Plain English
and
How Not to Make a Fool of Yourself when Speaking and Writing It

Frequently Confused Words Non-Words: Rube Alerts Contradiction, Redundancy, and other Distractions

Reflexive Disorders & Intensive Care A String of Plurals The Alchemy of Apostrophes Badges of Immaturity

We might trace our ancestry back to the Mayflower and have degrees from Yale.  We might have six-digit incomes and wear tailor-made suits.  We might be famous entertainers or geniuses in math and science.  We might be chauffeured about in personal limousines and hang Monets and Picassos in our living rooms.  Yet if, when we open our mouths or put pen to paper, our language resembles that of ignorant, backwoods bumpkins, those who do not know us personally will always regard and treat us as ignorant, backwoods bumpkins, regardless of our outer trappings.

Likewise, we might be mayors or monarchs; we might have diplomas and war medals; we might have dozens of children and grandchildren.  But if we ourselves speak and write in the style of children or adolescents, we will find ourselves treated according to that standard rather than according to our wealth of knowledge and experience.  No matter how great our ideas might be, if expressed in an immature style they will be dismissed as undeserving of serious consideration.

The same applies to businesses and institutions as well as to individuals.  If we visit a web site marred by obvious errors and grammatical goofs, we are compelled to wonder whether the rest of the business's quality control is equally ineffective, and are thus inclined to take our business to some other firm, where care and attention to detail are clearly evident.

Fair or not, it is inevitable.  The attitude stems from a deeply rooted association, between the value of thoughts and the way they are presented.  We are inclined to perceive thoughts clearly expressed as the products of clear thinking, whereas sloppy use of language suggests sloppy thinking:  If a person seems not to care enough about his thoughts to express them well, listeners and readers are inclined to dismiss those thoughts as not worth their attention.  This is especially true when a speaker or writer uses dialect or slang in an attempt to communicate with people unaccustomed to the peculiarities and idioms of that style.  When attempting to reach more than a narrow audience, it is best to use a form of language accepted as standard by educated people.

In order to draw serious attention to what we say, therefore, we must pay serious attention to how we say it.  If we want to be regarded, respected, and treated as intelligent, knowledgeable, and responsible adults, in addition to acting the part, we must also speak and write in a fashion in which other other intelligent, knowledgeable, and responsible adults speak and write.  This does not mean that we must forsake individuality and creativity.  It simply means that we must demonstrate to others an acceptable command of language in order to be perceived as in acceptable command of our thought processes, hence acceptably intelligible and credible.

We should note that it is not only the unschooled who have difficulty with English.  Even professional writers, university professors, and Mensa members have been known to pick up poor habits of language.  It is far beyond the scope of a web page to explore of all the complexities and pitfalls of English, and it is assumed that most visitors to this web site are at least familiar enough with the language to know that its standard dialects have accepted rules, even if they do not understand or observe all of them.  We shall therefore focus on some of the most common errors committed by those who, perhaps with less sufficient grounds than they realize, assume they know English well enough to get by.  The objective of this page is not to cultivate flawless technique, captivating style, and award-winning presentation.  Nor is it to belittle those who ordinarily use a non-standard dialect as part of their culture.  If used properly, what it can do is help to identify and eliminate of some of those bad habits, which nearly all of us are inclined to pick up in a coarse and apathetic environment, and which subsequently mark our own speech and writing as rough-edged and in need of polish.

What's in it for you?  Clearer thinking and communicating for a start, along with a more capable and credible image.  Then who knows?  Maybe greater opportunity—a better job, more business, more influence, more recognition, more respect, less confusion, more interesting friends—whatever you make of it.  None of this is promised, of course, but in any case it can't hurt.  What does it cost?  Perhaps a few minutes to an hour of your wholehearted and undivided attention, plus daily practice.  Can you afford to invest that much in your own future?  Or, considering the potential consequences, can you afford not to?

=SAJ=

This article relates mostly to the conventions (and abuses) of Standard American English, which are in some respects—particularly spelling and idiom—different from those of the British English more commonly used outside North America.  The primary target audience comprises students at the high school and university levels, as well as professionals whose vocational or social relationships demand a more than casual level of linguistic competence and expertise.  However, others with a non-academic and non-professional love of English might also find this article of interest.

It is anticipated that this article will for some time be a work-in-progress   At first it will feature the most common and glaring blunders (including even some often made by well educated people), with perhaps less horrendous but still commonplace goofs to be added periodically.

