Q: Nowadays, I see more and more journalists use the verb "predominate" as an adjective, instead of "predominant." Are these journalists wrong? — Curt Guenther, Memphis

A: A journalist wrong? My stars!

Quick confession. I made the error you cite several times while writing a college paper about the culture of the 1960s, e.g., "Young people were rebelling against the predominate values of the era." My professor crossed out every "ate" in "predominate" and wrote "ant"; my paper was crawling with "ants."

You're correct. "Predominate" is a verb, and "predominant" is an adjective. Given their similar spellings and sounds, it's an understandable mistake. Yet even professional writers occasionally slip.

I found these two examples in recently published books: "[William H.] Whyte argued that the Protestant work ethic, which was the predominate ethos of the previous one hundred-plus years, was dead by the 1950s"; "The belief in 'the Messiah' was the most powerful and predominate belief."

Usage expert Bryan Garner categorizes the use of "predominate" for "predominant" as a "Stage 3" on his Language-Change Index — commonplace even among many well-educated people but still avoided in careful usage. After my "ant"-infested college paper, I fumigated future folios by devising this handy mnemonic: "The predominant ant predominates."

Q: We often hear the biblical phrase "Woe is me. Is this grammatically correct? Shouldn't it be "Woe is I"? — Delores Davis, Ewing, N.J.

A: Can we go back to the "predominate/predominant" question? Just kidding. Here goes:

"Woe is me" is correct because it means, not that the person IS woe, but that that the person is receiving woe, as in "Woe is TO me." This parallels the Hebrew and German versions of the phrase, "Oy li" and "Weh mir," respectively, which both mean "Woe is to me."

In the English version, "me" is being used, not as a predicate nominative, but as a dative to indicate an indirect object, just as "me" does in "Give me the book."

This biblical phrase was first translated into Old English, which, unlike modern English, sometimes used "me" as an indirect object without a preposition or a direct object.

Today, for instance, we might say, "That insult is to me." But speakers of Old English would have said, "That insult is me," knowing the dative "me" would convey their meaning.

And if you wish I had slowed down in my explanation, "Whoa!" is you.

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254.