Çevrimiçi

A.M. / P.M.

AM” stands for the Latin phrase Ante Meridiem —which means “before noon”—and “PM” stands for Post Meridiem : “after noon.” Although digital clocks routinely label noon “12:00 PM” you should avoid this expression not only because it is incorrect, but because many people will imagine you are talking about midnight instead. The same goes for “12:00 **.” Just say or write “noon” or “midnight” when you mean those precise times.

It is now rare to see periods placed after these abbreviations: “A.M.” , but in formal writing it is still preferable to capitalize them, though the lower-case “am” and “pm” are now so popular they are not likely to get you into trouble.

Occasionally computer programs encourage you to write “AM” and “PM” without a space before them, but others will misread your data if you omit the space. The nonstandard habit of omitting the space is spreading rapidly, and should be avoided in formal writing.

ABLE TO

People are able to do things, but things are not able to be done: you should not say, “the budget shortfall was able to be solved by selling brownies.”

ACCEDE / EXCEED

If you drive too fast, you exceed the speed limit. “Accede” is a much rarer word meaning “give in,” “agree.”

ACCESS / GET ACCESS TO

“Access” is one of many nouns that’s been turned into a verb in recent years. Conservatives object to phrases like “you can access your account online.” substitute “use,” “reach,” or “get access to” if you want to please them.

ACCEPT / EXCEPT

If you offer me Godiva chocolates I will gladly accept them—except for the candied violet ones. Just remember that the “X” in “except” excludes things—they tend to stand out, be different. In contrast, just look at those two cozy “C’s” snuggling up together. Very accepting. And be careful; when typing “except” it often comes out “expect.”

ADAPT / ADOPT

You can adopt a child or a custom or a law; in all of these cases you are making the object of the adoption your own, accepting it. If you adapt something, however, you are changing it.

ADMINISTER / MINISTER

You can minister to someone by administering first aid. Note how the “ad” in “administer’resembles “aid” in order to remember the correct form of the latter phrase. “Minister” as a verb always requires “to” following it.

ADVANCE / ADVANCED

When you hear about something in advance, earlier than other people, you get advance notice or information. “Advanced” means “complex, sophisticated” and doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the revealing of secrets.

ADVICE / ADVISE

“Advice” is the noun, “advise” the verb. When Ann Landers advises people, she gives them advice.

AFFECT / EFFECT

There are four distinct words here. When “affect” is accented on the final syllable (a-FECT), it is a verb meaning “have an influence on”: “The million-dollar donation from the industrialist did not affect my vote against the Clean Air Act.” A much rarer meaning is indicated when the word is accented on the first syllable (AFF-ect), meaning “emotion.” In this case the word is used mostly by psychiatrists and social scientists— people who normally know how to spell it. The real problem arises when people confuse the first spelling with the second: “effect.” This too can be two different words. The more common one is a noun: “When I left the stove on, the effect was that the house filled with smoke.” When you affect a situation, you have an effect on it. The less common is a verb meaning “to create”: “I’m trying to effect a change in the way we purchase widgets.” No wonder people are confused. Note especially that the proper expression is not “take affect” but “take effect”—become effective. Hey, nobody ever said English was logical: just memorize it and get on with your life.

The stuff in your purse? Your personal effects.

ALLITERATE / ILLITERATE

Pairs of words with the same initial sound alliterate, like “wild and wooly.” Those who can’t read are illiterate.

ALLUSION / ILLUSION

An allusion is a reference, something you allude to: “Her allusion to flowers reminded me that Valentine’s Day was coming.” In that English paper, don’t write “literary illusions” when you mean "allusions.” A mirage, hallucination, or a magic trick is an illusion. (Doesn’t being fooled just make you ill?)


ALTERNATE / ALTERNATIVE

Although UK authorities disapprove, in U.S. usage, “alternate” is frequently an adjective, substituted for the older “alternative”: “an alternate route.” “Alternate” can also be a noun; a substitute delegate is, for instance, called an “alternate.” But when you’re speaking of “every other” as in “our club meets on alternate Tuesdays,” you can’t substitute “alternative.”

AMORAL / IMMORAL

Amoral” is a rather technical word meaning “unrelated to morality.” When you mean to denounce someone’s behavior, call it “immoral.”

AMOUNT / NUMBER

This is a vast subject. I will try to limit the number of words I expend on it so as not to use up too great an amount of space. The confusion between the two categories of words relating to amount and number is so pervasive that those of us who still distinguish between them constitute an endangered species; but if you want to avoid our ire, learn the difference. Amount words relate to quantities of things that are measured in bulk; number to things that can be counted.

In the second sentence above, it would have been improper to write “the amount of words” because words are discrete entities which can be counted, or numbered.

Here is a handy chart to distinguish the two categories of words:

amount number
quantity number
little few
less fewer
much many



You can eat fewer cookies, but you drink less milk. If you eat too many cookies, people would probably think you’ve had too much dessert. If the thing being measured is being considered in countable units, then use number words. Even a substance which is considered in bulk can also be measured by number of units. For instance, you shouldn’t drink too much wine, but you should also avoid drinking too many glasses of wine. Note that here you are counting glasses. They can be numbered.

The most common mistake of this kind is to refer to an “amount” of people instead of a “number” of people.

Just to confuse things, “more” can be used either way: you can eat more cookies and drink more milk.

Exceptions to the less/fewer pattern are references to units of time and money, which are usually treated as amounts: less than an hour, less than five dollars. Only when you are referring to specific coins or bills would you use fewer: “I have fewer than five state quarters to go to make my collection complete.”

ANGEL / ANGLE

People who want to write about winged beings from Heaven often miscall them “angles.” A triangle has three angles. The Heavenly Host is made of angels. Just remember the adjectival form: “angelic.” If you pronounce it aloud you’ll be reminded that the E comes before the L.

APART / A PART

Paradoxically, the one-word form implies separation while the two-word form implies union. Feuding roommates decide to live apart. Their time together may be a part of their life they will remember with some bitterness.

A WHILE / AWHILE

When “awhile” is spelled as a single word, it is an adverb meaning “for a time” (“stay awhile”); but when “while” is the object of a prepositional phrase, like “Lend me your monkey wrench for a while” the “while” must be separated from the “a.” (But if the preposition “for” were lacking in this sentence, “awhile” could be used in this way: “Lend me your monkey wrench awhile.”)

BACKWARD / BACKWARDS

As an adverb, either word will do: “put the shirt on backward” or “put the shirt on backwards.” However, as an adjective, only “backward” will do: “a backward glance.” When in doubt, use “backward.”

BARB WIRE, BOB WIRE

BARBED WIRE



In some parts of the country this prickly stuff is commonly called “barb wire” or even “bob wire.” When writing for a general audience, stick with the standard “barbed wire.”

BARE / BEAR

There are actually three words here. The simple one is the big growly creature (unless you prefer the Winnie-the-Pooh type). Hardly anyone past the age of ten gets that one wrong. The problem is the other two. Stevedores bear burdens on their backs and mothers bear children. Both mean “carry” (in the case of mothers, the meaning has been extended from carrying the child during pregnancy to actually giving birth). But strippers bare their bodies—sometimes bare-naked. The confusion between this latter verb and “bear” creates many unintentionally amusing sentences; so if you want to entertain your readers while convincing them that you are a dolt, by all means mix them up. “Bear with me,” the standard expression, is a request for forbearance or patience. “Bare with me” would be an invitation to undress. “Bare” has an adjectival form: “The pioneers stripped the forest bare.”

BESIDE / BESIDES

“Besides” can mean “in addition to” as in “besides the puppy chow, Spot scarfed up the filet mignon I was going to serve for dinner.” “Beside,” in contrast, usually means “next to.” “I sat beside Cheryl all evening, but she kept talking to Jerry instead.” Using “beside” for “besides,” won’t usually get you in trouble; but using “besides” when you mean "next to” will.

BORN / BORNE

This distinction is a bit tricky. When birth is being discussed, the past tense of “bear” is usually “born”: “I was born in a trailer—but it was an Airstream.” Note that the form used here is passive: you are the one somebody else—your mother—bore. But if the form is active, you need an “E” on the end, as in “Midnight has borne another litter of kittens in Dad’s old fishing hat” (Midnight did the bearing).

But in other meanings not having to do with birth, “borne” is always the past tense of “bear”: “My brother’s constant teasing about my green hair was more than could be borne.”

BORROW / LOAN
In some dialects it is common to substitute “borrow” for “loan” or “lend,” as in “borrow me that hammer of yours, will you, Jeb?” In standard English the person providing an item can loan it; but the person receiving it borrows it.

BOTH / EACH
There are times when it is important to use “each” instead of “both.” Few people will be confused if you say “I gave both of the boys a baseball glove,” meaning “I gave both of the boys baseball gloves” because it is unlikely that two boys would be expected to share one glove; but you risk confusion if you say “I gave both of the boys $50.” It is possible to construe this sentence as meaning that the boys shared the same $50 gift. “I gave each of the boys $50” is clearer.

BRAKE / BREAK

You brake to slow down; if your brakes fail and you drive through a plate-glass window, you will break it.

BREATH / BREATHE

When you need to breathe, you take a breath. “Breathe” is the verb, “breath” the noun.

BRING / TAKE

When you are viewing the movement of something from the point of arrival, use “bring”: “When you come to the potluck, please bring a green salad.” Viewing things from the point of departure, you should use “take“: “When you go to the potluck, take a bottle of wine.”

BY/ ’BYE / BUY

These are probably confused with each other more often through haste than through actual ignorance, but “by” is the common preposition in phrases like “you should know by now.” It can also serve a number of other functions, but the main point here is not to confuse “by” with the other two spellings: “’bye” is an abbreviated form of “goodbye” (preferably with an apostrophe before it to indicate the missing syllable), and “buy” is the verb meaning “purchase.” “Buy” can also be a noun, as in “that was a great buy.” The term for the position of a competitor who advances to the next level of a tournament without playing is a “bye.” All others are “by.”

CANNOT/ CAN NOT

These two spellings are largely interchangeable, but by far the most common is “cannot” and you should probably use it except when you want to be emphatic: “No, you can not wash the dog in the Maytag.”

CAPITAL / CAPITOL

A “capitol” is always a building. Cities and all other uses are spelled with an A in the last syllable. Would it help to remember that Congress with an O meets in the Capitol with another O?

CHUNK / CHUCK

In casual conversation, you may get by with saying “Chuck [throw] me that monkey wrench, will you?” But you will mark yourself as illiterate beyond mere casualness by saying instead “Chunk me that wrench.” This is a fairly common substitution in some dialects of American English.

CITE / SITE / SIGHT

You cite the author in an endnote; you visit a Web site or the site of the crime, and you sight your beloved running toward you in slow motion on the beach (a sight for sore eyes!).

CLASSIC / CLASSICAL

“Classical” usually describes things from ancient Greece or Rome, or things from analogous ancient periods like classical Sanskrit poetry. The exception is classical music, which in the narrow sense is late 18th and 19th-century music by the likes of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven, and in the broader sense formal concert music of any period in the West or traditional formal music from other cultures, like classical ragas.

“Classic” has a much looser meaning, describing things that are outstanding exampls of their kind, like a classic car or even a classic blunder.

