Category Archives: commonly misused words

Don’t Make Your Editor Cringe

by
Wilma Acree
 
 

Our illustrious leader Sandy Tritt asked me to share thoughts on usages that cause us to cringe. 

 
Good vs. well Good is used as an adjective to modify a noun or pronoun. It may appear before a noun, after a being verb (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been), or after a linking verb such as smell. (Hint: If smell is a linking verb, you can substitute a form of be for it.) 
  • This is a good book.
  • This book is good.
  • This book seemed good at the beginning.
In all of these examples, good is an adjective describing book. Well is usually an adverb but can be used as an adjective in reference to health. Although the issue is still debated, most sources agree that I am well means I am healthy and advise its use in manuscripts and other formal writing.
 
Between you and I vs. between you and me Between is a preposition and requires an objective pronoun such as me. An easy test: Leave off the first noun or pronoun and the conjunction and. Between I? Definitely wrong.
 
Less vs. fewer These words are not interchangeable. Use less for uncountable items or values and fewer with numbers or anything that can be counted (fewer dollars, fewer jobs, but less money, less work).
 
Loose vs. lose Loose is an adjective meaning not tight. Lose is a verb meaning to misplace. I should tighten this loose screw before I lose it.
 
Awhile vs. a while A while is a noun phrase. Awhile is an adverb modifying a verb. In a prepositional phrase, use a while (for a while, in a while, etc.) The children will play awhile. After a while, I will call them in.
 
A lot vs. allot A lot is always two words meaning many. Avoid it in formal writing. Allot is a verb meaning to distribute. Alot is not a word. Would you write alittle?
 
What errors cause you to cringe? Share them and I will be happy to address them.
 
 

Word Confusion

by
Sandy Tritt
 


QUIZ TIME! 

How’s your vocabulary feeling these days? Want to give it a quick exam?

Jessica, our amazing intern, recently livened up our Inspiration for Writers group email by asking our editors and writers to share common errors they find in manuscripts. She planned to gather them into a blog article. And, man, did our editors respond. The list of common errors grew long. In fact, it grew so long, we had to break the responses into multiple articles. So, this article will be first in a series of two (or three, or who knows?). And, to make things fun, we’ll make this one a quiz. So, put on your rubber gloves and see how you do. Don’t worry—answers will be given at the end.      

WORD CONFUSION 

1.      I pulled my car into the media/median/medium and stopped.

2.      For all my intensive purposes/intents and purposes, I still didn’t make it to the meeting on time.

3.      She took it for granite/granted that we’d be here waiting for her.

4.      If it’s any constellation/consolation, I missed five questions.

5.      Irregardless/regardless, someone has to tell her she’s dragging toilet paper.

6.      Anyone up for an expresso/espresso?

7.      All accept/exceptfor Janie, no one had a perfect score.

8.      She brought over olive oil and a crucifix to exercise/exorcise the evil spirit.

9.      See how far you can press the gas peddle/pedal.

10.  As far as I’m concerned, it’s a mute/moot point.

11.  The doc said my leg pain is due to a congenial/congenital defect.

12.  In the passed/past, she would simply run faster as she passed/past the house.

13.  Can you insure/ensure me this package is ensured/insured?

14.  The chapel evoked/invoked memories of the day I had evoked/invoked the Madonna’s help.

15.  Does it look like the altar/alter cloth has been altared/altered?

16.  I always loose/lose my loose/lose change.

17.  When I told him to breath/breathe, I didn’t expect to feel his breath/breathe on my neck.

18.  It really peeks/piques/peaks my interest to peak/peek/pique at the mountain pique/peak/peek.

19.  If I could just find a place to lay/lie my bag and lay/lie down, I’d be happy.

20.  She laid/lay/lie the book on the table and laid/lay/lie down.

21.  Between/among the three of us, Jackie is the tallest.

22.  Between you and me/I, it’s getting colder in here.

23.  Is it all right/allright/alright with you if I sit in the back for awhile/a while?

24.  Who gave heroin/heroine to the heroin/heroine?

25.  How much further/farther is it?

 

Think you got them all right? Let’s find out. Here are the answers:  

1.      I pulled my car into the median and stopped.

2.      For all my intents and purposes, I still didn’t make it to the meeting on time.

3.      She took it for granted that we’d be here waiting for her.

4.      If it’s any consolation, I missed five questions.

5.      Regardless, someone has to tell her she’s dragging toilet paper.

6.      Anyone up for an espresso? (The editor who submitted this one commented that “expresso” is “espresso on steroids.”)

