Tip #37: Always credit with having, not as having

In my recent writing tips, I may have given the impression that I have a grudge with the preposition with.  Not so.  Here’s one instance in which using with is very appropriate.

Examine the sample sentence in the graphic at left.  The sentence really should appear as shown below.  Credit with having is always used, not credit as having.

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Many credit Edison with having masterminded the shift of technology into a prominent facet of modern society, even though Tesla was his intellectual superior.

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Again, we see yet another instance of the failure to separate spoken English from written English.  The phrase credit as having is quite common in spoken English.  But in written English this phrase loses any sense of appropriateness.  Credit with having is the proper expression.

This rule makes lots of sense when you think about it.  What does it mean to credit?  In the context of the phrase in question, credit means a commendation or honor bestowed for some action or quality.  The preposition as simply doesn’t match that definition.  But the preposition with does.  As connotes a connection of similarity.  With connotes a connection of equality, if not in substance than certainly in position.

So always credit with having, not as having.  Then you can credit yourself with having one more grammar rule conquered and being a better writer (if only a little bit).