CLEANUP / CLEAN UP

“Cleanup” is usually a noun: “the cleanup of the toxic waste site will cost billions of dollars.” “Clean” is a verb in the phrase “clean up”: “You can go to the mall after you clean up your room.”

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COARSE / COURSE

“Coarse” is always an adjective meaning “rough, crude.” Unfortunately, this spelling is often mistakenly used for a quite different word, “course,” which can be either a verb or a noun (with several different meanings).

COLLABORATE / CORROBORATE

People who work together on a project collaborate (share their labor); people who support your testimony as a witness corroborate (strengthen by confirming) it.

COLLAGE / COLLEGE

You can paste together bits of paper to make a collage, but the institution of higher education is a college.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

Hey kids, here’s a chance to catch your English teacher in a redundancy! To compare two things is to note their similarities and their differences. There’s no need to add “and contrast.”

COMPARE TO / COMPARE WITH

These are sometimes interchangeable, but when you are stressing similarities between the items compared, the most common word is “to”: "She compared his home-made wine to toxic waste.” If you are examining both similarities and differences, use “with”: “The teacher compared Steve’s exam with Robert’s to see whether they had cheated.”

COMPLEMENT / COMPLIMENT

Originally these two spellings were used interchangeably, but they have come to be distinguished from each other in modern times. Most of the time the word people intend is “compliment": nice things said about someone ("She paid me the compliment of admiring the way I shined my shoes.”). “Complement,” much less common, has a number of meanings associated with matching or completing. Complements supplement each other, each adding something the others lack, so we can say that "Alice’s love for entertaining and Mike’s love for washing dishes complement each other.” Remember, if you’re not making nice to someone, the word is “complement.”

CONSCIENCE, CONSCIOUS, CONSCIOUSNESS

Your conscience makes you feel guilty when you do bad things, but your consciousness is your awareness. If you are awake, you are conscious. Although it is possible to speak of your “conscious mind,” you can’t use “conscious” all by itself to mean “consciousness.”

CONTINUAL / CONTINUOUS

“Continuous” refers to actions which are uninterrupted: “My upstairs neighbor played his stereo continuously from 6:00 PM to 3:30 **.” Continual actions, however, need not be uninterrupted, only repeated: “My father continually urges me to get a job.”

COPYWRITE /COPYRIGHT

You can copyright writing, but you can also copyright a photograph or song. The word has to do with securing rights. Thus, there is no such word as “copywritten”; it’s “copyrighted.”

COULD OF, SHOULD OF, WOULD OF

COULD HAVE, SHOULD HAVE, WOULD HAVE
This is one of those errors typically made by a person more familiar with the spoken than the written form of English. A sentence like “I would have gone if anyone had given me free tickets” is normally spoken in a slurred way so that the two words “would have” are not distinctly separated, but blended together into what is properly rendered "would’ve.” seeing that “V” tips you off right away that “would’ve” is a contraction of “would have.” But many people hear “would of” and that’s how they write it. Wrong.

Note that “must of” is similarly an error for “must have.”


COUNCIL / COUNSEL / CONSUL

The first two words are pronounced the same but have distinct meanings. An official group that deliberates, like the Council on Foreign Relations, is a “council”; all the rest are “counsels”: your lawyer, advice, etc. A consul is a local representative of a foreign government.

CRITIQUE / CRITICIZE

A critique is a detailed evaluation of something. The formal way to request one is “give me your critique,” though people often say informally “critique this"—meaning “evaluate it thoroughly.” But "critique” as a verb is not synonymous with “criticize” and should not be routinely substituted for it. “Josh critiqued my backhand” means Josh evaluated your tennis technique but not necessarily that he found it lacking. “Josh criticized my backhand” means that he had a low opinion of it.

You can write criticism on a subject, but you don’t criticize on something, you just criticize it.

DEFUSE / DIFFUSE

You defuse a dangerous situation by treating it like a bomb and removing its fuse; to diffuse, in contrast, is to spread something out: “Bob’s cheap cologne diffused throughout the room, wrecking the wine-tasting."

DEMOCRAT / DEMOCRATIC

Certain Republican members of Congress have played the childish game in recent years of referring to the opposition as the “Democrat Party,” hoping to imply that Democrats are not truly democratic. They succeed only in making themselves sound ignorant, and so will you if you imitate them. The name is “Democratic Party.”

DEPRECIATE / DEPRECATE

To depreciate something is to actually make it worse, whereas to deprecate something is simply to speak or think of it in a manner that demonstrates your low opinion of it.

DESERT / DESSERT

Perhaps these two words are confused partly because “dessert” is one of the few words in English with a double “S” pronounced like “Z" ("brassiere” is another). That impoverished stretch of sand called a desert can only afford one “S.” In contrast, that rich gooey extra thing at the end of the meal called a dessert indulges in two of them. The word in the phrase “he got his just deserts” is confusingly pronounced just like “desserts.”

DEVICE / DEVISE

“Device” is a noun. A can-opener is a device. “Devise” is a verb. You can devise a plan for opening a can with a sharp rock instead. Only in law is “devise” properly used as a noun, meaning something deeded in a will.

DIFFER / VARY

“Vary” can mean “differ,” but saying “our opinions vary” makes it sound as if they were changing all the time when what you really mean is “our opinions differ.” Pay attention to context when choosing one of these words.

DISC / DISK

“Compact disc” is spelled with a “C” because that’s how its inventors decided it should be rendered; but a computer hard disk is spelled with a “K” (unless it's a CD-ROM, of course). In modern technological contexts, “disks” usually reproduce data magnetically, while “discs" reproduce it “optically,” with lasers.


DISCREET / DISCRETE

The more common word is “discreet,” meaning “prudent, circumspect”: “When arranging the party for Agnes, be sure to be discreet; we want her to be surprised.” “Discrete” means “separate, distinct”: “He arranged the guest list into two discrete groups: meat-eaters and vegetarians.” Note how the T separates the two Es in “discrete.”

DISINTERESTED / UNINTERESTED

A bored person is uninterested. Do not confuse this word with the much rarer disinterested, which means “objective, neutral.”

DOMINATE / DOMINANT

The verb is “dominate” the adjective is “dominant.” The dominant chimpanzee tends to dominate the others.

DONE / DID

The past participle of “do” is “done,” so it’s not “they have did what they promised not to do” but “they have done. . . .” But without a helping verb, the word is “did.” Nonstandard: “I done good on the test.” Standard: “I did well on the test.”

DRANK / DRUNK

Many common verbs in English change form when their past tense is preceded by an auxiliary (“helping”) verb: “I ran, I have run.” The same is true of “drink.” Don’t say “I’ve drank the beer” unless you want people to think you are drunk. An even more common error is “I drunk all the milk.” It’s “I’ve drunk the beer” and “I drank all the milk.”

DRIVE / DISK

A hard drive and a hard disk are much the same thing; but when it comes to removable computer media, the drive is the machinery that turns and reads the disk. Be sure not to ask for a drive when all you need is a disk.

DUAL / DUEL

“Dual” is an adjective describing the two-ness of something—dual carburetors, for instance. A “duel” is a formal battle intended to settle a dispute.

DYEING / DYING

If you are using dye to change your favorite t-shirt from white to blue you are dyeing it; but if you don’t breathe for so long that your face turns blue, you may be dying.

e.g. / i.e.

When you mean “for example,” use e.g. It is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase exempli gratia. When you mean “that is,” use “i.e.” It is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase id est. Either can be used to clarify a preceding statement, the first by example, the second by restating the idea more clearly or expanding upon it. Because these uses are so similar, the two abbreviations are easily confused. If you just stick with good old English “for example” and “that is” you won’t give anyone a chance to sneer at you. If you insist on using the abbreviation, perhaps “example given” will remind you to use “e.g.,” while “in effect” suggests “I.E.”

Since e.g. indicates a partial list, it is redundant to add “etc.” at the end of a list introduced by this abbreviation.

ECONOMIC/ECONOMICAL

Something is economical if it saves you money; but if you’re talking about the effect of some measure on the world’s economy, it’s an economic effect.

EMIGRATE/IMMIGRATE

To “emigrate” is to leave a country. The E at the beginning of the word is related to the E in other words having to do with going out, such as “exit.” “Immigrate,” in contrast, looks as if it might have something to do with going in, and indeed it does: it means to move into a new country. The same distinction applies to “emigration” and “immigration.” Note the double M in the second form. A migrant is someone who continually moves about.

EMINENT/IMMINENT/IMMANENT

By far the most common of these words is “eminent,” meaning “prominent, famous.” “Imminent,” in phrases like “facing imminent disaster,” means "threatening.” It comes from Latin minere, meaning “to project or overhang.” Think of a mine threatening to cave in. Positive events can also be imminent: they just need to be coming soon. The rarest of the three is “immanent,” used by philosophers to mean “inherent” and by theologians to mean “present throughout the universe” when referring to God. It comes from Latin manere, “remain.” Think of God creating man in his own image.

When a government exercises its power over private property it is drawing on its eminent status in society, so the proper legal phrase is “eminent domain.”

EMPATHY/SYMPATHY

If you think you feel just like another person, you are feeling empathy. If you just feel sorry for another person, you’re feeling sympathy

ENGLISH/BRITISH

Americans tend to use the terms “British” and “English” interchangeably, but the United Kingdom of Great Britain is made up of England plus Scotland and Wales. If you are referring to this larger entity, the word you want is “British.” Britons not from England resent being referred to as “English.”

If you want to include Northern Ireland, technically you have to use the rather cumbersome name “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”

ENQUIRE / INQUIRE
These are alternative spellings of the same word. “Enquire” is perhaps slightly more common in the U.K., but either is acceptable in the U.S.

ASSURE / ENSURE / INSURE

To “assure” a person of something is to make him or her confident of it. According to Associated Press style, to “ensure” that something happens is to make certain that it does, and to “insure” is to issue an insurance policy. Other authorities, however, consider “ensure” and “insure” interchangeable. To please conservatives, make the distinction. However, it is worth noting that in older usage these spellings were not clearly distinguished.

European “life assurance” companies take the position that all policy-holders are mortal and someone will definitely collect, thus assuring heirs of some income. American companies tend to go with “insurance” for coverage of life as well as of fire, theft, etc.

ENVIOUS / JEALOUS

Although these are often treated as synonyms, there is a difference. You are envious of what others have that you lack. Jealousy, on the other hand, involves wanting to hold on to what you do have. You can be jealous of your boyfriend’s attraction to other women, but you’re envious of your boyfriend’s CD collection.

EPIGRAM / EPIGRAPH/
EPITAPH / EPITHET

An epigram is a pithy saying, usually humorous. Mark Twain was responsible for many striking, mostly cynical epigrams, such as “Always do right. That will gratify some of the people, and astonish the rest.” Unfortunately, he was also responsible for an even more famous one that has been confusing people ever since: “Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.” It’s true that the moon keeps one side away from the earth, but—if you don’t count the faint glow reflected from the earth—it is not any darker than the side that faces us. In fact, over time, the side facing us is darkened slightly more often because it is occasionally eclipsed by the shadow of the earth.

An epigraph is a brief quotation used to introduce a piece of writing (see this example from Shakespeare) or the inscription on a statue or building.

An epitaph is the inscription on a tombstone or some other tribute to a dead person. A collection of epitaphs.

