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Most Common Errors in English
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 AM.” 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.”
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 AM.” 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.)
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 sexuality 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 “sex” in phrases such as “Our goal is to achieve gender equality.” Americans, always nervous about sex, eagerly embraced this usage, which is now standard. In some scholarly fields, “sex” 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.
Most Common Errors in English
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 AM.” 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.”
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 AM.” 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.)
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 sexuality 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 “sex” in phrases such as “Our goal is to achieve gender equality.” Americans, always nervous about sex, eagerly embraced this usage, which is now standard. In some scholarly fields, “sex” 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.