This list comprises widespread modern beliefs about English language usage that are documented by a reliable source to be misconceptions.

With no authoritative language academy, guidance on English language usage can come from many sources. This can create problems, as described by Reginald Close: Teachers and textbook writers often invent rules which their students and readers repeat and perpetuate. These rules are usually statements about English usage which the authors imagine to be, as a rule, true. But statements of this kind are extremely difficult to formulate both simply and accurately. They are rarely altogether true; often only partially true; sometimes contradicted by usage itself. Sometimes the contrary to them is also true.Close 1964. n.p. (Front matter.) In a footnote to this text, Close also points to English as a Foreign Language by R. A. Close (George Allen and Unwin, London, 1962).

Many usage forms are commonly perceived as nonstandard or errors despite being either widely used or endorsed by authoritative descriptions.Close 1964. n.p. (Front matter.)

Perceived violations of correct English usage elicit visceral reactions in many people, or may lead to a perception of a writer as careless, uneducated, or lacking attention to detail. For example, respondents to a 1986 BBC poll were asked to submit "the three points of grammatical usage they most disliked". Participants said their points "'made their blood boil', 'gave a pain to their ear', 'made them shudder', and 'appalled' them".Jenny Cheshire, "Myth 14: Double Negatives are Illogical" in Bauer and Trudgill 1998. pp. 113–114.

Grammar

Misconception: "A sentence must not end in a preposition."Cutts 2009. p. 109.O'Conner and Kellerman 2009. p. 21.Fogarty 2010. "Top Ten Grammar Myths".

Fowler's Modern English Usage says: "One of the most persistent myths about prepositions in English is that they properly belong before the word or words they govern and should not be placed at the end of a clause or sentence."Burchfield 1996. p. 617. Preposition stranding was in use long before any English speakers considered it incorrect. This idea probably began in the 17th century, owing to an essay by the poet John Dryden, and it is still taught in schools at the beginning of the 21st century. But "every major grammarian for more than a century has tried to debunk" this idea; "it's perfectly natural to put a preposition at the end of a sentence, and it has been since Anglo-Saxon times".O'Conner and Kellerman 2009. p. 22. Many examples of terminal prepositions occur in classic works of literature, including the plays of Shakespeare. The saying "This is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put" satirizes the awkwardness that can result from prohibiting sentence-ending prepositions. Associated Press style and Chicago Style both allow this usage.

Misconception: "Infinitives must not be split."

"There is no such rule" against splitting an infinitive, according to The Oxford Guide to Plain English,Cutts 2009. p. 111. and it has "never been wrong to 'split' an infinitive".O'Conner and Kellerman 2009. p. 17. In some cases, it may be preferable to split an infinitive.O'Conner and Kellerman 2009. pp. 18–20. In his grammar book A Plea for the Queen's English (1864), Henry Alford claimed that because "to" was part of the infinitive, the parts were inseparable.O'Conner and Kellerman 2009. p. 19. This was in line with a 19th-century movement among grammarians to transfer Latin rules to the English language. In Latin, infinitives are single words (e.g., ), making split infinitives impossible.

Misconception: "Conjunctions such as 'and' or 'but' must not begin a sentence."

Those who impose this rule on themselves or their students are following a modern English "rule" that was neither used historically nor universally followed in professional writing. Jeremy Butterfield described this perceived prohibition as one of "the folk commandments of English usage".Butterfield 2008. p. 136. The Chicago Manual of Style says: There is a widespread belief—one with no historical or grammatical foundation—that it is an error to begin a sentence with a conjunction such as "and", "but", or "so". In fact, a substantial percentage (often as many as 10 percent) of the sentences in first-rate writing begin with conjunctions. It has been so for centuries, and even the most conservative grammarians have followed this practice.University of Chicago Press 2010. p. 257.

Regarding the word "and", Fowler's Modern English Usage states: "There is a persistent belief that it is improper to begin a sentence with And, but this prohibition has been cheerfully ignored by standard authors from Anglo-Saxon times onwards."Burchfield 1996. p. 52. Garner's Modern American Usage adds: "It is rank superstition that this coordinating conjunction cannot properly begin a sentence."Garner 2003. p. 44. The word "but" suffers from similar misconceptions. Garner says: "It is a gross canard that beginning a sentence with but is stylistically slipshod. In fact, doing so is highly desirable in any number of contexts, as many style books have said (many correctly pointing out that but is more effective than however at the beginning of a sentence)".Garner 2003. p. 118. Fowler's echoes this sentiment: "The widespread public belief that But should not be used at the beginning of a sentence seems to be unshakeable. Yet it has no foundation."Burchfield 1996. p. 121.

Misconception: "The passive voice is incorrect."

It is a misconception that the passive voice is always incorrect in English.Walsh 2004. pp. 61, 68–69. Some "writing tutors" believe that the passive voice is to be avoided in all cases,Pullum 2009. but "there are legitimate uses for the passive voice", says Paul Brians.Brians 2009. p. 169. Mignon Fogarty also points out that "passive sentences aren't incorrect"Fogarty 2010. "Active Voice Versus Passive Voice". and "If you don't know who is responsible for an action, passive voice can be the best choice".Fogarty 2010. "Active Voice Versus Passive Voice". When the active or passive voice can be used without much awkwardness, there are differing opinions about which is preferable. Bryan A. Garner notes: "Many writers talk about passive voice without knowing exactly what it is. In fact, many think that any BE-VERB signals passive voice."Garner 2003. p. 592.