In literature, an epithet is a term that replaces or is added to the name of a person, like “clear-eyed Athena,” in which “clear-eyed” is the epithet. You are more likely to encounter the term in its negative sense, as a term of insult or abuse: “the shoplifter hurled epithets at the guard who had arrested her.”

ETHICS / MORALS / MORALE

Strictly speaking, ethics are beliefs: if you have poor ethics, you have lax standards; but your morals are your behavior: if you have poor morals, you behave badly. You can have high standards but still fail to follow them: strong ethics and weak morals. “Morale” formerly had both these meanings and you will find them attached to the word in some dictionaries, but you would be wise to avoid it in either of these senses in modern writing. By far the most common current use of “morale” is to label your state of mind, particularly how contented you are with life. A person with low morals is bad; but a person with low morale may be merely depressed.

FARTHER / FURTHER

Some authorities (like the Associated Press) insist on “farther” to refer to physical distance and on “further” to refer to an extent of time or degree, but others treat the two words as interchangeable except for insisting on “further” for “in addition,” and “moreover.” You’ll always be safe in making the distinction; some people get really testy about this.

FEARFUL / FEARSOME

To be “fearful” is to be afraid. To be “fearsome” is to cause fear in others. Remember that someone who is fierce is fearsome rather than fearful.


FOOTNOTES / ENDNOTES

About the time that computers began to make the creation and printing of footnotes extremely simple and cheap, style manuals began to urge a shift away from them to endnotes printed at the ends of chapters or at the end of a book or paper rather than at the foot of the page. I happen to think this was a big mistake; but in any case, if you are using endnotes, don’t call them “footnotes.”

FOR ONE- FOR ONE THING

People often say “for one” when they mean “for one thing”: “I really want to go to the movie. For one, Kevin Spacey is my favorite actor.” (One what?) The only time you should use “for one” by itself to give an example of something is when you have earlier mentioned a class to which the example belongs: “There are a lot of reasons I don’t want your old car. For one, there are squirrels living in the upholstery.” (One reason.)

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GAFF/GAFFE

Gaffe is a French word meaning “embarrassing mistake,” and should not be mixed up with “gaff”: a large hook.


GAMUT/GAUNTLET

To “run a gamut” is to go through the whole scale or spectrum of something. To “run the gauntlet” (also gantlet) is to run between two lines of people who are trying to beat you. And don’t confuse “gamut” with “gambit,” a play in chess, and by extension, a tricky maneuver of any kind.


GANDER/DANDER

When you get really angry you “get your dander up.” The derivation of “dander” in this expression is uncertain, but you can’t replace it with “dandruff” or “gander.” The only way to get a gander up is to awaken a male goose.


GAURD/
RIGHT: GUARD

Too bad the Elizabethan “guard” won out over the earlier, French-derived spelling “garde” but the word was never spelled “gaurd.” The standard spelling is related to Italian and Spanish “guarda,” pronounced “gwarda.”

GENIUS /
RIGHT: BRILLIANT

In standard English “genius” is a noun, but not an adjective. In slang, people often say things like “Telling Mom your English teacher is requiring the class to get HBO was genius!” The standard way to say this is “was brilliant.”


GENDER

Feminists eager to remove references to ***uality from discussions of females and males which don’t involve mating or reproduction revived an older meaning of “gender” which had come to refer in modern times chiefly to language, as a synonym for “***” in phrases such as “Our goal is to achieve gender equality.” Americans, always nervous about ***, eagerly embraced this usage, which is now standard. In some scholarly fields, “***” is used to label biologically determined aspects of maleness and femaleness (reproduction, etc.) while “gender” refers to their socially determined aspects (behavior, attitudes, etc.); but in ordinary speech this distinction is not always maintained. It is disingenuous to pretend that people who use “gender” in the new senses are making an error, just as it is disingenuous to maintain that “Ms.” means “manuscript” (that’s “MS” ). Nevertheless, I must admit I was startled to discover that the tag on my new trousers describes not only their size and color, but their “gender.”

GET ME /
RIGHT:
GET MYSELF

“I gotta get me a new carburetor,” says Joe-Bob. Translated into standard English, this would be “I have to get myself a new carburetor.” Even better: leave out the “myself.”

GHANDI/
RIGHT:
GANDHI

Mohandas K. Gandhi’s name has an H after the D, not after the G. Note that “Mahatma” (“great soul”) is an honorific title, not actually part of his birth name. The proper pronunciation of the first syllable should rhyme more with “gone” than “can.” Among Indians, his name is usually given a respectful suffix and rendered as Gandhiji, but adding Mahatma to that form would be honorific overkill.


GIBE/JIBE/JIVE

“Gibe” is a now rare term meaning “to tease.” “Jibe” means “to agree,” but is usually used negatively, as in “the alibis of the two crooks didn’t jibe.” The latter word is often confused with “jive,” which derives from slang which originally meant to treat in a jazzy manner (“Jivin’ the Blues Away”) but also came to be associated with deception (“Don’t give me any of that jive”).


GIG/JIG

“The jig is up” is an old slang expression meaning “the game is over—we’re caught.” A musician’s job is a gig.


GILD/GUILD

You gild an object by covering it with gold; you can join an organization like the Theatre Guild.



GONE/WENT

This is one of those cases in which a common word has a past participle which is not formed by the simple addition of -ED and which often trip people up. “I should have went to the business meeting, but the game was tied in the ninth” should be “I should have gone. . . .” The same problem crops up with the two forms of the verb “to do.” Say “I should have done my taxes before the IRS called” rather than “I should have did. . . .”


GOOD/WELL

You do something well, but a thing is good. The exception is verbs of sensation in phrases such as “the pie smells good,” or “I feel good.” Despite the arguments of nigglers, this is standard usage. Saying “the pie smells well” would imply that the pastry in question had a nose. Similarly, “I feel well” is also acceptable, especially when discussing health; but it is not the only correct usage.

GOT/GOTTEN

In England, the old word “gotten” dropped out of use except in such stock phrases as “ill-gotten” and “gotten up,” but in the U.S. it is frequently used as the past participle of “get.” sometimes the two are interchangeable, However, “got” implies current possession, as in “I’ve got just five dollars to buy my dinner with.” “Gotten,” in contrast, often implies the process of getting hold of something: “I’ve gotten five dollars for cleaning out Mrs. Quimby’s shed” emphasizing the earning of the money rather than its possession. Phrases that involve some sort of process usually involve “gotten”: “My grades have gotten better since I moved out of the fraternity.” When you have to leave, you’ve got to go. If you say you’ve “gotten to go” you’re implying someone gave you permission to go.



GRATIS/GRATUITOUS

If you do something nice without being paid, you do it “gratis.” Technically, such a deed can also be “gratuitous"; but if you do or say something obnoxious and uncalled for, it’s always “gratuitous,” not “gratis.”


GRISLY/GRIZZLY

“Grisly” means “horrible”; a “grizzly” is a bear. “The grizzly left behind the grisly remains of his victim.” “Grizzled,” means “having gray hairs,” not to be confused with “gristly,” full of gristle.



HANGAR/HANGER

You park your plane in a hangar but hang up your slacks on a hanger.


HANGED/HUNG

Originally these words were pretty much interchangeable, but “hanged” eventually came to be used pretty exclusively to mean “executed by hanging.” Does nervousness about the existence of an indelicate adjectival form of the word prompt people to avoid the correct word in such sentences as “Lady Wrothley saw to it that her ancestors’ portraits were properly hung”? Nevertheless, “hung” is correct except when capital punishment is being imposed or someone commits suicide.

HARDY/HEARTY

These two words overlap somewhat, but usually the word you want is "hearty.” The standard expressions are “a hearty appetite,” “a hearty meal,” a “hearty handshake,” “a hearty welcome,” and “hearty applause." "Hardy” turns up in “hale and hardy,” but should not be substituted for "hearty” in the other expressions. “Party hearty” and “party hardy” are both common renderings of a common youth saying, but the first makes more sense.


HEADING/BOUND

If you’re reporting on traffic conditions, it’s redundant to say "heading northbound on I-5.” it’s either “heading north” or "northbound."


HEAL/HEEL

Heal is what you do when you get better. Your heel is the back part of your foot. Achilles’ heel was the only place the great warrior could be wounded in such a way that the injury wouldn’t heal. Thus any striking weakness can be called an “Achilles’ heel.” To remember the meaning of “heal,” note that it is the beginning of the word “health.”

HEAR/HERE

If you find yourself writing sentences like “I know I left my wallet hear!” you should note that “hear” has the word “ear” buried in it and let that remind you that it refers only to hearing and is always a verb (except when you are giving the British cheer “Hear! Hear!” ). “I left my wallet here” is the correct expression.


HERBS/SPICES

People not seriously into cooking often mix up herbs and spices. Generally, flavorings made up of stems, leaves, and flowers are herbs; and those made of bark, roots, and seeds and dried buds are spices. An exception is saffron, which is made of flower stamens but is a spice. When no distinction is intended, the more generic term is “spice”; you have a spice cabinet, not a spice-and-herb cabinet, and you spice your food, even when you are adding herbs as well. The British pronounce the H in “herb” but Americans follow the French in dropping it.


HERO/PROTAGONIST

In ordinary usage “hero” has two meanings: “leading character in a story” and “brave, admirable person.” In simple tales the two meanings may work together, but in modern literature and film the leading character or “protagonist” (a technical term common in literary criticism) may behave in a very unheroic fashion. Students who express shock that the “hero” of a play or novel behaves despicably reveal their inexperience. In literature classes avoid the word unless you mean to stress a character’s heroic qualities. However, if you are discussing the main character in a traditional opera, where values are often simple, you may get by with referring to the male lead as the "hero"—but is Don Giovanni really a hero?

HEROIN/HEROINE

Heroin is a highly addictive opium derivative; the main female character in a narrative is a heroine.


HIM, HER/HE, SHE

There is a group of personal pronouns to be used as subjects in a sentence, including “he,” “she,” “I,” and “we.” Then there is a separate group of object pronouns, including “him,” “her,” “me,” and “us.” The problem is that the folks who tend to mix up the two sets often don’t find the subject/object distinction clear or helpful, and say things like “Her and me went to the movies."

A simple test is to substitute “us” for “her and me.” Would you say “us went to the movies?” Obviously not. You’d normally say “we went to the movies,” so when “we” is broken into the two persons involved it becomes “she and I went to the movies.”

But you would say “the murder scene scared us,” so it’s correct to say “the murder scene scared her and me.”

If you aren’t involved, use “they” and “them” as test words instead of “we” and “us.” “They won the lottery” becomes “he and she won the lottery,” and “the check was mailed to them” becomes “the check was mailed to him and her.”


HINDI/HINDU

Hindi is a language. Hinduism is a religion, and its believers are called “Hindus.” Not all Hindus speak Hindi, and many Hindi-speakers are not Hindus.


HIPPIE/HIPPY

A long-haired 60s flower child was a “hippie.” “Hippy” is an adjective describing someone with wide hips. The IE is not caused by a Y changing to IE in the plural as in “puppy” and “puppies.” It is rather a dismissive diminutive, invented by older, more sophisticated hipsters looking down on the new kids as mere “hippies.” Confusing these two is definitely unhip.



HISTORIC/HISTORICAL

The meaning of “historic” has been narrowed down to “famous in history.” One should not call a building, site, district, or event “historical.” Sites may be of historical interest if historians are interested in them, but not just because they are old. In America “historic” is grossly overused as a synonym for “older than my father’s day.”


