakable hold on you.

J OE F OX : Do you know what? We are going to seduce them. Were going to seduce them with our square footage, and our discounts, and our deep armchairs, and

J OE F OX, K EVIN : Our cappuccino.

J OE F OX : Thats right. Theyre going to hate us at the beginning, but

J OE F OX, K EVIN : But well get em in the end.

J OE F OX : Do you know why?

K EVIN : Why?

J OE F OX : Because were going to sell them cheap books and legal addictive stimulants. In the meantime, well just put up a big sign: Coming soon: a FoxBooks superstore and the end of civilization as you know it.

Tom Hanks as Joe Fox and Dave Chappelle as Kevin in the movie Youve Got Mail

Reserve addicting for something or someone actively causing addiction.

Should cocaine moms be prosecuted for addicting their babies?

Jet Magazine (headline)

Whats the Trouble? People wonder about the difference between African American and black .

Acceptable names for people of color have changed over time and are likely to change again in the future. Today, both African American and black are considered respectful by most people in the black community.

African American is capitalized, but black is usually lowercased unless its part of the name of an organization (e.g., Congressional Black Caucus).

The Associated Press recommends a hyphen in African-American, but The Chicago Manual of Style recommends leaving it out in all compound nationalities ( African American , Italian American, Chinese American, and so on).

Finally, African American sounds a little more formal than black, which could play a factor in your word choice.

What Should You Do?

For Americans of African descent, use African American or black. If the person you are describing is from another country, use another appropriate term, such as Caribbean American .

Opening tomorrow in New York, the documentary film White Wash explores the history of black surfing in America, painting a contrast to the global sport that is dominated by white males.

James Sullivan in USA Today

African American men living in areas with low sunlight are up to 3.5 times more likely to have Vitamin D deficiency than Caucasian men and should take high levels of Vitamin D supplements.

Northwestern University press release