Many of the words you use in your blog could be, well…
wrong.
Should you use advice or advise?
How about affect or effect?
Then there’s everyday and every day.
Aaaaaagh!?!?
Dear reader, instead of running off to Google every time you’re unsure we have scoured the lexicon library to help clarify, demystify, enlighten and sort through 21 words that often get misused and abused.
Here we go with our list of incorrectly used words…
1. Advise and advice
First,
advise is a verb – the act of giving, while
advice is a noun – what you give. A quickest test is to say your sentence out loud, like:
“I went to the coach to get advise.”
2. Affect and effect
Not only do these two sound similar they are very often confused (fortunately most people don’t know the difference.) A simple distinction is to use
effect if you are making the change happen and
affect if you are helping make the change happen. For example:
“The CEO’s decision effected a major change in direction.” And
“What she said affected my decision to go ahead.”
3. Everyday and every day
This is an easy one to mix up. Doing something
every day means you do it every single day, like drinking coffee in the morning.
Meanwhile,
everyday means commonplace or normal, like hearing sirens is an
everyday event.
4. Along and long
This is an easy one to clarify.
Along means moving in a constant direction, like
“I was moving along the highway.” While
long means a great distance or duration, like
“The highway was long and boring.”
5. A while and awhile
This is a tricky one. First, the difference between
while and
awhile is easy to spot.
While refers
to a period of time
“We talked for a while.”
The word
awhile means
for a period of time
“He waited awhile for his appointment.” Whereas
a while can only be used to replace
while – a longer period of time.
6. Any way and anyway
Anyway means “nonetheless” or “regardless” as in:
“I knew I had to get work done, but checked Facebook anyway.” You can also use
anyway to connect a story that’s continuing:
“Anyway, I was describing how to write a better blog post…”
Any way means a variety of ways of doing something, or in any manner.
“I had so much to get done I tackled my list any way possible.”
Anyway, let’s get onto #7.
7. Fewer and less
Here’s a trick for this one: use
fewer when referring to items you can count, like
“fewer homes” or “fewer car sales.”
Use
less when referring to items you can’t count, like “time”, or “income.” There are some conventions with
fewer and
less: we tend to use
less with time, money and weight.
8. Insure and ensure
This is an easy one to remember:
insure refers only to insurance.
Ensure means to make sure. So you might want to
ensure you are
insured.
9. Irregardless and regardless
This is an easy fix: don’t use
irregardless. You might find
irregardless in text (and certainly hear some well-meaning folks use the word), but it’s not commonly accepted and just sounds wrong.
10. Principle and principal
My trick to remembering the difference between these is that my
Principal at school should be my “pal” or friend, as in
principal. Whereas
principle is a guideline or rule:
“…basic scientific principles.”
Principal can also refer to the amount borrowed on a load, the most important item in a particular set
“The principal account makes up 65 percent of our revenues.”
11. Stationary and stationery
This is an easy one: you write on
stationery. When something doesn’t move it is
stationary.
12. It’s and its
It’s is a contraction of
it is or
it has. Use
it’s to move a sentence along and to give a more casual feeling to your writing.
Its is about possession
“The store increased its prices.” An easy test is to try removing the apostrophe and see how it sounds: “It’s raining” becomes “It is raining.” (which sounds better).
By the way, there is no use for
its’.
13. They’re and their
This is similar to #12 and many other incorrectly used words,
they’re is a contraction of they are, whereas
their is all about ownership.
14. Who’s and whose
Who’s is a contraction that means either
who is or
who has.
“Do you know someone who’s living in California?”
Whose is possessive.
“You and whose army?”
15. You’re and your
Here’s another contraction and one you probably get right:
you’re and
your.
You’re means
you are and
your is about ownership “Your car.” “Your home.” So,
“If you’re going to your home to get your car you’re doing the right thing!”
16. Accept and except
Here’s an easy one…
These two words sound the same but are quite different:
accept is to receive,
except signifies and exclusion. So
“I accept the offer, except I won’t want it for another month.”
17. In regard to
The only distinction to note here is that the expression
In regard to is singular. To write
“In regards to” is incorrect.
18. Ironic vs. Coincidental
Here’s an interesting distinction: if something happens at the same time
“I was about to go see her when she showed up at my house.” that’s a coincidence. But, when there’s a reversal involved, like
“When we returned from our trip to Mexico we learned the weather was actually better at home.” That’s ironic.
Comedian Ed Byrne writing about Alanis Morisette’s song, Ironic:
“The only ironic thing about that song is it’s called ‘Ironic’ and it’s written by a woman who doesn’t know what irony is. That’s quite ironic.”
19. Imply vs. Infer
“The
implier is the pitcher; the
inferrer is the catcher.” Theodore Bernstein,
The Careful Writer
To
imply is to say something indirectly, like:
“The host implied it was time to leave by saying she was tired.” To
infer is to gather, deduce, or figure out.
“We inferred it was time to leave by the host’s actions.”
The way to remember this one is: a speaker/writer
implies, while the listener/reader
infers.
20. Adverse and Averse
To be
adverse is rarely used to describe people, but more commonly to describe events, effects, trends in the economy, changes in weather, etc:
“The new medication has no adverse impacts on health.”
Averse describes people and means to feel opposed or disinclined.
“We are not averse to holding another meeting.”
21. Irrespective and respective
Irrespective is not just the opposite of
respective. Their meanings are completely different.
Irrespective of means
regardless of as in
“he continued to blog irrespective of how many readers he had.”
Whereas,
respective means relating to two more more things individually”, as in
“We all met for lunch and then returned to our respective offices.”
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Great reminder on composition, I really needed to check these common mistakes. There are some I know I’ve made.