HOLD YOUR PEACE/SAY YOUR PIECE

Some folks imagine that since these expressions are opposites, the last word in each should be the same; but in fact they are unrelated expressions. The first means “maintain your silence,” and the other means literally “speak aloud a piece of writing” but is used to express the idea of making a statement.


HOARD/HORDE

A greedily hoarded treasure is a hoard. A herd of wildebeests or a mob of people is a horde.


HOLE/WHOLE

“Hole” and “whole” have almost opposite meanings. A hole is a lack of something, like the hole in a doughnut (despite the confusing fact that the little nubbins of fried dough are called “doughnut holes”). “Whole” means things like entire, complete, and healthy and is used in expressions like “the whole thing,” “whole milk,” “whole wheat,” and “with a whole heart.”


HYSTERICAL/HILARIOUS

People say of a bit of humor or a comical situation that it was “hysterical”—shorthand for “hysterically funny”—meaning “hilarious.” But when you speak of a man being “hysterical” it means he is having a fit of hysteria, and that may not be funny at all.

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I/ME/MYSELF

In the old days when people studied traditional grammar, we could simply say, “The first person singular pronoun is “I” when it’s a subject and “me” when it’s an object,” but now few people know what that means. Let’s see if we can apply some common sense here. The misuse of “I” and “myself” for “me” is caused by nervousness about “me.” Educated people know that “Jim and me is goin’ down to slop the hogs,” is not elegant speech, not “correct.” It should be “Jim and I” because if I were slopping the hogs alone I would never say “Me is going. . . .” If you refer to yourself first, the same rule applies: It’s not “Me and Jim are going” but “I and Jim are going.”

So far so good. But the notion that there is something wrong with “me” leads people to overcorrect and avoid it where it is perfectly appropriate. People will say “The document had to be signed by both Susan and I” when the correct statement would be, “The document had to be signed by both Susan and me.” Trying even harder to avoid the lowly “me,” many people will substitute “myself,” as in “The suspect uttered epithets at Officer O’Leary and myself.”

“Myself” is no better than “I” as an object. “Myself” is not a sort of all-purpose intensive form of “me” or “I.” Use “myself” only when you have used “I” earlier in the same sentence: “I ** not particularly fond of goat cheese myself.” “I kept half the loot for myself.” All this confusion can easily be avoided if you just remove the second party from the sentences where you feel tempted to use “myself” as an object or feel nervous about “me.” You wouldn’t say, “The IRS sent the refund check to I,” so you shouldn’t say “The IRS sent the refund check to my wife and I” either. And you shouldn’t say “to my wife and myself.” The only correct way to say this is, “The IRS sent the refund check to my wife and me.” Still sounds too casual? Get over it.

On a related point, those who continue to announce “It is I” have traditional grammatical correctness on their side, but they are vastly outnumbered by those who proudly boast “it’s me!” There’s not much that can be done about this now. Similarly, if a caller asks for Susan and Susan answers “This is she,” her somewhat antiquated correctness is likely to startle the questioner into confusion.

IDEA/IDEAL

Any thought can be an idea, but only the best ideas worth pursuing are ideals.



IF/WHETHER

“If” is used frequently in casual speech and writing where some others would prefer “whether”: “I wonder if you would be willing to dress up as a giant turnip for the parade?” Revise to “I wonder whether. . . .” “If" can’t really be called an error, but when you are discussing two alternative possibilities, “whether” sounds more polished. (The two possibilities in this example are: 1) you would be willing or 2) you wouldn’t. In sentences using “whether” “or not” is often understood.) Don’t substitute the very different word “whither,” which means “where.”


IF I WAS/IF I WERE

The subjunctive mood, always weak in English, has been dwindling away for centuries until it has almost vanished. According to traditional thought, statements about the conditional future such as “If I were a carpenter . . .” require the subjunctive “were”; but “was” is certainly much more common. Still, if you want to impress those in the know with your usage, use “were.” The same goes for other pronouns: “you,” “she,” “he,” and “it.” In the case of the plural pronouns “we” and “they” the form “was” is definitely nonstandard, of course, because it is a singular form.



IMPERTINENT/IRRELEVANT

“Impertinent” looks as if it ought to mean the opposite of “pertinent,” and indeed it once did; but for centuries now its meaning in ordinary speech has been narrowed to “impudent,” specifically in regard to actions or speech toward someone regarded as socially superior. Only snobs and very old-fashioned people use “impertinent” correctly; most people would be well advised to forget it and use “irrelevant” instead to mean the opposite of “pertinent.”


IMPLY/INFER

These two words, which originally had quite distinct meanings, have become so blended together that most people no longer distinguish between them. If you want to avoid irritating the rest of us, use “imply” when something is being suggested without being explicitly stated and “infer” when someone is trying to arrive at a conclusion based on evidence. “Imply” is more assertive, active: I imply that you need to revise your paper; and, based on my hints, you infer that I didn’t think highly of your first draft.


IN SPITE OF/ DESPITE

Although “in spite of” is perfectly standard English, some people prefer “despite” because it is shorter. Be careful not to mix the two together by saying “despite of” except as part of the phrase “in despite of” meaning “in defiance of.”

And note that unlike “despite,” “in spite” should always be spelled as two separate words.


INCENT, INCENTIVIZE/
RIGHT:
ENCOURAGE

Business folks sometimes use “incent” to mean “create an incentive,” but it’s not standard English. “Incentivize” is even more widely used, but strikes many people as an ugly substitute for “encourage.”


INCIDENCE/INCIDENTS/INSTANCES

These three overlap in meaning just enough to confuse a lot of people. Few of us have a need for “incidence,” which most often refers to degree or extent of the occurrence of something: “The incidence of measles in Whitman County has dropped markedly since the vaccine has been provided free.” “Incidents,” which is pronounced identically, is merely the plural of “incident,” meaning “occurrences”: “Police reported damage to three different outhouses in separate incidents last Halloween”. Instances (not “incidences”) are examples: “Semicolons are not required in the first three instances given in your query.” Incidents can be used as instances only if someone is using them as examples.


INCREDULOUS/INCREDIBLE

“When Jessica said that my performance at the karaoke bar had been incredible, I was incredulous.” I hope Jessica was using “incredible” in the casual sense of “unbelievably good” but I knew I used “incredulous” to mean “unbelieving, skeptical,” which is the only standard usage for this word.


INDIAN/NATIVE AMERICAN

Although academics have long promoted “Native American” as a more accurate label than “Indian,” most of the people so labeled continue to refer to themselves as “Indians” and prefer that term. In Canada, there is a move to refer to descendants of the original inhabitants as “First Nations” or “First Peoples,” but so far that has not spread to the U.S.


INFAMOUS/NOTORIOUS

“Infamous” means famous in a bad way. It is related to the word “infamy.” Humorists have for a couple of centuries jokingly used the word in a positive sense, but the effectiveness of the joke depends on the listener knowing that this is a misuse of the term. Because this is a very old joke indeed you should stick to using “infamous” only of people like Hitler and Billy the Kid.

“Notorious” means the same thing as “infamous” and should also only be used in a negative sense.


INSIGHT/INCITE

An insight is something you have: an understanding of something, a bright idea about something.

To incite is to do something: to stimulate some action or other to be taken. You can never have an incite


INSTALL/INSTILL

People conjure up visions of themselves as upgradable robots when they write things like “My Aunt Tillie tried to install the spirit of giving in my heart.” The word they are searching for is “instill.” You install equipment, you instill feelings or attitudes.


INSTANCES/INSTANTS

Brief moments are “instants,” and examples of anything are “instances.”


INTENSE/INTENSIVE

If you are putting forth an intense effort, your work is “intense”: “My intense study of Plato convinced me that I would make a good leader.” But when the intensity stems not so much from your effort as it does from outside forces, the usual word is “intensive”: “the village endured intensive bombing.”


INTERMENT/INTERNMENT

Interment is burial; internment is merely imprisonment.


INTERNET/INTRANET

“Internet” is the proper name of the network most people connect to, and the word needs to be capitalized. However “intranet,” a network confined to a smaller group, is a generic term which does not deserve capitalization. In advertising, we often read things like “unlimited Internet, $19.” It would be more accurate to refer in this sort of context to “Internet access.”

INTERMURAL/INTRAMURAL

“Intramural” means literally “within the walls” and refers to activities that take place entirely within an institution. When at Macbeth State University the Glamis Hall soccer team plays against the one from Dunsinane Hall, that’s an intramural game. When MSU’s Fighting Scots travel to go up against Cawdor U. in the Porter’s Bowl, the game is “intermural” (though the perfectly correct “intercollegiate” is more often used instead). “Intermural” is constantly both said and written when “intramural” is meant.

INTO/IN TO

“Into” is a preposition which often answers the question, “where?” For example, “Tom and Becky had gone far into the cave before they realized they were lost.” Sometimes the “where” is metaphorical, as in, “He went into the army” or “She went into business.” It can also refer by analogy to time: “The snow lingered on the ground well into April.” In old-fashioned math talk, it could be used to refer to division: “Two into six is three.” In other instances where the words “in” and “to” just happen to find themselves neighbors, they must remain separate words. For instance, “Rachel dived back in to rescue the struggling boy.” Here “to” belongs with “rescue” and means “in order to,” not “where.” (If the phrase had been “dived back into the water,” “into” would be required.)

Try speaking the sentence concerned aloud, pausing distinctly between “in” and “to.” If the result sounds wrong, you probably need “into.”

Then there is the 60s colloquialism which lingers on in which “into” means “deeply interested or involved in”: “Kevin is into baseball cards.” This is derived from usages like “the committee is looking into the fund-raising scandal.” The abbreviated form is not acceptable formal English, but is quite common in informal communications.


INVITE/INVITATION

“Invite” (accent on the second syllable) is perfectly standard as a verb: “Invite me to the birthday party and I’ll jump out of the cake.”

But “invite” (accent on the first syllable) as a noun meaning “invitation” is less acceptable: “I got an invite to my ex-wife”s wedding.” Though this form has become extremely popular, even in fairly formal contexts, it is safer to use the traditional “invitation.”


JACK/PLUG

In electronics, a jack is a female part into which one inserts a plug, the male part. People get confused because “Jack” is a male name. The cyberpunk term (from William Gibson’s Neuromancer) “jack in” should logically be “plug in,” but we’re stuck with this form in the science fiction realm.



JERRY-BUILT/JURY-RIGGED

Although their etymologies are obscure and their meanings overlap, these are two distinct expressions. Something poorly built is “jerry-built.” Something rigged up temporarily in a makeshift manner with materials at hand, often in an ingenious manner, is “jury-rigged.” “Jerry-built” always has a negative connotation, whereas one can be impressed by the cleverness of a jury-rigged solution. Many people cross-pollinate these two expressions and mistakenly say “jerry-rigged” or “jury-built.”


JAM/JAMB

The only common use for the word “jamb” is to label the vertical part of the frame of a door or window. It comes from the French word for “leg”; think of the two side pieces of the frame as legs on either side of the opening.

For all other uses, it’s “jam”: stuck in a jam, traffic jam, logjam, jam session, etc.


