Down on the Rooftop

THE CAREFUL WRITER by Theodore M. Bernstein. 487 pages. Atheneum. $7.95.

Almost anyone can spot the glaring flaws in this sentence: "I ain't got no pencil." But the English language can set subtler traps. What's the difference, for instance, between sewerage and sewage? Is the word "whereabouts" singular or plural? When does a pupil become a student? Find the errors in these sentences: "Dave Beck pleaded innocent today to a charge of grand larceny." "At least twelve hawks are making their homes atop city skyscrapers and zooming down to snatch pigeons." "Mr. Smith was changing a flat tire when a second car collided with his automobile." "The bulk of Mr. Getty's fortune is self-made."

One man who knows most of the answers is Ted Bernstein, assistant managing editor of the New York Times and the paper's unofficial grammarian.* His wry bulletins to the staff have disciplined loose Times talk for 14 years. Compiled into two books, Watch Your Language and More Language That Needs Watching, they have sold nearly 100,000 copies and have established Bernstein as a guide whose influence is not confined to journalism. The Careful Writer could be subtitled The Compleat Bernstein.

The book's 2,000-odd entries are alphabetized, but that is about the only concession to order. Otherwise, Bernstein consulted only the rules defining "clarity, precision and logical presentation"--plus the generally reliable canons of his own taste. This makes for a journey past the shoals and promontories of English usage that is more casual than comprehensive, but frequently edifying and unfailingly illuminated by the Bernstein wit.

The venial sifts against the language seem to amuse rather than affront him. Under ROOFTOP, he complains mildly: "What would a rooftop be, anyway? Use housetop or just plain roof." He quotes a recipe. "Now throw in two tablespoons full of chopped parsley and cook ten minutes more. The quail ought to be tender by then." Then Bernstein makes his point: "Never mind the quail, how are we ever going to get those tablespoons tender? The word is tablespoonfuls, no matter how illogical it seems."

* Bernstein's answers: sewerage is the system through which sewage flows. Whereabouts is singular. A pupil becomes a student, according to Bernstein anyway, upon entering high school. Since U.S. justice presumes a defendant's innocence, Beck did not plead innocent; he pleaded not guilty. Hawks, etc. zoom in one direction only: up. It takes two moving cars to collide. Mr. Getty made his fortune; it did not make itself.

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