Most people also understand “if” to mean “if and only if”; it does not follow that we ought not to correct such ambiguous and context-dependent use. I’m down with common usage in most cases, but not when it comes to making logical distinctions in writing. There is a place for prescriptivist precision in language, and this is it.
Most people also understand “if” to mean “if and only if”; it does not follow that we ought not to correct such ambiguous and context-dependent use. I’m down with common usage in most cases, but not when it comes to making logical distinctions in writing. There is a place for prescriptivist precision in language, and this is it.