Commonly Confused Words
There's nothing worse than a sloppy web article written by some buffoon who doesn't know the difference between there, their, and they're. If you've ever been on the internet, you've seen this kind of tragedy, and you probably have a handful of friends that lament this sad state of affairs on social media (perhaps even some of them falling prey to the very errors they bemoan!).
Truth is, words are a complicated business, and there's a lot of overlap between them, whether it's meaning, spelling, or pronunciation. Even the smartest of us (by which I mean me) have occasionally confused words, or even used them wrong our whole lives.
Thankfully, the internet is replete with articles like this one and this one that aim to cure us of this wickedness. Collected here are some words that have tripped up yours truly in the past. It's not a complete list--just the list I keep on a cork board right above my computer.
| it's | it is |
| its | possessive |
| who's | who is |
| whose | possessive |
| let's | let us |
| lets | present tense verb |
| adverse | harmful |
| averse | dislike |
| affect | verb: influence |
| noun: emotional state | |
| effect | verb: accomplish |
| noun: result | |
| compliment | noun, kind words |
| complement | verb, add to, improve |
| criterion | singular |
| criteria | plural |
| discreet | careful |
| discrete | distinct |
| farther | physical distance |
| further | figurative distance |
| number | countable |
| amount | uncountable |
| principle | concept |
| principal | primary |
| a lot | much, many |
| allot | to divide or distribute |
| capital | city |
| money | |
| LETTERS | |
| principal | |
| death penalty | |
| capitol | gov't building |
| council | group |
| counsel | advice |
| immanent | inherent |
| imminent | forthcoming |
| lie | I lie down |
| lay | lay the gun down |
| stationary | still |
| stationery | paper |
| appraise | assess |
| apprise | inform |
| born | started life |
| borne | carried |
| complacent | satisfied |
| complaisant | eager to please |
| defuse | reduce tension |
| diffuse | spread |
| draught | current of air |
| draft | version |
| flounder | move clumsily |
| founder | fail |
| forbear | refrain |
| forebear | ancestor |
| foreword | book intro |
| forward | ahead |
| hoard | store |
| horde | crowd |
| loath | reluctant |
| loathe | hate |
| pore | tiny hole |
| study closely | |
| pour | flow |
| amuse | entertain |
| bemuse | bewilder |
| luster | reflecting light |
| luminescence | generating light |
| emigrate | leave one's country |
| immigrate | arrive in a new country |
| migrate | move from one place to another |
| antidote | cure |
| anecdote | story |
| hearty | filling, or warm & sincere |
| hardy | tough, durable |
| tragedy | cause of sadness |
| travesty | bad, offensive imitation |
Overused Words
Another habit that plagues writers and irritates editors is the overuse of mundane words. Many writers have a tendency to use "filler" words when the write, because it mirrors the way people speak. But introductory phrases like "Well," and go-to words like "awesome" have little or no place in fiction. Here is a list of words that you should always try to write around, if you can do so without conspicuous linguistic acrobatics.
- A lot
- About
- Absolutely
- Actually
- All
- Almost
- Also
- Always
- Awesome
- Awfully
- Bad
- Beautiful
- Begin/Began/Begun
- Big
- Every
- Feel/Feels
- Get
- Good
- Got
- Great
- Happy
- Have got
- Have to
- Important
- Interesting
- Just
- Like
- Literally
- Look
- Many
- Maybe
- Most
- Never
- Nice
- Often
- Perhaps
- Pretty
- Put
- Quite
- Really
- Seem
- Small
- So
- Some
- Something
- Started
- Stuff
- Suddenly
- That
- Than
- Then
- Things
- Think
- Though
- Tiny
- Used to
- Very
- Was/is/are/am
- Well
- Went
- Wondered
No comments:
Post a Comment