Re: a few mistakes in a sentence I've come across ‘The usage of American spellings in British publications is to be deprecated,’ ‘The usage of water for washing cars is forbidden.’ Incorrect. The word required is use. Usage means ‘that which has become customary’ or ‘that which has been established by long- standing use. Thus, though ‘it is me’ violates the grammatical rule that the verb to be should be followed by a complement in the nominative case, it has become established by usage, and must therefore be accepted. There cannot be a wrong usage of a word, but there may be a wrong use of it. |