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I recently watched a news programme from the Aceh province of Indonesia which showed a man selling "salvaged" items from the area hit by the tsunami. As he settled down to negotiate prices with prospective buyers the reporter told us he was getting down to bartering. As there was a lot of money being waved about and no sign of any exchange of goods, it was bargaining that was taking place, not bartering.

Another misuse of similar words that Australian motor racing commentators are fond of is the use of hone where home is the appropriate word. One hones skills. An overtaking driver homes in on his opponent. He might have spent years honing his driving skills so that he can home in on the other driver, but the words are not interchangeable.

Others overwork the preposition "to". It turns up in place of from, with and a number of others. Then, just when you are convinced that the speaker or writer only knows one preposition, he or she throws in another – often where to should have been used.

A favourite misuse of to is with between. Between implies within certain bounds, for example between your wrist and your elbow, between here and there or between 2 and 4. It makes no sense to say that prices range between $2 to $4. The word from fits there, in that prices range from $2 to $4. I've seen a time period described as between one year to another. It should have been either from one year to another or between one year and another. The word to in such cases implies movement from A to B. Between describes the interval between the two extremes. From allows the movement from one to the other.

Then there is the misuse of pronouns. If you are given something, you would (I hope) say: "It was given to me." If it were given to the male person standing next to you, you would say: "It was given to him." Few would argue with either example, so why, if items are given both to you and your male neighbour would so many people say: "They were given to he and I"? If him and me are correct when the items are given separately, they remain correct when the actions are combined. The correct form is: "They were given to him and me."

Take the sentence: "He and I went to the pictures with free tickets that were given to him and me." Where the persons concerned are the subjects of the verb, the ones performing the action, they are he and I. Where they are the objects, having the action performed on them, in this case the tickets given to them, they become him and me.

It's really quite easy. They kicked him and me. He and I kicked them in return. If in doubt, split the people concerned. Whichever pronoun you would have used when treating the people singly, use the same pronoun when they are combined.