7.      All except for Janie, no one had a perfect score.

8.      Howard brought over olive oil and a crucifix to exorcise the evil spirit. (Unless, as the submitting editor suggested, the evil spirit was overweight and Howard was his personal trainer.)

9.      See how far you can press the gas pedal.

10.  As far as I’m concerned, it’s a moot point. (The contributing editor stated she wished some points were mute.)

11.  The doc said my leg pain is due to a congenital defect.

12.  In the past, she would simply run faster as she passed the house.

13.  Can you ensure me this package is insured?

14.  The chapel evoked memories of the day I had invoked the Madonna’s help.

15.  Does it look like the altar cloth has been altered?

16.  I always lose my loose change.

17.  When I told him to breathe, I didn’t expect to feel his breath on my neck.

18.  It really piques my interest to peek at the mountain peak.

19.  If I could just find a place to lay my bag and lie down, I’d be happy. (This sentence is in present tense. “Lay” means to set or place. “Lie” means to recline.)

20.  She laid the book on the table and laydown. (This sentence is in past tense. Just a little confusing—especially since the past tense of “lie” is “lay.” Confusion between “lay” and “lie” and their conjugations is perhaps the most common error we see. Is it any wonder?)

21.  Among the three of us, Jackie is the tallest. (“Between” is used when referring to two people; “among” is used when referring to more than two. Likewise, “each other” is generally used to refer to the involvement of two people, and “one another” usually refers to the involvement of more than two people, although the lines on this one can blur in actual usage.)

22.  Between you and me, it’s getting colder in here.

23.  Is it all right with you if I sit in the back for a while? (Okay, this was a trick question. The only correct spelling—ever—in any situation—is all right and a while. I promise!)

24.  Who gave heroin to the heroine?

25.  How much farther is it? (Farther measures distance. Furtherrefers to ideas. Example: Nothing could be furtherfrom the truth.)

 

We actually had over 50 contributions for this list. Here’s a bonus comment from one of our editors:  “My personal favorites are manger instead of manager; that makes me giggle. And then there’s public without the ‘L,’ which makes my eyeballs roll.”

We had fun compiling this list of confusing words, and I hope you had equal fun taking our little quiz. Many times, even though we know the right word, our fingers take on a life of their own and type in the wrong word. Worse, our brain knows what we meant, so it doesn’t throw up any flags to tell us we’ve erred. This is why even professional editors have another editor review their work. And we’re always here to review yours (see http://www.inspirationforwriters.com/editing/services.html for more information).


If you have any questions about any of these usages, please just leave a comment and we’ll be happy to clarify. And, finally, what words do you confuse? Let us know in a comment below.

Happy writing!

Confusing Words: How to Tame the Problem Children of the English Language

by Sandy Tritt

Some pairs of words—for various reasons—give us headaches. Sometimes it’s because they are spelled similarly; sometimes it’s because they have common tenses; and sometimes it’s because the rules have changed somewhere along the way. And sometimes it’s because certain words simply are born like that. 

I’ve made a list of the brats I see most often, as well as the tools you need to keep that problem child on his or her best behavior. 

Further/Farther – Without further ado, let me state the not-so-obvious: further and farther are not swappable—they are not synonyms. Further (as in “further ado”) refers to ideas. Farther (which contains the word “far” in it—hint, hint, hint) refers to distance. So, we travel farther to further our growth as humans. 

