Category Archives: homophone

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!

Grammar 101: Grammar Jargon

by
Jessica Nelson




The world of editing and writing is fraught with fancy-schmancy jargon and technical terms. We learned many of these years ago in our English classes. We know what they are and how they are used—we just forget what they are called. So, today I am giving you a crash course in grammar jargon with help from the IFW editors and The Little, Brown Essential Handbook by Jane E. Aaron.

First, we will start with classic grammar terms no one actually remembers despite using them almost every day.

 

Gerunds: the –ingform of a verb used as a noun; usually proceeded by a possessive noun/pronoun. Ex. My husband is annoyed by my nightly snoring.

Present participle: the –ing form of a verb (and used as a verb). Ex. Since the weather is nice, Susie is working in the garden today.

Past participle: the –edform of a verb. Ex. Rhonda graded so many undergraduate composition papers that she lost her faith in humanity’s ability to write correctly.

Ellipsis: a series of three periods, each separated by a space; looks like “. . .”; used to denote an omission of words, phrases, or entire sentences in nonfiction, and, in fiction, denotes the trailing off of a thought or a long pause. If the ellipsis occurs at the end of a sentence, the sentence-ending period is also included, creating a series of four periods separated by spaces (“. . . .”). Ex. Leila looked at the giant red F on the top of her paper. “But . . . I thought I did well . . .”

Comma splice: when two main clauses are joined (or spliced) only by a comma, rather than a comma and conjunction. Ex. We loved the movie, the actors were okay. Should be: We loved the movie, but the actors were okay.

Homophone: words that sound exactly alike but have different meanings. Ex. principal/principle. The former is the head of administration at a school. The latter is “a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine, or assumption” (Definitions curtesy of Merriam-Webster online).

Homonym: a word that has multiple, different meanings. Ex. “fair.” We had an excellent time at the fair. vs. It’s not fair that my brother always gets what he wants.

Indefinite pronoun: a word that replaces a noun but does not refer to a specific person or thing; may be plural (e.g. both, few, many), plural or singular (e.g. all, any, none, some), or only singular (e.g. anyone, everyone, someone).

Misplaced modifier: A modifier modifies the noun closest to it. A modifier is considered misplaced if it modifies a different noun in a sentence. Ex. Ginger ate potatoes, mushrooms, and rice for dinner, lying on the sofa. “Lying on the sofa” is misplaced. As written, it modifies “dinner,” but it should modify Ginger. To correct, we’d write: Lying on the sofa, Ginger ate potatoes, mushrooms, and rice for dinner.

Dangling modifier: doesn’t sensibly modify anything in its sentence; may imply a subject, but does not explicitly name one, making the actual subject unclear. Ex. Walking down the street, the renovations to the neighborhood became apparent. This should say: As we walked down the street, the renovations to the neighborhood became apparent.

Synecdoche: figurative language that uses a part to represent the whole. Ex. using “the crown” to represent the monarchy or “a dollar” to represent money.

 

Now, we’re going to explain some terms you may have never heard before. That said, I’m sure you’ll be surprised to find you know what they are.

 
Bildungsroman: a coming-of-age story. Ex. pretty much any YA or teen novel.

Pastiche: a patchwork story; pieces taken from other authors’ works; generally refers to a paper with plagiarized parts. Ex. This blog (sort of), which uses term definitions from The Little, Brown Handbook, Merriam-Webster, and the lovely ladies at Inspiration for Writers, Inc., is a pastiche.

Head-hopping: a type of point of view breach; when the viewpoint character changes within a scene without first having a transition and invitation to foster that change; in the words of Sandy Tritt, “All head-hops are point-of-view breaches, but not all point-of-view breaches are head-hops. (If you would like more information about this, we are happy to send our tip sheet on “Point of View,” which also includes ways to avoid head-hopping.) Ex. Mike sat on the bench and wondered where his future would lead. To the army? To college? To that hot barista’s apartment? Jack stared at Mike’s melting ice cream cone, and wondered how hard Mike would punch him for stealing it.

 

Any of this ringing a bell? I hope so! Hopefully, next time you sit down with a writing buddy or one of our editors, and he/she starts jargon dropping, you’ll be able to keep up.

Was this helpful? Are there other grammar/literature/writing terms you know you know but don’t know what they’re called? Or any you want us to explain?  Let us know in the comments, and maybe we’ll do another blog like this one.