I’ve Found More Words that are Easy to Confuse

I love these posts. Mostly because they’re easy.

Patience/Patients

Yes, I actually saw these mixed up. No, I didn’t freak out and rip my computer in half. But it was close. It should be easy to tell them apart. After all, patients is the plural of patient while patience is a completely different thing. It is easy to think “patience” and replace it with the homophone, though.

Maybe/may be

I often confuse when it’s appropriate to use “may be” rather than “maybe”. It doesn’t help that they’re both related to probability. However, maybe is an adverb, so if I’m ever unsure which to use, I ask whether “possibly” would fit. “Maybe Sharknado is even worse than Plan 9 From Outer Space”. Possibly fits, so maybe is right. But switch two of those words around: “Sharknado maybe even worse than Plan 9 From Outer Space”. Nope. Possibly doesn’t fit, and it’s missing a verb. So that should be “may be”.

Preposition/proposition

This one is at least easy to learn. Preposition is one thing and one thing only: a part of speech. Proposition is a proposal, an offer, a plan. They’re not true homophones, but they are only one letter off from each other. Just remember: propose, two o’s, unless you’re talking about grammar.

Comic/comical

There is indeed a difference. Comic means funny because comedy was its aim (like telling a joke), but something that is comical is funny whether or not it was intended to be (like telling a joke so badly that it makes no sense and people laugh at the inanity). All comic things are comical, but not all comical things are comic.

Flare/flair

More homophones of words that have nothing in common. Flare is fire, glowing, or expanding (like a skirt might flare out). Flair is more abstract. It’s a talent or a skill. To tell them apart, I always remember that flare is something that happens (a fire flares or a funnel flares at the end) and flair is not.