Frequently Confused Words

Similar-looking and similar-sounding words with different meanings are a source of confusion for many among the less educated.  But a few regularly trip up even those who consider their language skills well honed.

Non-Words
RUBE ALERTS!

Some commonly used "words" are not to be found in any dictionary.  Anyone attempting to project a positive image should take note that using any of the following is liable to have the opposite effect.

Contradiction, Redundancy, and other Distractions

Over the centuries, English has become enriched by a vast assortment of expressions.  Many are still appropriate and useful, while others have problems that tend to become irksome.  Among these we find cliché, contradiction, and redundancy, as well as other forms of abuse, misuse, and overuse.

• Clichés are expressions that are so overused that they have become tiresome; they suggest lack of imagination and originality.

• Contradictions are errors which make a statement false or nonsensical, and cause the speaker or writer to appear thoughtless or foolish.

• Redundancies, though not necessarily false, are stylistically clumsy and inelegant.

• Misquotes of familiar expressions often result in nonsense or even the opposite of the speaker or writer's intended meaning.

Following are some examples frequently encountered nowadays.

It is good policy to avoid all of these, except in the specific case of pointing out their flaws or parodying those who use them.

Reflexive Disorders and Intensive Care

Since the 1970s, it has become popular to sprinkle one's prose liberally with reflexive and intensive pronouns—"myself," "yourself," and the like.  People who use them indiscriminately probably intend to come across as sophisticated.  However, the fundamental rules that make a language intelligible are very specific with regard to these special-purpose words.  Misusing reflexive and intensive pronouns for other purposes (such as substituting them for personal pronouns) violates those rules, hence tends to make language less intelligible—and the violators less credible.

Reflexive Pronouns

Reflexive pronouns are required in only one role, and are entirely out of place everywhere else.  They are used as direct, indirect, and prepositional objects, whenever the initiator of an action is also affected by that action.  This is the only situation in which reflexive pronouns are appropriate.  It is not at all complicated.  Simply bear two things in mind:

A reflexive pronoun is proper only when the subject of a sentence or clause acts upon itself.

A reflexive pronoun must agree with its antecedent (the subject) in person and number.

• I am the only one who can do anything to or for myself.  (You, he, she, we, and they can do things to or for me, but never to or for myself.)
  He bought food for Jan and myself. [WRONG! He can't buy food for myself.]
  He bought food for Jan and himself. [RIGHT!]
  He bought food for Jan and me. [RIGHT!]
  I bought food for Jan and myself. [RIGHT!]
  Jan and I bought food for ourselves. [RIGHT!]

• You (singular) are the only one who can do anything to or for yourself.  (I, he, she, we, and they can do things to or for you, but never to or for yourself.)
  I am inviting yourself and Joe to join me for lunch. [WRONG! I can't invite yourself; if anyone invites yourself, it must be you.]
  I am inviting you and Joe to join me for lunch. [RIGHT!]
  Give your friend and yourself a break. [RIGHT! (You) is the understood subject of a command.]

• You (plural) are the only ones who can do anything to or for yourselves.
  You must all save yourself. [WRONG! While a reflexive is correct, in this instance it refers to more than one person, and must therefore be plural.]
  You must all save yourselves. [RIGHT!]

• We are the only ones who can do anything to or for ourselves.
  If we don't defend ourselves, no one else will. [RIGHT!]

• One is the only person who can do anything to or for oneself.
  One must respect himself. [WRONG! One cannot respect himself, just as he cannot respect oneself.]
  One must respect oneself. [RIGHT!]
  Most indefinite pronouns do not have corresponding reflexives, and must rely on himself, herself, itself, and themselves when such is required. But one does have the corresponding reflexive oneself, so this is the appropriate choice whenever one does something to or for oneself.

• Third-person reflexives—himself, herself, itself, and themselves—serve as general-purpose reflexive objects for all other subjects, depending on gender and number.
  He doesn't understand himself. [RIGHT!]
  Sue owes this vacation to herself. [RIGHT!]
  Someone might hurt himself. [RIGHT!]
  Almost anyone can get himself or herself elected. [RIGHT!]
  Everything will work itself out. [RIGHT!]
  Who have proclaimed themselves our leaders? [RIGHT!]

Intensive Pronouns

Though identical to reflexives in spelling, intensive pronouns are entirely different in function.  The sole purpose of an intensive pronoun is to provide emphasis or reinforcement for a noun or another pronoun.  Unlike reflexives, which serve as objects only, intensives may take the nominative case as well as the objective (just a technical note, since the forms for the two cases are identical). Examples:

• Paul and myself flew the plane. [WRONG! Myself cannot fly a plane; myself cannot do anything except emphasize me or I.]