JEW/JEWISH

“Jew” as an adjective (“Jew lawyer”) is an ethnic insult; the word is “Jewish.” But people who object to “Jew” as a noun are being oversensitive. Most Jews are proud to be called Jews. The expression “to Jew someone down"—an expression meaning “to bargain for a lower price”—reflects a grossly insulting stereotype and should be avoided in all contexts.

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FIRST NAME/GIVEN NAME

Now that few people know what a “surname” is, we usually use the term “last name” to designate a family name; but in a host of languages the family name comes first. For instance, “Kawabata” was the family name of author Kawabata Yasunari. For Asians, this situation is complicated because publishers and immigrants often switch names to conform to Western practice, so you'll find most of Kawabata’s books in an American bookstore by looking under “Yasunari Kawabata.” It’s safer with international names to write “given name” and “family name” rather than “first name” and “last name.”

Note that in a multicultural society the old-fashioned term “Christian name” (for “given name”) is both inaccurate and offensive.


LATE/FORMER

If you want to refer to your former husband, don’t call him your “late husband” unless he’s dead.


LATER/LATTER

Except in the expression “latter-day” (modern), the word “latter” usually refers back to the last-mentioned of a set of alternatives. “We gave the kids a choice of a vacation in Paris, Rome, or Disney World. Of course the latter was their choice.” In other contexts not referring back to such a list, the word you want is “later.”

Conservatives prefer to reserve “latter” for the last-named of no more than two items.


LAY/LIE

You lay down the book you’ve been reading, but you lie down when you go to bed. In the present tense, if the subject is acting on some other object, it’s “lay.” If the subject is lying down, then it’s “lie.” This distinction is often not made in informal speech, partly because in the past tense the words sound much more alike: “He lay down for a nap,” but “He laid down the law.” If the subject is already at rest, you might “let it lie.” If a helping verb is involved, you need the past participle forms. “Lie” becomes “lain” and “lay” becomes “laid”: “He had just lain down for a nap,” and “His daughter had laid the gerbil on his nose.”


LEACH/LEECH

Water leaches chemicals out of soil or color out of cloth, your brother-in-law leeches off the family by constantly borrowing money to pay his gambling debts (he behaves like a bloodsucking leech).


LEAD/LED

When you’re hit over the head, the instrument could be a “lead” pipe. But when it’s a verb, “lead” is the present and “led” is the past tense. The problem is that the past tense is pronounced exactly like the above-mentioned plumbing material (“plumb” comes from a word meaning “lead”), so people confuse the two. In a sentence like “She led us to the scene of the crime,” always use the three-letter spelling.


LEAST/
RIGHT: LEST

American English keeps alive the old word “lest” in phrases like “lest we forget,” referring to something to be avoided or prevented. Many people mistakenly substitute the more familiar word “least” in these phrases.

LEAVE/
RIGHT: LET

The colloquial use of “leave” to mean “let” in phrases like “leave me be” is not standard. “Leave me alone” is fine, though.

LEGEND/MYTH

Myths are generally considered to be traditional stories whose importance lies in their significance, like the myth of the Fall in Eden; whereas legends can be merely famous deeds, like the legend of Davy Crockett. In common usage “myth” usually implies fantasy. Enrico Caruso was a legendary tenor, but Hogwarts is a mythical school. Legends may or may not be true. But be cautious about using “myth” to mean “untrue story” in a mythology, theology, or literature class, where teachers can be quite touchy about insisting that the true significance of a myth lies not in its factuality but in its meaning for the culture which produces or adopts it.


AMOUNT/NUMBER

This is a vast subject. I will try to limit the number of words I expend on it so as not to use up too great an amount of space. The confusion between the two categories of words relating to amount and number is so pervasive that those of us who still distinguish between them constitute an endangered species; but if you want to avoid our ire, learn the difference. Amount words relate to quantities of things that are measured in bulk; number to things that can be counted.

In the second sentence above, it would have been improper to write “the amount of words” because words are discrete entities which can be counted, or numbered.

Here is a handy chart to distinguish the two categories of words:

amountnumber quantity number little few less fewer much many


You can eat fewer cookies, but you drink less milk. If you eat too many cookies, people would probably think you’ve had too much dessert. If the thing being measured is being considered in countable units, then use number words. Even a substance which is considered in bulk can also be measured by number of units. For instance, you shouldn’t drink too much wine, but you should also avoid drinking too many glasses of wine. Note that here you are counting glasses. They can be numbered.

The most common mistake of this kind is to refer to an “amount” of people instead of a “number” of people.

Just to confuse things, “more” can be used either way: you can eat more cookies and drink more milk.

Exceptions to the less/fewer pattern are references to units of time and money, which are usually treated as amounts: less than an hour, less than five dollars. Only when you are referring to specific coins or bills would you use fewer: “I have fewer than five state quarters to go to make my collection complete.”


LESSEN/LESSON

Although not many people try to teach someone a “lessen,” many people try to “lesson” their risks by taking precautions.

“Lessen” is something you do—a verb—and means to make smaller. “Lesson” is a noun, something you learn or teach. Remember this lesson and it will lessen your chances of making a mistake.


LIKE/AS IF

“As if” is generally preferred in formal writing over “like” in sentences such as “the conductor looks as if he’s ready to begin the symphony.” But in colloquial speech, “like” prevails, and when recording expressions such as “he spends money like it’s going out of style” it would be artificial to substitute “as if.” And in expressions where the verb is implied rather than expressed, “like” is standard rather than “as”: “she took to gymnastics like a duck to water.”


LOATH/LOATHE

“Loath” is a rather formal adjective meaning reluctant and rhymes with “both,” whereas “loathe” is a common verb meaning to dislike intensely, and rhymes with “clothe.” Kenji is loath to go to the conference at Kilauea because he loathes volcanos.



LOSE/LOOSE

This confusion can easily be avoided if you pronounce the word intended aloud. If it has a voiced Z sound, then it’s “lose.” If it has a hissy S sound, then it’s “loose.” Here are examples of correct usage: “He tends to lose his keys.” “She lets her dog run loose.” Note that when “lose” turns into “losing” it loses its “E.”


LUXURIANT/LUXURIOUS

The word meaning “abundant” is “luxuriant,” as in “luxuriant hair.” “Luxurious” refers to luxury.


LIGHTED/LIT

Don’t fret over the difference between these two words; they’re interchangeable.


MAJORITY ARE/MAJORITY IS

“Majority” is one of those words that can be either singular or plural. Common sense works pretty well in deciding which. If you mean the word to describe a collection of individuals, then the word should be treated as plural: “The majority of e-mail users are upset about the increase in spam.” If the word is used to describe a collective group, then consider it singular: “A 90% majority is opposed to scheduling the next meeting at 6:00 A.M.” If you are uncertain which you mean, then choose whatever form sounds best to you; it's not likely to bother many people.



MANTLE/MANTEL

Though they stem from the same word, a “mantle” today is usually a cloak, while the shelf over a fireplace is most often spelled “mantel.”


MARITAL/MARTIAL

“Marital” refers to marriage, “martial” to war, whose ancient god was Mars. These two are often swapped, with comical results.


MASSEUSE/MASSEUR

“Masseuse” is a strictly female term; Monsieur Philippe, who gives back rubs down at the men’s gym, is a masseur. Because of the unsavory associations that have gathered around the term “masseuse,” serious practitioners generally prefer to be called “massage therapists.”


MAY/MIGHT

Most of the time “might” and “may” are almost interchangeable, with “might” suggesting a somewhat lower probability. You’re more likely to get wet if the forecaster says it may rain than if she says it might rain; but substituting one for the other is unlikely to get you into trouble—so long as you stay in the present tense.

But “might” is also the past tense of the auxiliary verb “may,” and is required in sentences like “Chuck might have avoided arrest for the robbery if he hadn’t given the teller his business card before asking for the money.” When speculating that events might have been other than they were, don’t substitute “may” for “might."

As an aside: if you are an old-fashioned child, you will ask, “May I go out to play?” rather than “Can I go out to play?” Despite the prevalence of the latter pattern, some adults still feel strongly that “may” has to do with permission whereas “can” implies only physical ability. But then if you have a parent like this you’ve had this pattern drilled into your head long before you encountered this page.


MAYBE/MAY BE

“Maybe” is an adverb meaning “perhaps,” so if you are uncertain whether to use this word or the phrase “may be,” try substituting “perhaps”: “Maybe she forgot I said I’d meet her at six o’clock” becomes “Perhaps she forgot. . . .” When the substitution makes sense, go with one word: “maybe.” When you are wondering whether you may be waiting in the wrong cafe, you’re dealing with a verb and its auxiliary: “may be.” Two words.


MEAN/MEDIAN

To find the mean (or average) of a series of numbers, for example 1,2,3,4,5 & 6, add them all together for a total of 21; then divide by the number of numbers (6) to give the mean (or average) of 3.5.

In contrast, when half the data of a set are above a point and half below, that point is the median. The difference between mean and median can be quite significant, but one often sees the terms used wrongly even in technical contexts.


MEDAL/METAL/MEDDLE -
RIGHT:
METTLE

A person who proves his or her mettle displays courage or stamina. The word “mettle” is seldom used outside of this expression, so people constantly confuse it with other similar-sounding words.

MEDIUM/MEDIAN

That strip of grass separating the lanes going opposite directions in the middle of a freeway is a median. But if you’re trying to achieve a balance between extremes, you’re trying to strike a happy medium.

METHODOLOGY/METHOD

A fondness for big words isn’t always accompanied by the knowledge of their proper use. Methodology is about the methods of doing something; it is not the methods themselves. It is both pretentious and erroneous to write “The architect is trying to determine a methodology for reinforcing the foundation now that the hotel on top of it has begun to sink.”


MILITATE/MITIGATE

These are not very common words, but people who use them—especially lawyers—tend to mix them up. “Militate” is usually followed by “against” in a phrase that means “works against”: “His enthusiasm for spectacular collisions militates against his becoming a really effective air traffic controller.”

“Mitigate” means almost the opposite: to make easier, to moderate. “His pain at leaving was mitigated by her passionate kiss.” It should not be followed by “against.”

MINER/MINOR

Children are minors, but unless they are violating child-labor laws, those who work in mines are miners.

MORAL/MORALE

If you are trying to make people behave properly, you are policing their morals; if you are just trying to keep their spirits up, you are trying to maintain their morale. “Moral” is accented on the first syllable, “morale” on the second.

MOTION/MOVE

When you make a motion in a meeting, say simply “I move,” as in “I move to adjourn”; and if you’re taking the minutes, write “Barbara moved,” not “Barbara motioned” (unless Barbara was making wild arm-waving gestures to summon the servers to bring in the lunch). Instead of “I want to make a motion . . .” it’s simpler and more direct to say “I want to move. . . .”

NEEDS -ED/-ING

In some dialects it is common to say “my shoes need shined” instead of the standard “my shoes need shining” or “my shoes need to be shined.”


NO SOONER WHEN/
NO SOONER THAN

The phrase, “No sooner had Paula stopped petting the cat when it began to yowl” should be instead “No sooner had Paula stopped petting the cat than it began to yowl.”

NAVAL/NAVEL

Your bellybutton is your navel, and navel oranges look like they have one; all terms having to do with ships and sailing require “naval.”


NOTATE/NOTE

To notate a text is to write annotations about it. This technical term should not be used as a synonym for the simple verb “note.” It is both pretentious and incorrect to write “notate the time you arrived in your log.”