I’m convinced these next two sets of twins delight in getting each other in trouble. Because the first pair contains a word that isn’t a word, and since this pair is similar in construction to the subsequent pair, we become confused and believe it’s already that isn’t a word. But already is a word! Here’s how to keep these little rascals separated and behaving: 

Alright/All right – Alright is never all right. Alright is not a word. Therefore, you don’t have to remember the differences between these words. You only have to remember that alright is never all right. 

Already/All ready – Already is an adverb that means “prior to a specific time.” All ready is a term that means “completely prepared.” “I’m all ready to go.” “Too late now. We’ve already left.” 

Lay/Lie/Lie – If you have trouble with these troublesome triplets, you’re not alone. They have kept writers awake well past bedtime. Here’s their story:

Lay means “to put” or “to set.” “I’m going to lay my lunch on the table.” Lay is a transitive verb, which means it requires an object (this book).

Lie means “to recline or rest.” “I’m going to lie down for a bit.” Lie is an intransitive verb, which means it does not require an object—the action occurs to the subject of the sentence. 

Now, we can complicate this situation a bit more by adding a different definition of lie—the one that means “telling a fib.”

But it’s when we look at their tenses that we grow tense, so let’s perform a simple conjugation of these verbs:

 
Lay
Lie
Lie
Definition
To put or set
To recline or rest
To fib
Present tense
Lay
Lie
Lie
Past tense
Laid
Lay
Lied
Past participle
Has laid
Has lain
Has lied
Present participle
Is laying
Is lying
Is lying

If you look through the various tenses, you’ll see the past tense of lay is laid. And the past tense of lie is lay. Yes. Lay. So now you understand the problem with these problem children. If you need to, print this little chart and keep it next to your computer—or save it to your “things to remember” document (you do have one of those, right?). 

Affect/Effect – These are the hooligans who have caused me the most trouble. I think the reason is because I grew up in West Virginia, where it’s common for folks to pronounce these two words the same. But they surely are not. Affect is a verb meaning “to influence or make a difference to.” Effect is usually a noun and means “a result or influence.” Of course, the powers that be have mixed it up a little to keep us on our toes, so effect can also be used as a verb meaning “to bring something about as a result.” And the effect of that decision continues to affect us today. 

Then/Than – These imps behave badly throughout the world, but in some areas of the country, they are pronounced the same—and that makes our intuitive feeling for a word lose its intuition. Then is usually used as an adverb and refers to time. Than is a conjunction that shows comparison. If you experience problems with these little guys, practice pronouncing them correctly. If you do that consistently, then they’ll behave much better than they did in the past. 

Lose/Loose – Again, I believe the problem we have with these guys is based upon pronunciation. Lose rhymes with blues and means “to misplace something” (and you’ll have the blues if you lose something important). Loose rhymes with caboose and is an adjective that means “not tight”: if the pants on your caboose are too loose, you might lose them. Easy peasy, right? Well, fasten your seatbelts, because we’re going to race right past these guys to the next disturbing duo.

Past/Passed – These evil urchins are pronounced exactly the same—and that’s only the beginning of their orneriness. The word past has several meanings, but it usually refers to “time before the present” or indicates “movement from one side of a reference point to the other side of that point.” Past can be used as an adjective, an adverb, a noun or a preposition. 

The word passed is the past tense of the verb “to pass.” To pass often means to move past, and this is where we get confused by this pair’s antics. Of note, to pass can also mean to race past, to fly past, to sprint past or to any-other-movement-verb past. To help keep these twins in their appropriate corners, remember this: if you’ve already used a verb that indicates motion, you’ll want to use past and not passed.  

Its/It’s – It’s always its—unless you can substitute the word “it is” for the “its.” In that case, you need the apostrophe to show the missing letter—no missing letter, no apostrophe. 

I realize these represent just a few of the delinquents who taunt us. What problem children provoke you while you’re writing? Be sure to comment below or email us at IFWeditors@gmail.com and we’ll be happy to address your concern. If we get enough comments, we’ll run another blog on the subject. 

If you have a multitude of miscreants, please consider hiring one of our supernannies—er, I mean, editors—to get those brats back in line. You don’t want your reader or potential agent/publisher to be the first to scowl at your problem child.