• Paul and I flew the plane ourselves. [RIGHT! Paul and I do the flying, while the intensive ourselves merely adds emphasis.]

• I'm too tired. Do it yourself! [RIGHT! Although there is no obvious antecedent you for yourself to emphasize, you is the implied subject of any command, which in this case might be expressed as (You) do it. It is this implied you which yourself emphasizes.]

• Would Dan and yourself join me for dinner? [WRONG! There is no you for yourself to emphasize.]

• Would Dan and you, yourself, join me for dinner? [RIGHT! Though an intensive might not be necessary here, it is at least correctly used in combination with its antecedent you. We could also use yourselves here, if we wanted to emphasize both Dan and you.]

• We need creative writers such as yourself. [WRONG! But to see the real reason in this case, we must examine the correct version.]

• We need creative writers such as you, yourself. [RIGHT! Such as you, yourself is actually a subordinate clause with its own implied verb (are), and would be expressed in full thus: such as you, yourself, are—with you as its subject. Such as yourself are is obviously incorrect.]
  Keep in mind that such clauses with implied verbs often occur after the subordinating conjunctions as and than, as in Jess is a better writer than I (am).

Following are further examples of standard usage of intensive pronouns, illustrating their agreement with the person, number, and gender of their antecedents.  (Nouns are always considered third person.)

• It happened that I was nearby and witnessed the crash myself. [The intensive myself emphasizes the subject I.]

• Though thousands watched the meteor streak across the sky, only one person observed the impact itself. [In this case, the intensive itself reinforces the object impact, to emphasize it as a distinct event.]

• Impressed by the exuberance of the cyclists, Pat and I decided to try the sport ourselves. [The plural intensive ourselves emphasizes the plural subject Pat and I.]

• Tired of waiting for the chauffeur, Diana decided to drive the limousine herself. [The intensive herself emphasizes the subject Diana.]

• The error-detection device itself was the source of the trouble. [The intensive itself emphasizes the subject device.]

Note that in all cases the intensive pronoun is used along with a noun or another pronoun (or a combination thereof), and always agrees with this antecedent word or phrase in person, number, and (when appropriate) gender.

In Short...

The misuse of reflexive and intensive pronouns has become so pervasive that it has begun to sound normal even to some trained ears.  But remember:.

• A reflexive pronoun is needed only if the subject does something to or for itself.

• An intensive pronoun is needed only to emphasize a noun or pronoun elsewhere in the same sentence. (In a command, "yourself" or "yourselves" may emphasize the understood subject, "you," i.e., "Do it yourself!")

• A reflexive or intensive pronoun must agree with its antecedent in person, number, and (where applicable) gender.

• Reflexives and intensives should be used only where appropriate. Otherwise, use an ordinary personal pronoun.

Using these rules is easy; people seem to go out of their way to make things more difficult than they are.  The only hard part is breaking bad habits—especially when we hear so many others around us making the same mistakes.  If we succeed, we will distinguish ourselves.  Those who fail will only embarrass themselves.  You, yourself, are certainly bright enough to understand this.

A String of Plurals

Nouns, pronouns, and verbs of virtually all Western languages have something called "number," and English is no exception. Number is that quality of a noun that indicates whether it refers to single or multiple persons, places or things. Words denoting single entities are (appropriately enough) said to have "singular" number. Words referring to more than one entity are characterized as having "plural" number.

Plural Nouns

English nouns form their plurals in a variety of ways, but most conform to one of five common patterns.

• Most English nouns, both common and proper, simply add s to form their plurals.
  Examples: boa - boas; chief - chiefs; ridge - ridges; toy - toys; Smith - Smiths.

• Common and proper nouns ending in s, sh, ch, x, or z commonly form their plurals by appending es. (with some exceptions).
  Examples: bus - buses; dish - dishes; witch - witches; box - boxes; buzz - buzzes; Jones - Joneses.

• Common nouns ending in a y immediately preceded by a consonant form the plural by changing the y to i, then adding es.
  Examples: baby - babies; daisy - daisies; fly - flies; hobby - hobbies; lady - ladies; property - properties.

