In an answer in the Spanish site about the use of timbre in European Spanish I tried to say that there is a specific meaning of the word that I know but very infrequently get to use, so I wrote this:
I also know and seldom use the meaning of the word in the context of musical instruments.
Today my answer got edited by a user who speaks US English, and ended up like this:
I also know and very occasionally use the meaning of the word in the context of musical instruments.
I usually trust the corrections this person makes to my answers in English, but this time I got a little puzzled about the reason of the change.
- Is seldom a word that is seldom used in English? (Yes, pun intended.) Did it just get changed to another, more frequently used expression?
- Did I use the word in a wrong way? What would be the proper way to use seldom in that sentence? Following the comment left when the text got changed, is it just that seldom produces a negative feeling and I just had to write "I also know BUT seldom use…"?
Yes, I know I just have to ask this person, but I would like to get a broader opinion about this.
Best Answer
Seldom is a word and you have used it correctly, however not very naturally!
Seldom - not often; rarely (def. from google)
I disagree with the correction. A better way to say this is:
I think the issue with the sentence, and the reason your original one sounds unnatural, is that you are mixing up positives and negatives:
I know - positive phrase Seldom (not often) - negative phrase
The correction was to another positive phrase: Occasionally - positive (happens, but only sometimes)
In general, it does feel unnatural to link positives and negatives with an and. Although this answer is purely speculative and I have no evidence!