''The King's English'' is a book on English usage and grammar. It was written by the brothers
Henry Watson Fowler
Henry Watson Fowler (10 March 1858 – 26 December 1933) was an English schoolmaster, lexicographer and commentator on the usage of the English language. He is notable for both ''A Dictionary of Modern English Usage'' and his work on the ''Con ...
and
Francis George Fowler
Francis George Fowler (1871–1918), familiarly known as F. G. Fowler and sometimes Frank Fowler, was an English writer on English language, grammar and usage.
Born in Tunbridge Wells, F. G. Fowler was educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge. He lived ...
and published in 1906;
it thus predates by twenty years ''
Modern English Usage
''A Dictionary of Modern English Usage'' (1926), by Henry Watson Fowler (1858–1933), is a style guide to British English usage, pronunciation, and writing. Covering topics such as plurals and literary technique, distinctions among like words ...
'', which was written by Henry alone after Francis's death in 1918.
''The King's English'' is less like a dictionary than ''Modern English Usage'': it consists of longer articles on more general topics, such as vocabulary, syntax, and punctuation and draws heavily on examples from many sources throughout. One of its sections is a systematic description of the appropriate uses of
''shall'' and ''will''. The third and last edition was published in 1931, by which time ''Modern English Usage'' had superseded it in popularity.
Because all living languages continually evolve, the book is now considered outdated in some respects, and some of the Fowlers' opinions about correct English usage are at times seen as antiquated (yet not incorrect) with regard to contemporary standards. For example, the Fowlers disapprove of the word "concision" on the grounds that it had a technical meaning in theology, "to which it may well be left"; but "concision" is now a common synonym for "conciseness". The Fowlers also criticised the use of ''standpoint'' and ''just how much'' (as in "Just how much more of this can we take?"), describing them as undesirable "Americanisms", but both are now common in British English. The book nevertheless remains a benchmark for usage and is still in print.
See also
*''
Hart's Rules
''Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford''—today published under the short title ''New Hart's Rules''—is an authoritative reference book and style guide published in England by Oxford University Press (OUP ...
''
*
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation (RP) is the accent traditionally regarded as the standard and most prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been argument over such questions as the definition of RP, whether it is geog ...
Notes
References
*Henry Fowler, Frank Fowler, Matthew Parris (Introduction). ''The King's English'' (Oxford Language Classics Series). Oxford University Press. .
External links
*The full text of the second, 1908, edition is available online at: http://www.bartleby.com/116/
*
Style guides for British English
1906 non-fiction books
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