• Some common nouns ending in f or fe change the f or fe to v, and then add es to form the plural. (Not all such nouns follow this pattern, however, e.g., chief - chiefs and serf - serfs.)
  Examples: elf - elves; half - halves; knife - knives; leaf - leaves; scarf - scarves; shelf - shelves; thief - thieves; wife - wives; wolf - wolves.

• Some common nouns are the same in both singular and plural.
  Example: fish - fish; sheep - sheep.

In addition to nouns conforming to these patterns, some English nouns are irregular, and some foreign nouns also see regular use.

• Some nouns employ irregular endings or spellings to form the plural.
  Examples: child - children; foot - feet; man - men; ox - oxen; potato - potatoes; tooth - teeth; woman - women.

• Some foreign nouns used in English retain their original plural forms, Latin and Greek being most common.
  Examples: alga - algae; alumnus - alumni; appendix - appendices; criterion - bacterium - bacteria; criteria; datum - data; index - indices; medium - media; parenthesis - parentheses; phenomenon - phenomena; spectrum - spectra; thesis - theses.

• On the other hand, English-style endings have become acceptable for some foreign-derived words.
  Examples: album - albums; cadenza - cadenzas; polygon - polygons.

More than 99 percent of nouns used in English form their plurals by one of these rules. Most of the other fraction of a percent are in common use and hence adequately familiar to most English-speakers. The remaining few we might have to look up.

Plural Pronouns

As in many other languages, pronouns in English have their own forms distinct from those of nouns.  Since there is no general rule for forming a plural pronoun from a singular one, or vice versa, all we can do is simply commit the standard forms to memory.  There are several types of pronouns, but the three types which have both singular and plural number are personal, intensive, and reflexive pronouns.

Fortunately, most of us who have spoken English all our lives are comfortably familiar with these.  But they are a problem for those who have grown up in an environment in which local dialect does not observe the rules of standard English, and who therefore must painstakingly relearn and practice them if they do not wish to be regarded by others as as ignorant and uneducated.  At the very least, we should know that there are no such words as hi's, his', her's, hers', our's, ours', your's, yours', their's, theirs', hisself, ourself, themself, theirself, or theirselves.  While these might sound or look all right to those accustomed to them, they are jarring "rube alerts" to everyone else.

Subject-Verb Agreement

Verbs also have number, and must agree in that respect with their subjects.  In English this usually doesn't become apparent or worrisome, except with third-person singular nouns, and with first- and third-person singular pronouns.

In the present tense and with a noun or third-person pronoun as subject, all regular verbs and most irregular verbs follow rules very similar to those for forming noun plurals:

• Verbs ending in s, sh, ch, x, or z append es. Examples: toss - tosses; wash - washes; patch - patches; fix - fixes; buzz - buzzes. A few verbs ending in o do likewise: do - does; go - goes.

• Verbs ending in a y immediately preceded by a consonant change the y to i and add es. Examples: copy - copies; pity - pities; study - studies.

• Nearly all other verbs simply append s. Examples: buy - buys; celebrate - celebrates; fail - fails; know - knows; mark - marks; say - says.

A common exception is the verb to have, which changes to has in this instance.  In all other persons and tenses, the singular form of these verbs is identical to the plural form; in other words, there are no explicit indications of verb number except in the third-person, present tense.

One obvious exception is the verb to be, which exhibits differences of number in both the present and past tenses, with both first- and third-person singular subjects, as shown:

Other notable exceptions are certain modal verbs—can, must, ought, shall, and will—which for each tense retain the same form in all three persons and in both singular and plural.

The Alchemy of Apostrophes

Because they are used in contractions and possessives, apostrophes are among the most common punctuation marks in English.  Yet they are also among the most misunderstood and misused, despite that the rules for using them are few and simple.  In English, apostrophes have only three uses:

• contractions. words or phrases from which some letters are omitted;

• possessives, nouns and pronouns signifying ownership or belonging;

• plurals of individual letters of the alphabet, such as P's and Q's.

Here are the simple rules that will work each and every time:

Rule 1: Contractions

• Insert an apostrophe to indicate letters omitted from a contraction.  Simple!
  
  Examples: I am = I'm; cannot = can't; he will = he'll; it is = it's; there is = there's; who is = who's; they have = they've; you are = you're.  Some standard abbreviations and names also follow this rule (e.g., association = ass'n.; continued = cont'd.; [of] Grady = O'Grady)

Rule 2: Possessives

• Begin forming the possessive case of any English noun or indefinite pronoun by appending an apostrophe to the end of the word (e.g., cat > cat').