Some proscriptions of passive voice stem from its use to avoid accountability or as weasel words, rather than from its supposed ungrammaticality.

Misconception: "Litotes or double negation (sometimes called 'double negatives') are always incorrect."

Some style guides use the term double negative to refer exclusively to the nonstandard use of reinforcing negations (negative concord, which is considered standard in some other languages), e.g., using "I don't know nothing" to mean "I know nothing". But the term "double negative" can sometimes refer to the standard English constructions called litotes or nested negatives, e.g., using "He is not unhealthy" to mean "He is healthy". In some cases, nested negation is used to convey nuance, uncertainty, or the possibility of a third option other than a statement or its negation. For example, an author may write "I'm not unconvinced by his argument" to imply they find an argument persuasive, but not definitive.

Some writers suggest avoiding nested negatives as a rule of thumb for clear and concise writing. Overuse of nested negatives can result in sentences that are difficult to parse, as in the sentence "I am not sure whether it is not true to say that the Milton who once seemed not unlike a seventeenth-century Shelley had not become [...]".

Usage

Misconception: "Paragraphs must be at least three sentences long."

Richard Nordquist writes, "no rule exists regarding the number of sentences that make up a paragraph", noting that professional writers use "paragraphs as short as a single word".Nordquist 2011. According to the Oxford Guide to Plain English:If you can say what you want to say in a single sentence that lacks a direct connection with any other sentence, just stop there and go on to a new paragraph. There's no rule against it. A paragraph can be a single sentence, whether long, short, or middling.Cutts 2009. p. 112. According to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Writing Center's website, "Many students define paragraphs in terms of length: a paragraph is a group of at least five sentences, a paragraph is half a page long, etc." The website explains, "Length and appearance do not determine whether a section in a paper is a paragraph. For instance, in some styles of writing, particularly journalistic styles, a paragraph can be just one sentence long."University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 2011.

Misconception: "Contractions are not appropriate in proper English."

Writers such as Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, and others since Anglo-Saxon days have been "shrinking English". Some opinion makers in the 17th and 18th century eschewed contractions, but beginning in the 1920s, usage guides have mostly allowed them.Walsh 2004. p. 61, 67–68. Most writing handbooks now recommend using contractions to create more readable writing,O'Conner and Kellerman 2009. pp. 32–34. but many schools continue to teach that contractions are prohibited in academic and formal writing,. Saint Joseph’s Preparatory School Basic Composition.com Illinois Valley Community College. contributing to this misconception.

Semantics

Misconception: "Some commonly used words are not 'real words'."

Common examples of words described as "not real" include "funnest", "impactful", and "mentee", all of which are in common use, appear in numerous dictionaries as English words,Dictionary.com. "Conversate"; AllWords.com. "Conversate"; Lexicus. "Conversate".Dictionary.com. "Funnest"; Oxford English Dictionary. "Fun" Scrabble Word Finder. "Funnest"; AllWords.com. "Funnest"; Lexicus. "Funnest".Dictionary.com. "Impactful"; Oxford English Dictionary. "Impactful"; Scrabble Word Finder. "Impactful"; Collins Dictionaries. "Impactful"; Lexicus. "Impactful".Free Dictionary. "Mentee"; Dictionary.com. "Mentee"; Oxford English Dictionary. "Mentee"; YourDictionary.com. "Mentee"; Scrabble Word Finder. "Mentee"; AllWords.com. "Mentee"; Vocabulary.com. "Mentee"; Collins Dictionaries. "Mentee"; Lexicus. "Mentee". and follow standard rules for constructing English words from morphemes. Many linguists follow a descriptive approach to language, where some usages are labeled merely nonstandard, not improper or incorrect.

Misconception: ""Inflammable" can only mean 'flammable'." / Inflammable' can only mean 'not flammable'."

The word "inflammable" can be derived by two different constructions, both following standard rules of English grammar: appending the suffix -able to the word inflame creates a word meaning "able to be inflamed", while adding the prefix in- to the word flammable creates a word meaning "not flammable". Thus "inflammable" is an auto-antonym, a word that can be its own antonym, depending on context. Because of the risk of confusion, style guides sometimes recommend using the unambiguous terms "flammable" and "not flammable".Brians 2009. p. 124.

Misconception: "It is incorrect to use 'nauseous' to refer to a person's state."

It is sometimes claimed that "nauseous" means "causing nausea" (nauseating), not suffering from it (nauseated). This prescription is contradicted by vast evidence from English usage, and Merriam-Webster finds no source for the rule before a published letter by a physician, Deborah Leary, in 1949.Merriam-Webster 1995. p. 652.

Misconception: "It is incorrect to use 'healthy' to refer to things that are good for a person's health."