SAMPLE I: “HE explained that the electronic meter enforcement scheme was aimed at riding the city of wrong parking as well as instilling discipline in drivers and car owners... Our emphasis is the parking slots, which we would make sure is orderly done... But there won’t be any need if everyone parks properly and orderly. (Motorists Groan as Free Roadside Parking Ends, The Punch, Thursday, December 22, 2011).

Let’s examine the status of the word riding occurring in the structure, “the electronic meter enforcement scheme was aimed at riding the city of wrong parking”. What is the basic verb from which the gerund riding comes? Ride? This would be the right answer if we were to go by the spelling (of riding) offered by the writer.

However, the context in which the word riding occurs would make the idea of the verb ride an absurdity. Riding in a car? Riding a horse? Riding a motorbike? There is absolutely nothing in the context that would make the idea of the verb ride even faintly congruous.

We are going through all this laborious intellectual exercise because of the slight spelling but hugely semantically significant difference between riding and ridding, a difference that is clearly beyond the reach of the writer’s linguistic education. We have not failed to draw attention repeatedly to the notoriously treacherous English orthography. The system is one that demands complete loyalty, exposes the lackadaisical to ridicule, and is complicit in the confusion and “mis-communication” arising from bad spelling. With the English orthographic system, minute details are not minor details; tiny differences are not trivial differences; seemingly minor ordering or re-ordering of letters is not something to be glossed over flippantly. The system requires the user to ceaselessly remind himself of what he has already known, knowing that many times even the most competent writer struggles with doubt and confusion.

We have been led through this trouble by the difference between the verbs ride and rid. The problem is not that we do not necessarily know the difference between them, but that we may communicate the difference wrongly.

Now we illustrate their respective usages. First ride: (1) Riding through the broad roads in the evening can be a pleasant experience. (2) This place is not safe for riding bicycles. (3) Riding through the city, the popular politician was acknowledging cheers from the crowd. (4) I prefer riding in my old car to riding in a criminal’s jeep. (5) When he is not riding a motorcycle, he is riding a horse.

We have deliberately used the –ing form of the verb ride throughout so that we can be familiar with the spelling in this form. We should note that the form riding is spelt with a single –d–.

Now the verb rid, meaning to dispense with, to remove, to take out: (1) Ridding the NNPC of corruption is one of the major challenges facing the present government. (2) After ridding the streets of heaps and heaps of stinking refuse, the Local Government Council is now insisting on ridding even private residences of refuse. (3) The police authorities are bent on ridding the streets of people they describe as miscreants. (4) To find favour with God, you must find a way of ridding yourself of all impure thoughts and improper actions. (5) Ridding the film of obscene scenes, he has managed to develop it into masterpiece of a world-class standard. (6) I am ridding my farm of all crops that cannot be grown on a commercial scale.

It should be clear to readers that riding comes from the verb ride and ridding from the verb rid.

Next, I draw readers’ attention to the word orderly which occurs in the following contexts: “which we should make sure is orderly done”; “there won’t be any need if everyone parks properly and orderly”. Being familiar with the –ly ending that formally and outwardly defines most adverbs, many people would confidently handle the word orderly as an adverb. And why not, so goes the thinking, does it not end with –ly just like slowly, regularly, pleasantly, grammatically, consistently, nearly, etc.? The temptation to treat it so is especially difficult to resist in the second context in which the writer uses it, because of the presence of the adverb properly whose final part is superficially identical to that of orderly: “everyone parks properly and orderly”. In view of the semantic similarities between properly and orderly, it may have been that the choice of the latter is inspired by the former.

Appearances are important in so far as they are allowed to guide us to a solid knowledge of form and grammar. We would have no problem where substance is inseparable from appearance, but the problem can become a perplexity where the appearance is completely misleading and we indolently allow it to mislead us. The writer here has allowed himself to be misled by the appearance of the word orderly, treating it, as he has done, as an adverb rather than an adjective that it is.

Yes, the word orderly is an adjective: (1) The applicants were asked to file into the room in an orderly fashion. (2) The orderly arrangement of the files has made it easy for us to obtain information from them. (3) I have not seen a more orderly presentation of facts. (4) The orderly distribution of the materials will guarantee that they go round. (5) All participants are to come into the room in an orderly manner and obtain the books. (6) As a printer, you should know that printed papers are to be arranged in an orderly manner.

In view of the discussion so far, we adjust the relevant structures as follows: (1) “Which we would make sure is orderly done” becomes: “which we would make sure is done in an orderly manner”; (2) “there won’t be any need if everyone parks properly and orderly” becomes: “there won’t be any need if everyone parks properly and in an orderly manner”.

Sample II: “Opposition groups have accused that the elections were rigged while foreign observers were not allowed to monitor the elections” (Fighting Egypt’s Pharaohs, The Nation, Sunday 25, 2011).

I draw readers’ attention to the word accused that occurs in the structure, “Opposition groups have accused that the election were rigged.”

It should be obvious to enlightened readers that the word accused has been placed in a slot that belongs to alleged. Some users of English commonly confuse the usage of accuse with that of allege.

Sometimes we read: (1) The senator has alleged the governor of embezzling public funds. (2) My roommate alleged me of stealing his money. (3) The activist has alleged African leaders of manipulating elections. (4) A pressure group has alleged the newspaper of bias. (5) The lawyer has alleged the policeman of firing the shot that killed the young man. (6) The man alleged his neighbour of raping his daughter.

Each of those six sentences is defective in that it contains the verb alleged where the verb accused is the appropriate one. The sentences are adjusted as follows: (1)(b) The senator has accused the governor of embezzling public funds. Or: The senator has alleged that the governor embezzled public funds. (2)(b) My roommate accused me of stealing his money. Or: My roommate alleged that I stole his money. (3)(b) The activist has accused African leaders of manipulating elections. Or: The activist has alleged that African leaders manipulate elections. (4)(b) A pressure group has accused the newspaper of bias. Or: A pressure group has alleged that the newspaper is biased. (5)(b) The lawyer has accused the policeman of firing the shot that killed the young man. Or: The lawyer has alleged that the policeman fired the shot that killed the young man. (6)(b) The man accused his neighbour of raping his daughter. Or: The man alleged that his neighbour raped his daughter.

Please note the following rules: you accuse people of something; you do not *allege people of; you allege that...; you do not accuse that...

Back to our sample: “opposition groups have accused that the elections were rigged” becomes: “opposition groups have alleged that elections were rigged” Or: “opposition groups have accused the government of rigging elections”.