• If the noun is singular, or if it is plural and does not end in "s," then (and only then) append an "s" after the apostrophe. (e.g., cat' > cat's).  Simple!
  
  Examples (Note the application of this two-step rule in every instance.):

Rule 3: Plurals of Letters

• Append an apostrophe and an "s" to indicate the plural of a letter of the alphabet.  Simple!  (At one time this rule applied also to numerals, but this is no longer accepted practice.)
  
  Example: "When I print, all of my 1s and l's look like I's."
  
  (This is the only instance in which an apostrophe is used to form a plural in English!  The reason is that it avoids confusion with two-letter words and abbreviations ending in "s," such as "as," "is," "Ms.," and "us.")

There you have them:  All the rules for using apostrophes in English—few and simple, as we said, but not optional!  For some reason, people get hopelessly fouled up because they try to make it more complicated than it really is. If you're one of these, once you've learned the three "dos," fill that aching void in your brain with a few "don'ts."

• Don't try to complicate simple rules!

• Don't make exceptions or additions!

• Don't turn them into a guessing game!

• Don't apply rules for nouns to other parts of speech (personal pronouns and verbs don't use apostrophes)!

• Don't get creative and make a fool of yourself!

Just memorize and follow the three rules without exception, and all will be well.  Save your brilliant creativity and individualism for the ideas you present!

But what about "its" and "it's," "their" and "they're," "whose" and "who's," "your" and "you're"?  Each of these is correct in its proper place.  If you understand the three rules for apostrophes, you should be able to figure these out.  If you're still confused, remember the simple substitution test to get the right answer in any situation!

Badges of Immaturity

I have saved this topic for last, because it probably doesn't apply to most readers of this web site.  However, perhaps a few guests have older offspring, who might derive some benefit from the insight of this old fart.  After all, I was a kid myself not too many years ago, and today at the campus I once more find myself in their daily company, hence privy to many of their trials and concerns.  Then too, lousy language tends to be contagious, and adults not infrequently "catch" it from their own kids.  If you happen to be in this group, perhaps something here might pinpoint an acquired quirk that has been earning you some odd looks at the office.

Some of the silliest abuses of language are committed by young people, who are perhaps more prone than others to adopt fads in order to gain social acceptance.  But while such acquiescence to arbitrary peer standards allows the young person to fit into his or her chosen group, the habits thus formed may also cause him or her to be seen as immature and mindlessly conformist by those outside that group.  This can become a problem when he or she enters the market for a prospective employer, publisher, customer, or mate.

Like, "Like"

Used appropriately, "like" is a perfectly useful and acceptable word, with a variety of legitimate purposes.  As a verb it means "to find pleasant," as in "I like chocolate," or "They like to fly first class."  As an adjective, "like" means "similar," as in "All the club members were of like mind."  And as a preposition, "like" means "similar to," as in "This coffee tastes like mud," or "The thief is like a fox."

Lately, though, we hear people indiscriminately peppering their sentences with the word "like" when it is not at all appropriate or meaningful.  (So far, this is mainly a spoken phenomenon; it has yet to invade written English to a great extent.)  Initially, "like" probably wormed its way into this erroneous usage as a shorthand substitute for such moderating qualifiers as "approximately," "nearly," "perhaps," "rather," "somewhat," and the sort.  Through severe misuse, however, "like" has now devolved to meaningless padding for poorly formed ideas.  Examples:

• "G.W.Bush is like a Republican."  In standard English, the implication is that Bush is not really a Republican, but merely resembles a Republican in some way.  Yet there is no doubt whatever that G.W.Bush is a card-carrying Republican; he is not like a Republican; he is a Republican.

• "They like went to the movie."  Are we to suppose that they did something similar to going to a movie, without actually going to the movie?  Probably not: Either they went to the movie or they did not.  (If they did, then perhaps they liked the movie, but that is a different matter.)

• "My car is like green."  This suggests that I am not sure what color my car is, but that I suspect it is closer to green than to some other color.  From such a statement one might reasonably infer that I am either color-blind or absurdly indecisive.  If what I mean is "My car is green," that is what I should say.  While there are many shades and tints of green, "like green" is not one of them.  (Now, I could legitimately use "like" to compare the color of my car to something else, as "The color of my car is like that of a pine forest."  But that is obviously something else entirely.)

• "My wife is like pregnant."  This seems to hint that she has entered a peculiar state resembling pregnancy without actually becoming pregnant.  If what I really mean is "My wife is pregnant," that is what I should say.  A person is either pregnant or not pregnant; there is no in-between.  If I am not sure which is true, then I should say, "I think my wife is pregnant."

