Are kudos plural? No, it is not. Is it literally true? No; 'tis actually true. Neither confused be your kudos nor misused be your truths.

Language is as much culture as syntax, a living thing, much as your Mrs. Language Person may begrudge its elusive shifts in her querulous quest for certainty. Nevertheless, Dear Reader, words remain creatures of specific meaning, even as their meanings evolve. Their sovereign guide (and, dare MLP hope, her readers')? The ever-reliable (yet annually changing) dictionary, that reliable resource, that leader of language collecting more dust as the years pass your MLP by.

MLP presents this week, from the editors of American Heritage Dictionary, a few of "100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses and Misuses:"

Kudos. From the Greek kudos, meaning magic or glory. Definition: Praise or acclaim. Singular, although misuse has given rise to the ill-formed "kudo." Don't believe it.

Literally. Word-for-word; in strict sense (as opposed to sarcasm or metaphor). This is not, Dear Reader, the same as "true, real, or actual," although many thus misuse it.

Proscribe. To forbid, prohibit, or outlaw. Not to be confused with prescribe (to order, impose, or direct).

Phenomenon (singular) and phenomena (plural). A perceptible occurrence, circumstance or fact. Note a phenomenon need not be significant or unusual, although it may.

Principle (noun - basic statement, a standard) and principal (adjective - first or foremost; noun - person of presiding rank). A principal may be without principles, although good principles should be a principal characteristic of any leader.

Lay. To place or put (something), e.g., lay a baby in a crib, lay an egg, or lay a dinner table. Also, to put forth or assign, e.g., lay out a presentation or lay blame. Past tense: laid.

Lie (verb). To place oneself/be at rest (lie down); to be located (her house lies beyond the hill). Past tense: Lay. Makes for easy confusion, but context in a sentence reveals the difference.

Unique. One of a kind, without equal. As in one and only and without more qualification; not the same as unusual. Either a thing is unique or it is not; MLP cringes when she hears "very unique" or "somewhat unique." No, no! Something is not "very" one, nor can it be "kind of" only. If it is unique it stands alone, and unlike another. No exceptions or degrees, please.

And today's final misuses - affect and effect (nouns), and affect and effect (verbs). With these alone could your MLP could fill a column, but let's just take a brief stab.

Nouns: An effect is the result of something (limited vocabulary is an effect of poor reading habits). An affect is a term in psychology meaning "emotion" (restricted affect may be a symptom of mental illness).

Verbs: To effect something is to bring it about (the new boss effected positive change). To affect something is have an influence or impact on it (his drinking affects his family).

Thus we may worry that rain will affect attendance, and later see that it had little effect on the expected turnout. One can't hope to effect change in the weather, as only Mother Nature has control; in winter her affect seems quite melancholy.

Next time your MLP will tackle a few more among those infamous 100, such as ensure/insure (MLP's few faithful readers may note redundancies, but like "effect" they bear repeating), ironic (not coincidental, mind you), and (ir)regardless (shudder), to name a few (but not "less").

Our language is such a mess.

Mrs. Language Person is the on-again, off-again curmudgeon of the Hagadone News Network. Contact her if you must at Sholeh@cdapress.com.