Easy to Confuse

Easily confused words this week! Because I’ve been busy and don’t have time to do all the research for the Language of Confusion.

Hoard/horde

Did someone mention this one to me? If so, I forgot to note it down, sorry :P. Anyway, hoard and horde, which would make good words to etymologize. As far as I know, horde (a crowd) can only be a noun, while hoard (store or stockpile) can be a noun and a verb. Just remember: zombies come in hordes. Both end in e. Well, technically e-s, but that’s only because they’re plural.

Lose/loose

I know I saw this one somewhere and it made me want to reach through the internet and shake whoever did it. These ones aren’t even homophones! Lose is the opposite of win, loose is the opposite of tight. Now if I could only get everyone on the internet to read this post.

Incite/Intice(Entice)

Okay, this one is just something I do all the time. I always, always write entice with an i, and then it autocorrects to incite, which is an actual word, unlike intice. I have no idea why I do this. I suppose I should be more forgiving of people who screw up lose and loose…

Breath/breathe

This is another one I see all the time. Both refer to air going in and out of the lungs, but one is a noun, the other is the verb. People forget the e, not knowing how important it is. It’s so magical that it changes the “ea” from sounding like “eh” to sounding like “ee”. I guess it’s linguistomancy.

Bare/bear

And finally we have another word that I will mix up if I don’t stop to think about it. Bare is the more narrow word, referring to things that are empty or exposed. Bear can be an animal, or a verb for withstanding/carrying and several other applications. Basically, I usually want bear.

Do you have any words that you mix up or always get wrong? What do you do to keep words straight when you’re writing?

Easy to Confuse

As I am rather time-crunched right now and want to do something easy, here are more words that are easy to confuse.

Wander/wonder

I can’t remember where I saw these confused, but I know I did stop to yell at the whatever I was reading (I want to say something on the internet, so maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised). To whoever it was who erred: wander is to meander, to drift. Wonder is thinking, marveling at how someone could mistake the two words (like I should be one to judge :P).

Board/bored/boarder/border

Darn homophones. It took years for me to remember how to distinguish the two. Bored can be shortened to bore, but board can’t be shortened to boar. Well, it can, but I’m pretty sure boars and boards aren’t related. The boarder/border thing is even more confusing! I wonder why board- plus -er equals a renter? I’m sure there’s some weird explanation for it. I’ll have to etymologize it sometime. As to how to tell them apart…okay, I admit, I have to double check to make sure I’m using them right.

Wring/ring

The w is important! Remember, wring is always a verb. Ring only sometimes is. If you want to talk to someone, you ring them on the phone. Add that w and you’ll end up choking them, and you might not want to do that.

Hay/hey (suggested by Hillary)

I’ve only seen these confused a couple of times, usually people using “hey” as something horses eat. I only wish I was talented enough to draw a horse eating a greeting, because that would be a hilarious way to end this. Anyway, just remember, “hay” goes into the mouth, and “hey” comes out of it.

Heel/heal

The ee and ea digraphs are the worst. Different letters should not sound the same! No wonder it’s easy to try to heel a person of their illness or be unable to walk due to a pain in your heal. I have no good way to keep these separate in my mind. I guess I’m lucky I don’t have to use them much. Any ideas?

PS. This post is number 777, plus I have 77 followers. But I’m still putting up another on Saturday. I hope you appreciate what I do for you.

Easy to Confuse

Wow, I haven’t done an easily confused words post all year! I can’t believe I’ve been slacking. Forgive me, Grammar Police Chief Melissa.

Anyway! What do we have this time?

Do/Due

These are words I mix up without even thinking about it. I mean due, and I stick do in there instead. It doesn’t help that do is such a versatile word. Besides being one of the most basic verbs in all of English, it’s part of a lot of idioms, like a “to do” (a party) or “do in” a murder. Due often has to do with something that should happen at a particular time, like the rent is due at the first of the month. There are a few other ways to use it, like a due course, where it means direct, and because of (I’m late due to the molasses spill in Boston). You might just need to check every use of do/due in your MS to make sure it’s right…

Knob/nob

Yeah, I didn’t know nob was a word either, but there it is. No red squiggly line or anything. It has a few different meanings, including slang for a head and a person of high society. It’s not used much anymore, so unless you’re talking about hobnobbing, you should stick a K in front of there.

Wrest/rest

Funny how much difference one little W can make—you certainly can’t rest if you’re wresting! Ha! Well, I thought it was funny. But it should make it easy to tell them apart. Wrest is something that requires action. Rest is the exact opposite. Oh, but wrest can also mean a small key for tuning a stringed instrument. But you probably won’t need that information (just in case, though).

Arch/arc

This one always confuses me, because arch and arc seem so similar. An arc is part of the curve of a circle (or the light between two electrodes). An arch is a curved piece of architecture—or anything curved really, like the arch of your foot. Plus, it can also mean the highest level of something (an archangel or an arch-villain). I just remind myself that unless it has to do with electricity or part of a circle, use arch.