To say that someone is "like pregnant"—or for that matter, "like happy," "like sad," "like angry," "like unemployed," or "like dead"—simply makes the speaker seem like an idiot.  But people who have long been in the habit of misusing "like" in this way are often unaware of the effect that it can have on others.  Thus to illustrate the impression it makes—upon a prospective employer or client, for example—we might try substituting "-duh-" for any inappropriate occurrence of "like."  To use the foregoing as examples:

• G.W.Bush is like a Republican. = G.W.Bush is -duh- a Republican.

• They like went to the movie. = They -duh- went to the movie.

• My car is like green. = My car is -duh- green.

• My wife is like pregnant. = My wife is -duh- pregnant.

• I am like unemployed. = I am -duh- unemployed.  (Like duh, no wonder!)

Another way in which "like" is frequently misused nowadays is in combination with the verb "to be," in the sense of expressing an idea.  Examples:

• Don't say, "You were like, give me that,"
  when you mean, "You told me to give it to you."

• Don't say, "I'm like, what do you want?"
  when you mean, "I asked what you wanted."

• Don't say, "She's like, there is a God,"
  when you mean, "She believes in God."

• Don't say, "Columbus was like, he sailed to India,"
  when you mean, "Columbus thought he had sailed to India."

Think about it: "to be like" is not a synonym for "to say," "to ask," "to believe," or "to think."  People who mistreat it as such appear afraid or ashamed to admit that they say things, ask things, believe things, or think things.  This is not how educated adults express themselves.  It is a badge of immaturity.

---

Vocabulary

Many people seem to dip into a grab-bag of a few popular words and phrases for everything they say.  The result is that these words and phrases are overused and misused, and if employed exclusively quickly become monotonous.  People who have completed high school, yet tend to describe everything that pleases them as either "cool" or "great," and who limit their criticism of everything else to "it sucks," are in a sad state and obviously in need of help.  Most people's vocabularies are somewhat better than this, but still they rely heavily upon pat expressions or jargon.  Often this takes the form of unwarranted hyperbole, which tends not only to rob our language of its richness, but also to make the user seem an impressionable bumpkin.  A few words that are nowadays particularly overused:

• awesome [inspiring reverence, respect, dread, and wonder]:  It is routinely misused to describe what is apt to inspire only satisfaction or, at most, transient glee.

• cool: It is used so indiscriminately as to have become almost meaningless, except perhaps as a vague expression of approval—often for something not especially remarkable.

• great [extraordinary or momentous]: The word is so often used to describe the commonplace, that its impact in describing people or events that are truly extraordinary has been utterly lost; we cannot seek or comprehend greatness if we set our sights solely on the ordinary.

• incredible [incapable of being believed]:  It is all too often misused to describe the commonplace.  To call an idea "incredible" is to say that it cannot be believed, which is the literal equivalent of accusing the presenter of the idea of being a liar, a dupe, or a victim of hallucination.

To be perceived and treated as a competent and level headed adult, one must develop and become comfortable with a vocabulary that projects such an image to peers and superiors alike.  One should be able to express thoughts and feelings appropriate to a range of situations, without seeming either unimaginative on the one hand, or overly impressionable on the other.

This does not mean that you ought to memorize a dictionary-load of five-syllable words.  After all, you're after something you can actually use, and unless you're a biochemist, it's difficult to work more than a few words of more than four syllables into daily conversation.  Moreover, going out of your way to do so might be regarded as pretentious rather than sophisticated.

Rather, you should gradually, yet steadily, acquire and exercise a vocabulary that is both general and interest-specific, one that expresses your individual advancement significantly beyond a level of bare adequacy, with respect to whatever your actual and intended academic, vocational, and social environments might be.  Read heavily in fields which are of interest to you; look up any unfamiliar terms, and assimilate the vocabulary through actively applying it in your own speech and writing.  (For example, from reading this paragraph, you might make it a point to use the words "adequacy" and "assimilate" in conversation during the next couple of days.)  For only by actually using a vocabulary can you comfortably work your way up, from the level of "this is cool; that sucks," to "I find this intriguing; that is beneath contempt."  As time passes, you'll notice an enhancement, both in how others see you, and in how you see yourself.  If your old friends begin to think of you as "uppity," that's okay.  With your growing command of language used by educated professionals, you're on your way to making new friends in higher places.