NEXT, THIS

If I tell you that the company picnic is next Saturday it would be wise to ask whether I mean this coming Saturday or the Saturday after that. People differ in how they use “next” in this sort of context, and there’s no standard pattern; so it’s worth making an extra effort to be clear.

In the U.K. the distinction is made clear by saying “Saturday next” or “Saturday week.”

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O/zero

When reciting a string of numbers such as your credit card number it is common and perfectly acceptable to prononounce zero as “oh.” But when dealing with a registration code or other such string of characters which mixes letters and numbers, it is important to distinguish between the number 0 and the letter O. In most typefaces a capital O is rounder, fatter, than a zero; but that is not always the case. What looks unambiguous when you type it may come out very unclear on the other end on a computer which renders your message in a different typeface.

In technical contexts, the distinction is often made by using zeros with slashes through them, but this can create as many problems as it solves: those unfamiliar with the convention will be confused by it, numbers using such characters may not sort properly, and slashed zeros created in some fonts change to normal zeros in other fonts.

If you work for a company that requires registration codes you do a disservice to your customers and yourself by including either zeros or O’s in your codes where there is any possibility of confusion.


OBSOLESCENT/OBSOLETE

Many people assume the word “obsolescent” must be a fancy form of “obsolete,” but something obsolescent is technically something in the process of becoming obsolete. Therefore it’s an error to describe something as “becoming obsolescent.”


OF ___’S

Phrases combining “of” with a noun followed by “S” may seem redundant, since both indicate possession; nevertheless, “a friend of Karen’s” is standard English, just as “a friend of Karen” and “Karen’s friend” are.


ONTO/ON TO

“Onto” and “on to” are often interchangeable, but not always. Consider the effect created by wrongly using “onto” in the following sentence when “on to” is meant: “We’re having hors d’oeuvres in the garden, and for dinner moving onto the house.” If the “on” is part of an expression like “moving on” it can’t be shoved together with a “to” that just happens to follow it.


OPPRESS/REPRESS

Dictators commonly oppress their citizens and repress dissent, but these words don’t mean exactly the same thing. “Repress” just means "keep under control.” sometimes repression is a good thing: “During the job interview, repress the temptation to tell Mr. Brown that he has toilet paper stuck to his shoe.” Oppression is always bad, and implies serious persecution.

ORAL/VERBAL

Some people insist that “verbal” refers to anything expressed in words, whether written or spoken, while “oral” refers exclusively to speech; but in common usage “verbal” has become widely accepted for the latter meaning. However, in legal contexts, an unwritten agreement is still an “oral contract,” not a “verbal contract.”


ORDINANCE/ORDNANCE

A law is an ordinance, but a gun is a piece of ordnance.


ONLINE/ON LINE

The common adjective used to label Internet activities is usually written as one word: “online”: “The online site selling banana cream pies was a failure.” But it makes more sense when using it as an adverbial phrase to write two separate words: “When the teacher took her class to the library, most of them used it to go on line.” The hyphenated form “on-line” is not widely used; but would be proper only for the adjectival function. However, you are unlikely to get into trouble for using “online” for all purposes.


OVERSEE/OVERLOOK

When you oversee the preparation of dinner, you take control and manage the operation closely. But if you overlook the preparation of dinner you forget to prepare the meal entirely—better order pizza.

PAGE/SITE

In the early days of the Internet, it became customary to refer to Web sites as “pages” though they might in fact consist of many different pages. The Jane Austen Page, for instance, incorporates entire books, and is organized into a very large number of distinct Web pages. This nomenclature is illogical, but too well established to be called erroneous. However, it is not wise to write someone who has created a large and complex site and call it a “page.” Not everyone appreciates having their work diminished in this way.


PARAMETERS/PERIMETERS

When parameters were spoken of only by mathematicians and scientists, the term caused few problems; but now that it has become widely adopted by other speakers, it is constantly confused with “perimeters.” A parameter is most commonly a mathematical constant, a set of physical properties, or a characteristic of something. But the perimeter of something is its boundary. The two words shade into each other because we often speak of factors of an issue or problem being parameters, simultaneously thinking of them as limits; but this is to confuse two distinct, if related ideas. A safe rule is to avoid using “parameters” altogether unless you are confident you know what it means.


PEAL OUT/PEEL OUT

Bells and thunderclaps peal out; but if your car “lays down rubber” in a squealing departure, the expression is “peel out” because you are literally peeling a layer of rubber off your tires.

PASSED/PAST

If you are referring to time or distance, use “past”: “the team performed well in the past,” “the police car drove past the suspect’s house.” If you are referring to the action of passing, however, you need to use “passed“: “when John passed the gravy, he spilled it on his lap,” “the teacher was astonished that none of the students had passed the test.”


PATIENCE/PATIENTS

Doctors have patients, but while you’re waiting to see them you have to have patience.


PAYED/PAID

If you paid attention in school, you know that the past tense of “pay” is “paid” except in the special sense that has to do with ropes: “He payed out the line to the smuggler in the rowboat.”


PEACE/PIECE

It’s hard to believe many people really confuse the meaning of these words; but the spellings are frequently swapped, probably out of sheer carelessness. “Piece” has the word “pie” buried in it, which should remind you of the familiar phrase, “a piece of pie.” You can meditate to find peace of mind, or you can get angry and give someone a piece of your mind. Classical scholars will note that pax is the Latin word for peace, suggesting the need for an “A” in the latter word.


PEAK/PEEK/PIQUE

It is tempting to think that your attention might be aroused to a high point by “peaking” your curiosity; but in fact, “pique” is a French word meaning “prick,” in the sense of “stimulate.” The expression has nothing to do with “peek,” either. Therefore the expression is “my curiosity was piqued.”

PEASANT/PHEASANT

When I visited the former Soviet Union I was astonished to learn that farmworkers were still called “peasants” there. In English-speaking countries we tend to think of the term as belonging strictly to the feudal era. However you use it, don’t confuse it with “pheasant,” a favorite game bird. Use the sound of the beginning consonants to remind you of the difference: pheasants are food, peasants are people.


PEN/PIN

In the dialect of many Texans and some of their neighbors “pen” is pronounced almost exactly like “pin.” When speaking to an audience outside this zone, it’s worth learning to make the distinction to avoid confusion.


PERSONAL/PERSONNEL

Employees are personnel, but private individuals considered separately from their jobs have personal lives.


PERSPECTIVE/PROSPECTIVE

“Perspective” has to do with sight, as in painting, and is usually a noun. “Prospective” generally has to do with the future (compare with “What are your prospects, young man?”) and is usually an adjective. But beware: there is also a rather old-fashioned but fairly common meaning of the word “prospect” that has to do with sight: “as he climbed the mountain, a vast prospect opened up before him.”


PICKUP/PICK UP

The noun is spelled “pickup” as in “drive your pickup” or “that coffee gave me a pickup,” or “we didn’t have a real date; it was just a pickup.” If it’s a thing, use the single-word form. But if it’s an action (verb-plus-adverb phrase) then spell it as two words: “pick up your dirty underwear.”

There’s also the adjectival form, which has to be hyphenated: “Jeremy tried out one of his corny pick-up lines on me at the bar.” According to this rule, it should be a “pick-up game” but you’re unlikely to get into trouble for writing “pickup game.”


PLAIN/PLANE

Both of these words have to do with flatness. A flat prairie is a plain, and you use a plane to smooth flat a piece of wood.

“Plain” is also an adjective which can describe things that are ordinary, simple, or unattractive.

But whether you go the airport to catch a plane or meditate to achieve a higher plane of consciousness, the meanings that have to do with things high up are spelled “plane.”


PLUS/ADD

Some people continue a pattern picked up in childhood of using “plus” as a verb to mean “add,” as in “You plus the 3 and the 4 and you get 7.” “Plus” is not a verb; use ”add” instead.


POLE/POLL

A pole is a long stick. You could take a “poll” (survey or ballot) to determine whether voters want lower taxes or better education.


PORE/POUR

When used as a verb, “pore” has the unusual sense of “scrutinize,” as in “She pored over her receipts.” If it’s coffee or rain, the stuff pours.



PRACTICE/PRACTISE

In the United Kingdom, “practice” is the noun, “practise” the verb; but in the U.S. the spelling “practice” is commonly used for both, though the distinction is sometimes observed. “Practise” as a noun is, however, always wrong in both places: a doctor always has a “practice,” never a “practise.”



PRAY/PREY

If you want a miracle, pray to God. If you’re a criminal you prey on your victims. Incidentally, it’s “praying mantis,” not “preying mantis.” The insect holds its forefeet in a position suggesting prayer.


PRECEDE/PROCEED

“Precede” means “to go before.” “Proceed” means to go on. Let your companion precede you through the door, then proceed to follow her. Interestingly, the second E is missing in “procedure.”

PRECEDENCE/PRECEDENTS

Although these words sound the same, they work differently. The pop star is given precedence over the factory worker at the entrance to the dance club. “Precedents” is just the plural of “precedent": “If we let the kids adopt that rattlesnake as a pet and agree to let them take it for a walk in Death Valley, we’ll be setting some bad precedents.”

PREDOMINATE/PREDOMINANT

“Predominate” is a verb: “In the royal throne room, the color red predominates.” “Predominant” is an adjective: “The predominant view among the touts is that Fancy Dancer is the best bet in the third race.”


PREJUDICE/PREJUDICED

People not only misspell “prejudice” in a number of ways, they sometimes say “he’s prejudice” when they mean “he’s prejudiced.”


PREMIER/PREMIERE

These words are, respectively, the masculine and feminine forms of the word for “first” in French; but they have become differentiated in English. Only the masculine form is used as an adjective, as in “Tidy-Pool is the premier pool-cleaning firm in Orange County.” The confusion arises when these words are used as nouns. The prime minister of a parliamentary government is known as a “premier.” The opening night of a film or play is its “premiere.”

“Premiere” as a verb is common in the arts and in show business (“the show premiered on PBS” ), but it is less acceptable in other contexts ("the state government premiered its new welfare system” ). Use “introduced,” or, if real innovation is involved, “pioneered.”


PRINCIPAL/PRINCIPLE

Generations of teachers have tried to drill this one into students’ heads by reminding them, “The principal is your pal.” Many don’t seem convinced. “Principal” is a noun and adjective referring to someone or something which is highest in rank or importance. (In a loan, the principal is the more substantial part of the money, the interest is—or should be—the lesser.) “Principle” is only a noun, and has to do with law or doctrine: “The workers fought hard for the principle of collective bargaining.”


PURPOSELY/PURPOSEFULLY

If you do something on purpose (not by accident), you do it purposely. But if you have a specific purpose in mind, you are acting purposefully.


QUESTION/ASK

When you question someone, you may ask a series of questions trying to arrive at the truth: ”The police questioned Tom for five hours before he admitted to having stolen the pig.” “Question” can also mean “challenge”: “His mother questioned Timmy’s claim that the cat had eaten all the chocolate chip cookies.” But if you are simply asking a question to get a bit of information, it is not appropriate to say “I questioned whether he had brought the anchovies” when what you really mean is “I asked whether he had brought the anchovies.”


