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.

There are Still More Words that are Easy to Confuse

Is it that time again already? I feel like I’ve just done this, but sometimes I see a word and go “no, that’s not what it’s supposed to be” and then I go a little crazy. Well, crazier.

Aught/ought

I think this is another one Lizmentioned months ago. If you’ll remember my post about “nothing”, aught is a version of the word naught that got the n dropped off. But it’s also a completely different word that means “anything whatever”, “any part”, or “at all”. Then we have ought, which basically means should. How do you tell them apart? Um…you know what? People don’t use them much anymore. Let’s just erase them both from existence. That should do it.

Taught/taut

Darn homophones. They make everything so confusing. But taught is what a teacher does (in the past tense). Taut is what a rope does. A teacher with a rope has taught with a taut piece of line. You don’t mess with that teacher.

Reek/wreak

Although the ea digraph has a few different pronunciations (think of read or lead), the ee one only has one, the long e, and because wreak is like the present tense read, these two are also homophones. Reek goes with smell (two e’s, two l’s), and wreak goes with havoc (no clever way to remember this one, sorry, but it has nothing to do with odor so you should be able to keep them straight that way). And for bonus confusion, there’s also wreck.

Bridal/bridle

If a hotel offers a “Bridle Suite” be very suspicious. See, bridle is what goes on a horse. Bridal is what has to do with a wedding. I always thought these words were confusing because bridle has an e in it like bride, but it was pretty easy to train myself to remember which is which. Sadly, I’ve seen evidence that not everyone has done this…

Decadent/decedent

The annoying part of these words is that they sound nothing alike. Deck-a-dent and de-see-dent, because c is an annoying letter that sounds like both kuh and suh and we should just get rid of it. Always, always double check them (and I’m talking to myself here, but feel free to do so yourself).

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.

More Words That Are Easy to Mix Up

Maybe it’s because I visit forums too much, but I see words used wrong all. the. time.

Hm. I’m thinking there shouldn’t be a “maybe” in that sentence. Anyway, while using words in an incorrect, yet socially accepted manner isn’t a bad thing, although it might push people’s editorial Berserk Buttons. Will misusing them cause dismissal by an agent/editor/publisher? Probably not. But then, what do I know? It’s not like I’ve been published.

Perpetrate/perpetuate

This is one of those that’s easy to confuse because of similar spellings rather than misinterpretation. Perpetrate is to act, while to perpetuate is to continue forever. But switch that u for an r and boom! Wrong word.

Hopefully

I have to admit: this one drives me crazy. And I have no idea why. I guess I’m annoying like that. But hopefully means “in a manner full of hope” and people tend to use it in sentences like “Hopefully no one figures out I’m slowly poisoning them with arsenic.” If you put in a synonym like confidently, surely or optimistically, the sentence descends into meaninglessness. It would be more correct to say “with luck” or “I hope”. Then I can sleep at night because a word wasn’t misused.

Lie/lay

I’m actually much better at using this word than I used to be. The rule that helped me is that you yourself lie down, but you lay something else down. This is really confusing because the past tense of lie is, wait for it, lay. Yes, “An hour ago, he lay down and went to sleep” is correct, at least in the past tense. Note that this is only for the recline sense of lie. For the untruth sense, of course this rule doesn’t apply because that would make things slightly easier.

Perverse/perverted

I’m sure we could go to the Online Etymology Dictionary and find out that these two words are related. However, as they are used today in the English language, they are slightly different. Perverse is more doing something that is wrong on purpose, like saying “I’m going to lay down” when you’ve just read the above paragraph. If any of you are parents of teenagers, think of pretty much anything they’ve said to you ever. Perverted on the other hand has a more negative connotation. Perverse may be willful wrongness, but perverted is completely twisted against all that we know is right.

Lightening/Lightning

Obviously, people don’t confuse these two subjects. They do, however, confuse the spelling. I check my manuscripts for each of these because at least once per book I’ve messed them up. I blame my left middle finger. It should know that being shocked isn’t caused by lightening but it presses that “e” anyway.

Overall, this probably doesn’t matter much. Language evolves the way it wants to. Or rather, the way we want it to. Maybe I should start driving a word differently and see if it catches on.

But I Thought It Meant…

For today’s word nerdery, I thought we could go over some of the most commonly “misused” words. Misused is in quotes there because the simple fact is, you can use any word any way you want. The grammar police aren’t going to come knocking on your door to charge you with first degree Incorrect Usage of a Verb, third offense (which comes with a term of twenty five years to life). Although people might misunderstand you or think you’re silly, you can go ahead and say “My brain literally spewed out of my ears!”

Anyway…

Irony

People tend to use irony when they mean coincidental or unexpected. However, in the words of Bender, irony is “The use of words expressing something other than their literal intention.” And who are we to contradict the word of Futurama? To put it simply, let’s say you just finished a mind-crushing calculus exam and someone asked you how it went. Saying “What a snap!” would be ironic because A) it was extremely difficult, not easy; and B) your mind snapped and you’re going home to cry yourself to sleep.

Literally

A lot of times, this word is used as an intensive, for example, “I am literally sweating bullets” when it’s very hot. It’s supposed to be used as a synonym for completely or actually, or as a way to say word for word. Ad nauseum literally means to nausea.

Complementary

Notice there is an e after the l, not an i. This is actually one that I know I’ve misused when writing. Complementary means that it completes something, like how hot fudge complements a sundae. Deliciously so.

Infer

Infer is easily mixed up with implied, but there’s a big difference. Basically, it is the speaker/writer who does the implying and the listener/reader who does the inferring. If I say “No, you don’t need to get me a gift for my birthday” with a certain tone, I’m implying that you damn well better get me a gift and make it expensive. You are inferring that you better buy me a gift or start sleeping with one eye open.

Loath

This is confusing because it sounds just like loathe, but they have different meanings. For the latter you would say “I loathe you” and that would mean I don’t like you. However, loath means reluctant, as in “I am loath to give you another chance.” One easy way to know remember that loathe is a verb and loath is an adjective—it can only be used with a verb.

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?