Alter/altar

Luckily these aren’t too difficult to discern since they’re always used as seperate parts of speech, a verb and a noun. An altar is a raised platform used in religious ceremony, so as long as you remember the noun is the one with the a, you should be all set.

Okay, that’s it for this rendition of Easily Confused Words. Do you have any words that you can’t help but mess up?

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.

The Hunt

The Word Hunt, to be specific.

Like all writers, I tend to over use certain words. Often when I’m reading over my WIPs, a certain word pulls me out of the story, and I bet if it happens to me it would happen to a reader. I make a list of these words (currently at a hundred) and I use Word’s Find function to track them down for a second look. They’re either too vague (thing, stuff), easy to overuse (just, that) or I just keep seeing them and they bug me (flush, face). Plus there’s also general words (have, be) that I have to make sure work.

1. Strong words are great!

2. But don’t overuse them. Not every word needs necessitates needs to be strong. If it crystalizes a sentence, yay! Keep it. But if it’s clunky, out of voice, or just there because you don’t want a weaker word, don’t bother.

3. Don’t eliminate a word if you’re replacing it with a syllable that’s another common word. For example, don’t replace “might” with “could” or “large” with “huge”. It defeats the whole purpose of the word hunt.

4. You might find you’ve over used a very general verb like give, have, or is. There’s really not much you can do about that except look at the sentences as a whole and decide whether the entire thing is weak. If so, rewrite it.

5. Find the words you love using and get rid of as many as you can. As I’ve said many times before (and as you’ve probably read elsewhere), that and just are some of the worst offenders. But by no means are they the only ones. Every writer (from a poll of me) has a few words s/he uses more than necessary.

Now if I could only get myself to follow these rules…

Further Words that are Easy to Confuse

It’s been too long since I’ve done this. I don’t know how there aren’t more words that confuse me.

Sheer/shear

I’m terrible with these words. Sheer has a ridiculous variety of meanings. It can mean transparent, pure, utter, steep, and in reference to ships, swerve. On the other hand, shear always means something to do with cutting, like shear a sheep or another word for scissors. But it’s hard to tell them apart! I try to remember that shear always goes with sheep, which reminds me that it has to do with shaving. And anything else gets sheer.

Elicit/illicit

Words with similar sounds but completely different meanings are the bane of my existence. Illicit means illegal, and it’s easy to remember if you remind yourself they both start with “ill”. Elicit is a synonym for evoke. Again, both start with e’s. Why are they so close in spelling? Well, it’s all about the prefixes. The ex- prefix often loses the x (think of emigration or the above mentioned evoke) and for the in- prefix loses the n and picks up an l in front of words that start with l (like licit and legal) [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=in-&allowed_in_frame=0]. And also because languages are confusing.

Personal/personnel

This one I’ve come across once or twice. I’ve also made the error myself a few times, but that’s more because personnel is one of those words that for some reason I can’t spell for the life of me (I always do one n and two l’s…really). The definition of personal is between you and me. The definition of personnel is a group of employees. Although “a personal” seems like a good name for a group of psychologists.

Breech/breach

I’m mentioning this one because I totally mixed them up in one of my WIPs, and if you know the definitions, that’s kind of an issue. For those who don’t know (like the me from last week), breech means the rear part of anything, but more specifically humans. It means butt, is what I’m saying. And I used it when I needed to say breach, as in rupture. I tell you, “breeching the gate” makes for some awkward visuals.

Plumb/plum

Just brought up because it’s bit of a problem to read “plum the depths of my soul”. Plum means only one thing:

I plummed my soul once. Turned the entire thing into fruit.

It’s a fruit, for always and ever. If you’re talking about measuring the depth of water (or the human soul), perpendicular or vertical, or complete (in a colloquial sense), then stick that b on there.

Dieting

First of all, I'm still looking for guest posts for the end of the month. If you think you can string some words together for me, please let me know.

Next, I came across this awesome test called "Writer's Diet" by writer Helen Sword and I just had to share. It works by analyzing the different words you use and rating you on the number of times certain categories show up. Here, it's easier to show than tell...

I'd click to embiggen it for a better look, but it basically says I'm "lean" when it comes to most words and "fit and trim" when it comes to it, this, that and there. This was actually much better than I thought it would. Of course, this is from a book I've been working on for about a year, so it might be different for a pure rough draft. I also took samples from other parts of my WIP and got pretty much the same results (I swear, you can tell exactly where I've done the most editing by how "fat" the word usage is), although I apparently still need to work on eliminating this, that and there :).

It's a nifty tool. What do you think? I'd love to hear about all of your results. If you do it for your WIP or your blog, you should definitely share your results in the comments.

Word Search

No, not the kind where you circle words mixed in with a jumble of letters. I mean actually searching your manuscript for problem words and phrases.