QUIET/QUITE

This is probably caused by a slip of the fingers more often than by a slip of the mental gears, but one often sees “quite” (very) substituted for “quiet” (shhh!). This is one of those common errors your spelling checker will not catch, so look out for it.


G/Q

Lower-case “q” is the mirror image of lower-case “g” in many typefaces, and the two are often confused with each other and the resulting misspelling missed in proofreading, for instance “quilt” when “guilt” is intended.



RACK/WRACK

If you are racked with pain or you feel nerve-racked, you are feeling as if you were being stretched on that Medieval instrument of torture, the rack. You rack your brains when you stretch them vigorously to search out the truth like a torturer. “Wrack” has to do with ruinous accidents, so if the stock market is wracked by rumors of imminent recession, it’s wrecked. If things are wrecked, they go to “wrack and ruin.”

RAN/RUN

Computer programmers have been heard to say “the program’s been ran,” when what they mean is “the program’s been run.


RATIONAL/RATIONALE

“Rational” is an adjective meaning “reasonable” or “logical”: “Ivan made a rational decision to sell his old car when he moved to New York.” “Rational” rhymes with “national.”

“Rationale” is a noun which most often means ”underlying reason”: “His rationale for this decision was that it would cost more to pay for parking than the car was worth.” “Rationale” rhymes with “passion pal.”


RATIONALE/RATIONALIZATION

When you’re explaining the reasoning behind your position, you’re presenting your rationale. But if you’re just making up some lame excuse to make your position appear better—whether to yourself or others—you’re engaging in rationalization.

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REACTIONARY/REACTIVE

Many people incorrectly use “reactionary” to mean “acting in response to some outside stimulus.” That’s reactive. “Reactionary” actually has a very narrow meaning; it is a noun or adjective describing a form of looking backward that goes beyond conservatism (wanting to prevent change and maintain present conditions) to reaction—wanting to recreate a lost past. The advocates of restoring Czarist rule in Russia are reactionaries. While we’re on the subject, the term “proactive” formed by analogy with “reactive” seems superfluous to many of us. Use “active,” “assertive,” or “positive” whenever you can instead.


REAL/REALLY

The correct adverbial form is “really” rather than “real”; but even that form is generally confined to casual speech, as in “When you complimented me on my speech I felt really great!” To say “real great” instead moves the speaker several steps downscale socially. However “really” is a feeble qualifier. “Wonderful” is an acceptable substitute for “really great” and you can give a definite upscale slant to your speech by adopting the British “really quite wonderful.” Usually, however, it is better to replace the expression altogether with something more precise: “almost seven feet tall” is better than “really tall.” To strive for intensity by repeating “really” as in “that dessert you made was really, really good” demonstrates an impoverished vocabulary.

REBELLING/REVOLTING

Even though “rebel” and “revolt” mean more or less the same thing, people who are revolting are disgusting, not taking up arms against the government.



REBUT/REFUTE

When you rebut someone’s argument you argue against it. To refute someone’s argument is to prove it incorrect. Unless you are certain you have achieved success, use “rebut.”


RECENT/RESENT

There are actually three words to distinguish here. “Recent,” always pronounced with an unvoiced hissy S and with the accent on the first syllable, means “not long ago,” as in, “ I appreciated your recent encouragement.” “Resent” has two different meanings with two different pronunciations, both with the accent on the second syllable. In the most common case, where “resent” means “feel annoyed at,” the word is pronounced with a voiced Z sound: “I resent your implication that I gave you the chocolates only because I was hoping you’d share them with me.” In the less common case, the word means “to send again,” and is pronounced with an unvoiced hissy S sound: “The e-mail message bounced, so I resent it.” So say the intended word aloud. If the accent is on the second syllable, “resent” is the spelling you need.


REGARD/REGARDS

Business English is deadly enough without scrambling it. “As regards your downsizing plan . . .” is acceptable, if stiff. “In regard to” “and “with regard to” are also correct. But “in regards to” is nonstandard. You can also convey the same idea with “in respect to” or “with respect to.”


REIGN/REIN

A king or queen reigns, but you rein in a horse. The expression “to give rein” means to give in to an impulse as a spirited horse gives in to its impulse to gallop when you slacken the reins. Similarly, the correct expression is “free rein,” not “free reign."

REPEL/REPULSE

In most of their meanings these are synonyms, but if you are disgusted by someone, you are repelled, not repulsed. The confusion is compounded by the fact that “repellent” and “repulsive” mean the same thing. Go figure.


RESISTER/RESISTOR

A resistor is part of an electrical circuit; a person who resists something is a “resister."


RIFFLE/RIFLE

To rifle something is to steal it. The word also originally had the sense of “to search thoroughly,” often with intent to steal. But if you are casually flipping through some papers, you riffle through them. You never “rifle through” anything.


ROLE/ROLL

An actor plays a role. Bill Gates is the entrepreneur’s role model. But you eat a sausage on a roll and roll out the barrel. To take attendance, you call the roll.


ROLLOVER/ROLL OVER

A rollover used to be only a serious highway accident, but in the computer world this spelling has also been used to label a feature on a Web page which reacts in some way when you roll the ball inside a mouse or a trackball over it without having to click. It also became an adjective, as in “rollover feature.” However, when giving users instructions, the correct verb form is “roll over”—two words: “roll over the photo of our dog to see his name pop up.”

Since most people now use either optical mice or trackpads the term “rollover” has become technically obsolete, but it persists.


ROOT/ROUT/ROUTE

You can root for your team (cheer them on) and hope that they utterly smash their opponents (create a rout), then come back in triumph on Route 27 (a road).

SACRED/SCARED

This is one of those silly typos which your spelling checker won’t catch: gods are sacred, the damned in Hell are scared.

SAIL/SALE/SELL

These simple and familiar words are surprisingly often confused in writing. You sail a boat which has a sail of canvas. You sell your old fondue pot at a yard sale.


SAY/TELL

You say “Hello, Mr. Chips” to the teacher, and then tell him about what you did last summer. You can’t “tell that” except in expressions like "go tell that to your old girlfriend."

SEAM/SEEM

“Seem” is the verb, “seam” the noun. Use “seam” only for things like the line produced when two pieces of cloth are sewn together or a thread of coal in a geological formation.

SAW/SEEN

In standard English, it’s “I” ve seen” not “I” ve saw.” The helping verb "have” (abbreviated here to “” ve” ) requires “seen.” In the simple past (no helping verb), the expression is “I saw,” not “I seen.” “I” ve seen a lot of ugly cars, but when I saw that old beat-up Rambler I couldn’t believe my eyes."


SELECT/SELECTED

“Select” means “special, chosen because of its outstanding qualities.” If you are writing an ad for a furniture store offering low prices on some of its recliners, call them “selected recliners,” not “select recliners,” unless they are truly outstanding and not just leftovers you’re trying to move out of the store.



SENSE/SINCE

“Sense” is a verb meaning “feel” (“I sense you near me”) or a noun meaning “intelligence” (“have some common sense!”). Don’t use it when you need the adverb “since” (“since you went away,” “since you’re up anyway, would you please let the cat out?”).


SERVICE/SERVE

A mechanic services your car and a stallion services a mare; but most of the time when you want to talk about the goods or services you supply, the word you want is “serve": “Our firm serves the hotel industry."

SETUP/SET UP

Technical writers sometimes confuse “setup” as a noun ("check the setup” ) with the phrase “set up” ("set up the experiment” ).

SHEAR/SHEER

You can cut through cloth with a pair of shears, but if the cloth is translucent it’s sheer. People who write about a “shear blouse” do so out of sheer ignorance.

SILICON/SILICONE

Silicon is a chemical element, the basic stuff of which microchips are made. Silicones are plastics and other materials containing silicon, the most commonly discussed example being silicone breast implants. Less used by the general public is “silica“: an oxide of silicon.


SOAR/SORE

By far the more common word is “sore” which refers to aches, pains and wounds: sore feet, sore backs, sores on your skin. The more unusual word used to describe the act of gliding through the air or swooping up toward the heavens is spelled ”soar.” This second word is often used metaphorically: eagles, spirits, and prices can all soar. If you know your parts of speech, just keep in mind that “soar” is always a verb, and “sore” can be either a noun (“running sore”) or an adjective (“sore loser”) but never a verb. In archaic English “sore” could also be an adverb meaning “sorely” or “severely”: “they were sore afraid.”


SOLE/SOUL

The bottom of your foot is your sole; your spirit is your soul.


SOMETIME/SOME TIME

"Let's get together sometime." When you use the one-word form, it suggests some indefinite time in the future. "Some time" is not wrong in this sort of context, but it is required when being more specific: "Choose some time that fits in your schedule." "Some" is an adjective here modifying "time." The same pattern applies to "someday" (vague) and "some day" (specific).


SPECIALLY/ESPECIALLY

In most contexts “specially” is more common than “especially,” but when you mean “particularly” “especially” works better: “I ** not especially excited about inheriting my grandmother’s neurotic Siamese cat.” “Especial” in the place of “special” is very formal and rather old-fashioned.


SPECIE/SPECIES

In both the original Latin and in English “species” is the spelling of both the singular and plural forms. Amphiprion ocellaris is one species of clownfish. Many species of fish are endangered by overfishing.

Specie is a technical term referring to the physical form of money, particularly coins.


STAID/STAYED

“Staid” is an adjective often used to label somebody who is rather stodgy and dull, a stick-in-the mud.” But in modern English the past tense of the verb “stay” is “stayed”: “I stayed at the office late hoping to impress my boss.”


SUIT/SUITE

Your bedroom suite consists of the bed, the nightstand, and whatever other furniture goes with it. Your pajamas would be your bedroom suit.


SULKING/SKULKING

That guy sneaking furtively around the neighborhood is skulking around; that teenager brooding in his bedroom because he got grounded is sulking. “Sulking around” is not a traditional phrase.


SUMMARY/SUMMERY

When the weather is warm and summery and you don’t feel like spending a lot of time reading that long report from the restructuring committee, just read the summary.


SWAM/SWUM

The regular past tense of “swim” is “swam”: “I swam to the island.” However, when the word is preceded by a helping verb, it changes to “swum”: “I’ve swum to the island every day.” The “’ve” stands for “have,” a helping verb.


STAND/STANCE

When you courageously resist opposing forces, you take—or make—a stand. The metaphor is a military one, with the defending forces refusing to flee from the attacker. Your stance, on the other hand, is just your position—literal or figurative—which may not be particularly militant. A golfer wanting to improve her drives may adopt a different stance, or your stance on cojack may be that it doesn’t belong on a gourmet cheese platter; but if you organize a group to force the neighbors to get rid of the hippo they’ve tethered in their front yard, you’re taking a stand.

SO / VERY

Originally people said things like, “I was so delighted with the wrapping that I couldn’t bring myself to open the package.” But then they began to lazily say “You made me so happy,” no longer explaining just how happy that was. This pattern of using “so” as a simple intensifier meaning “very” is now standard in casual speech, but is out of place in formal writing, where “very” or another intensifier works better. Without vocal emphasis, the “so” conveys little in print.


SARCASTIC/IRONIC

Not all ironic comments are sarcastic. Sarcasm is meant to mock or wound. Irony can be amusing without being maliciously aimed at hurting anyone.


SPADED/SPAYED

If you’ve had your dog surgically sterilized, you’ve spayed it; save the spading until it dies.

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TAUGHT/TAUT

Students are taught, ropes are pulled taut.


TAUNT/TAUT/TOUT

I ** told that medical personnel often mistakenly refer to a patient’s abdomen as “taunt” rather than the correct “taut.” “Taunt” (“tease” or “mock” ) can be a verb or noun, but never an adjective. “Taut” means “tight, distended,” and is always an adjective.

Don’t confuse “taunt” with “tout,” which means “promote,” as in “Senator Bilgewater has been touted as a Presidential candidate.” You tout somebody you admire and taunt someone that you don’t.


TENANT/TENET

These two words come from the same Latin root, tenere, meaning “to hold” but they have very different meanings. “Tenet” is the rarer of the two, meaning a belief that a person holds: “Avoiding pork is a tenet of the Muslim faith.” In contrast, the person leasing an apartment from you is your tenant. (She holds the lease.)


THAN/THEN

When comparing one thing with another you may find that one is more appealing “than” another. “Than” is the word you want when doing comparisons. But if you are talking about time, choose “then“: “First you separate the eggs; then you beat the whites.” Alexis is smarter than I, not “then I."


THEY’RE/THEIR/THERE

Many people are so spooked by apostrophes that a word like “they’re” seems to them as if it might mean almost anything. In fact, it’s always a contraction of “they are.” If you’ve written “they’re,” ask yourself whether you can substitute “they are.” If not, you’ve made a mistake. “Their” is a possessive pronoun like “her” or “our” “They eat their hotdogs with sauerkraut.” Everything else is “there.” “There goes the ball, out of the park! See it? Right there! There aren’t very many home runs like that.” “Thier” is a common misspelling, but you can avoid it by remembering that “they” and “their” begin with the same three letters. Another hint: “there” has “here” buried inside it to remind you it refers to place, while “their” has “heir” buried in it to remind you that it has to do with possession.


THEREFOR/THEREFORE

The form without a final “E” is an archaic bit of legal terminology meaning “for.” The word most people want is “therefore.”


THRONE/THROWN

A throne is that chair a king sits on, at least until he gets thrown out of office.


TO/TOO/TWO

People seldom mix “two” up with the other two; it obviously belongs with words that also begin with TW, like “twice” and “twenty” that involve the number 2. But the other two are confused all the time. Just remember that the only meanings of “too” are “also” (“I want some ice cream too.”) and “in excess” (“Your walkman is playing too loudly.”). Note that extra O. It should remind you that this word has to do with adding more on to something. “To” is the proper spelling for all the other uses.


TOLLED/TOLD

Some people imagine that the expression should be “all tolled” as if items were being ticked off to the tolling of a bell, or involved the paying of a toll; but in fact this goes back to an old meaning of "tell": “to count.” You could “tell over” your beads if you were counting them in a rosary. “All told” means “all counted."


TOWARD/TOWARDS

These two words are interchangeable, but “toward” is more common in the U.S. and “towards” in the U.K.

TROOP/TROUPE

A group of performers is a troupe. Any other group of people, military or otherwise, is a troop. A police officer, member of a mounted military group or similar person is a trooper, but a gung-ho worker is a real trouper.

Troops are always groups, despite the current vogue among journalists of saying things like “two troops were wounded in the battle” when they mean “two soldiers.” “Two troops” would be two groups of soldiers, not two individuals.


UNDO/UNDUE

The verb “undo” is the opposite of “do.” You undo your typing errors on a computer or undo your shoelaces to go wading.

The adjective “undue” is the opposite of “due”; and means “unwarranted” or “improper.” It is used in phrases like “undue influence,” “undue burdens,” and “undue expense.”


USE/USAGE

“Use” and “usage” overlap somewhat, but they are not entirely synonymous. Many people treat “usage” as if it were just a fancier form of “use” in phrases like “make usage of,” where “make use of” is the standard expression. As a rule of thumb, if either “use” or “usage” seems appropriate, go with “use.”

USED TO COULD/ USED TO BE ABLE

“I used to could lift a hay-bale with my teeth,” says Jeb, meaning “I used to be able to.”


VAIN/VANE/VEIN

When you have vanity you are conceited: you are vain. “You’re so vain you probably think this song is about you.” This spelling can also mean “futile,” as in “All my love’s in vain” (fruitless). Note that when Ecclesiastes says that “all is vanity” it doesn’t mean that everything is conceited, but that everything is pointless.

A vane is a blade designed to move or be moved by gases or liquid, like a weathervane.

A vein is a slender thread of something, like blood in a body or gold in a mine. It can also be a line of thought, as in “After describing his dog’s habit of chewing on the sofa, Carlos went on in the same vein for several minutes.”


VARY/VERY

“Vary” means “to change.” Don’t substitute it for “very” in phrases like "very nice” or “very happy."


VERSES/VERSUS

The “vs.” in a law case like “Brown vs. The Board of Education” stands for Latin versus (meaning “against” ). Don’t confuse it with the word for lines of poetry—“verses”—when describing other conflicts, like the upcoming football game featuring Oakesdale versus Pinewood.

Note that in formal legal contexts the usual abbreviation is usually just “v.,” as in “Brown v. The Board of Education.”

VICIOUS/VISCOUS CIRCLE/CYCLE

The term “vicious circle” was invented by logicians to describe a form of fallacious circular argument in which each term of the argument draws on the other: “Democracy is the best form of government because democratic elections produce the best governments.” The phrase has been extended in popular usage to all kinds of self-exacerbating processes such as this: poor people often find themselves borrowing money to pay off their debts, but in the process create even more onerous debts which in their turn will need to be financed by further borrowing. Sensing vaguely that such destructive spirals are not closed loops, people have transmuted “vicious circle” into “vicious cycle.” The problem with this perfectly logical change is that a lot of people know what the original “correct” phrase was and are likely to scorn users of the new one. They go beyond scorn to contempt however toward those poor souls who render the phrase as “viscous cycle.” Don’t use this expression unless you are discussing a Harley-Davidson in dire need of an oil change.


VIOLA/VOILA

A viola is a flower or a musical instrument. The expression which means “behold!” is voila. It comes from a French expression literally meaning “look there!” In French it is spelled with a grave accent over the A, as voilà, but when it was adopted into English, it lost its accent. Such barbarous misspellings as “vwala” are even worse, caused by the reluctance of English speakers to believe that OI can represent the sound “wah,” as it usually does in French.


WAIL/WHALE

One informal meaning of “whale” is “to beat.” Huck Finn says of Pap that “He used to always whale me when he was sober.”

Although the vocalist in a band may wail a song, the drummer whales on the drums; and lead guitarists when they thrash their instruments wildly whale on them.

Although this usage dates back to the 18th century and used to be common in Britain and America, it is now confined mostly to the U.S., and even there people often mistakenly use “wail” for this meaning.



WANDER/WONDER

If you idly travel around, you wander. If you realize you’re lost, you wonder where you are.


WARRANTEE/WARRANTY

Confused by the spelling of “guarantee,” people often misspell the related word “warrantee” rather than the correct “warranty.” “Warrantee” is a rare legal term that means “the person to whom a warrant is made.” Although “guarantee” can be a verb (“we guarantee your satisfaction”), “warranty” is not. The rarely used verb form is “to warrant.”



WARY/WEARY/LEERY

People sometimes write “weary” (tired) when they mean “wary” (cautious) which is a close synonym with “leery” which in the psychedelic era was often misspelled “leary”; but since Timothy Leary faded from public consciousness, the correct spelling has prevailed.


WAS/WERE

In phrases beginning with “there” many people overlook the need to choose a plural or singular form of the verb “to be” depending on what follows. ”There were several good-looking guys at the party” [plural]. “There was one of them who asked for my phone number” [singular].


WEAK/WEEK

People often absentminedly write “last weak” or “next weak.” Less often they write “I feel week.” These mistakes will not be caught by a spelling checker.

“Weak” is the opposite of “strong.” A week is made up of seven days.


WEATHER/WETHER/WHETHER

The climate is made up of “weather”; whether it is nice out depends on whether it is raining or not. A wether is just a castrated sheep.

WERE/WHERE

Sloppy typists frequently leave the H out of “where.” Spelling checkers do not catch this sort of error, of course, so look for it as you proofread.


WE’RE/WERE

“We’re” is a contraction of the phrase “we are”: the apostrophe stands for the omitted letter A. “Were” is simply a plural past-tense form of the verb “are.” To talk about something happening now or in the future, use “we’re”; but to talk about something in the past, use “were.” If you can’t substitute “we are” for the word you’ve written, omit the apostrophe.

“We were going to go to the party as a prince and princess, but Derek cut himself shaving, so we’re going instead as a female werewolf and her victim.”


WHENEVER/WHEN

“Whenever” has two main functions. It can refer to repeated events: “Whenever I put the baby down for a nap the phone rings and wakes her up.” Or it can refer to events of whose date or time you are uncertain: “Whenever it was that I first wore my new cashmere sweater, I remember the baby spit up on it.” In some dialects (notably in Northern Ireland and Texas) it is common to substitute “whenever” for “when” in statements about specific events occurring only once and whose date is known: “Whenever we got married, John was so nervous he dropped the ring down my décolletage.” This is nonstandard. If an event is unique and its date or time known, use “when.”

WHETHER/WHETHER OR NOT

“Whether” works fine on its own in most contexts: “I wonder whether I forgot to turn off the stove?” But when you mean “regardless of whether” it has to be followed by “or not” somewhere in the sentence: “We need to leave for the airport in five minutes whether you’ve found your teddy bear or not.”

WHILST/WHILE

Although “whilst” is a perfectly good traditional synonym of “while,” in American usage it is considered pretentious and old-fashioned.

WHISKY/WHISKEY

Scots prefer the spelling “whisky”; Americans follow instead the Irish spelling, so Kentucky bourbon is “whiskey.”


WHO’S/WHOSE

This is one of those cases where it is important to remember that possessive pronouns never take apostrophes, even though possessive nouns do (see it’s/its). “Who’s” always and forever means only “who is,” as in “Who’s that guy with the droopy mustache?” or “who has,” as in “Who’s been eating my porridge?” “Whose” is the possessive form of “who” and is used as follows: “Whose dirty socks are these on the breakfast table?”


WITHIN/AMONG

“Within” means literally “inside of,” but when you want to compare similarities or differences between things you may need “among” instead. It’s not “There are some entertaining movies within the current releases,” but “among the current releases.” But you can use “within” by rewriting the sentence to lump the movies together into a single entity: “There are some entertaining movies within the current batch of releases.” A batch is a single thing, and the individual films that make it up are within it.


WOMAN/WOMEN

The singular “woman” probably gets mixed up with the plural “women” because although both are spelled with an O in the first syllable; only the pronunciation of the O really differentiates them. Just remember that this word is treated no differently than “man” (one person) and “men” (more than one person). A woman is a woman—never a women.


YOUR/YOU

“I appreciate your cleaning the toilet” is more formal than “I appreciate you cleaning the toilet.”


YOKE/YOLK

The yellow center of an egg is its yolk. The link that holds two oxen together is a yoke; they are yoked.

YOUR/YOU’RE

“You’re” is always a contraction of “you are.” If you’ve written “you’re,” try substituting “you are.” If it doesn’t work, the word you want is “your.” Your writing will improve if you’re careful about this.

If someone thanks you, write back “you’re welcome” for “you are welcome.”

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