I’ve mentioned a few times that I have a list of words I scour my work for using Word’s find function. A lot of them are pretty common sentence fillers: just, only, every, probably, since, and that are the worst offenders, but by no means the only ones. It’s also wise to scour for words like feel, think and see (or felt, thought and saw for you past-tense writers) since they tend to pull the reader out of the book. As in, “I feel hurt” puts distance between the reader and the character whereas “I’m hurt” does not. But I digress.

There are other words you want to watch out for, the ones that you have a particular fondness for and often don’t realize you use. These are more specific, the words that sound right to you but will become repetitive for readers. Imagine reading “she appeared” every time a character enters the room. If you start noticing it, wham! Out of the book. Unfortunately, you might have to wait for a beta reader to say “You use ‘of course’ a lot” before figuring it out. For example, besides “of course”, I found quite a few instances of “flush” in my book. It’s one of those words that can be used once or twice a book without incident but more than three or four and readers start to go “does this girl’s face ever stay normal?” Again, not good.

So there are many reasons to word search your MS. I suggest waiting until after major rewrites are complete before doing a word search. There’s no point in clearing out useless words if a new chapter’s just going to need it done again.

And for the record these are my words: still, there, though, although, before, after, once, at least, of course, appear, then, while, almost, even, what, start, begin, begins, good, how, just, only, every, can, well, probably, that, since, as, like, so, some, when, seem, been, could, would, should, I, we, ’re, n’t, ’s, ’d, ’ve, be, is, are, am, I’m, was, were, we’re, keep, kept, got, get, had, has, felt, feel, think, thought, try, tried, tries, may, might, grew, grow, look, found, find, knew, know, become, became, smell, stupid, sense, hear, come, came, go, goes, went, taste, see, saw, watch, believe, flush, area, smile, cry, cries, cried, tear, sob, sobbed, wonder, time, pop, face, flash, thing, almost, if, finally, barely

And this doesn’t even include my adverb search.

What about you? Any words you especially overuse? How do you deal with problem words?

Websites for Writers

Not a major website this time. But check out this list of the top 10 misused English words. I have to admit, there were some new ones for me. Instant—yeah, that makes sense. Enormity—whoa. Did not realize that. Refute—okay, it’s specific to evidence.

The others I was pretty much up on, although in all honesty, I only knew about decimate because I read THE ZOMBIE WARS. And although I realize it’s wrong, I still use less and disinterested incorrectly. I know. Shameful.

Language habits are funny. One misuse of a word can spread like a disease, one that’s highly contagious but not fatal. I don't think we have much to worry about because it takes quite a while for a word’s meaning to change even slightly. As those of you who actually read my etymology posts should know.

Are there any words you can’t help using incorrectly? Does it drive you crazy when someone says “I was so shocked my jaw literally hit the floor?” No? Just me then?

The Perfect Word

I started the read aloud of my WIP the other day and already I can see how important word usage is. I found myself frowning over some choices, displeased they didn’t evoke the feeling I desired.There were other places where as much as a paragraph felt clunky and in the way, maybe not badly written but interrupting the flow of the story (I take those out and try to figure out a new place further down where they can slide in). 

That’s the thing about writing a novel, perhaps especially so for the unpublished and unagented: words can’t be wrong, can’t be close, can’t be almost-but-not-quite-what-you-had-in-mind. It has to be the word, the feeling, the beautiful, seamless sentence. It has to fit with the story and the style and the character. 

It has to be perfect.

What percentage of books written actually get published? I think it’s low, something like one percent. So if you have all those books to compete with, how do you expect to stand out?

Answer: by each and every single word being the word. All those perfect words…well, to be honest, even all together they might not get you published. But I can’t imagine you succeeding without them.

So that’s…what? Seventy to ninety thousand words that need to be not third, not second, but first place perfect for your book?

No, no trouble at all.

I’m starting to see why all those books don’t get published. Not everyone is willing to put in all that effort for something that only might be. Maybe they give up on writing, or maybe they give up on the book. Either way, that particular project won’t bear fruit. 

Writing is not simply typing words on a screen. And if anyone tries to tell you otherwise, deck them in the face. 

Back to writing...

Un-just

I’ve probably mentioned that just is one of my favorite words. I don’t know why; I just like putting amongst the other words. Like I did right there. It slips out so easily that I can’t help but find two hundred uses of the word in my 75 K novel. Granted, it’s a small percentage, but considering it’s the same word used the same way, yeah it’s bad. Thus is born the challenge of a writer: writing out your favorite sentence enhancers.

I love only almost as much as I love just. Because those two words, like my friend ‘that,’ don’t add anything except an extra pause. And unfortunately, extra pauses aren’t as good for everyone as they are for me. It’s why I need the toughest, grammar smartest critique partner in the world.

What words do you find peppered all over your manuscript? Do you have any strategies for combating them?