accede, exceed adverse, averse

Accede means to agree, to Adverse means inauspicious,

allow; exceed means to go beyond, to hostile; averse means disinclined,
surpass, as in repelled.
“Drivers who exceed the speed limit are “I’m very much averse to making a long,
asking for hefty fines.” arduous journey under such adverse
weather conditions.”
accept, except
advice, advise
Not commonly seen even from
unpublished writers, who are probably
Advice is the noun and advise the verb.
familiar with the difference because
“His advice was that we should advise
they’re all waiting for an acceptance!
everybody to either stay away or be
“We accept your invitation to your party,
extremely careful.”
except for Bill, who will be away on that
day.”
affect, effect
However, I recently saw (on a Affect is a verb; effect is more usually a
publisher’s web site!) the statement, noun. When used as a verb it means to
“We are excepting submissions … ” Can achieve, fulfil, realise.
you believe it? “Bad weather will affect the quality of the
fruit.”
adapt, adept, adopt “The effect of bad weather is a reduction
in fruit quality.”
Adapt means to adjust, adept means I can’t think of any sentence using effect
skilled and adopt means to take as your as a verb where one of the other three
own: mentioned above wouldn’t be a much
“Some people cannot adapt to new better choice, but perhaps a politician
surroundings.” might say, “To effect our goal of saving
“He is very adept at dodging awkward 10%…”
questions.”
“He tends to adopt the attitudes of those aloud, allowed
around him.”
Aloud means out loud, speaking so that
addition, edition someone else can hear
you; allowed means permitted.
I saw this confusion on a review on
amazon.com—“a nice edition to the
series”. Obviously the writer meant
altar, alter
addition. However, if one person can get
these confused, maybe others do Altar is the table in a
too. Addition is something that is church; alter means to change.
added; edition is a particular version,
issue or publication of a book, play, etc. already, all ready
Already means by this time; all This is quite tricky. Anyone means
ready means prepared. anybody, any person at all; any
“Are you already packed?” one means any one person and is
“Yes, I’m all ready to leave.” followed by “of”.
“Does anyone else want to come?”
altogether, all together “Any one of you is welcome to come
along.”
Altogether means wholly; all
together means everybody in a group: appraise, apprise
“It’s altogether too bad that you can’t
come.” Appraise is to assess or
“All together, now: ‘Good morning, Sir!’” estimate. Apprise is to inform or notify:
“I will appraise the situation and
all right, alright immediately apprise everybody of my
conclusions.”
All right is the correct form; alright is Please don’t make your character say or
grammatically incorrect. write anything like this, though—unless
you want him to sound like a pompous
allude, elude twit!
Allude means to refer to; elude means
to dodge or escape. ascent, assent

allusion, illusion Ascent is an upward

movement; assent means agreement.
Allusion is an indirect reference or
hint; illusion means deception or assistance, assistants
mirage.
Assistance means help or
all ways, always aid; assistants is the plural of assistant,
one who gives help.
All ways means by every way or
method; always means all the time, assure, ensure, insure
forever.
Assure means to
guarantee; ensure means to make
amoral, immoral sure; insure means to protect against
loss or damage:
amoral describes someone who has no “I assure you there’s no call for alarm.”
morals; immoral describes someone “To ensure your crockery doesn’t get
with low morals. broken, wrap it all in bubble wrap.”
“In case of breakage or loss, you should
annual, annul insure everything with a good insurance
company.”
Annual means yearly; annul means to
make void or invalid.
auger, augur
anyone, any one Auger is a tool; augur means to predict.
baited, bated Bore as a noun is a boring or tiresome
person, or something that you don’t like
Baited usually refers to traps or snares. doing; boar is a male pig; boor is a
When the reference is to someone who vulgar person.
is hardly daring to breathe, the correct
word is always bated: board, bored
“She watched with bated breath.”
I’ve yet to read that someone “bated a Board is a long sheet of wood, also a
trap” instead of baiting it, but there’s group of people as in “Board of
always a first time. Directors”, and as a verb means to go
onto a ship, plane or other form of public
bare, bear transport; bored means not interested.

Bare means naked; bear (apart from born, borne

being a large animal) means to carry.
Born is always the beginning of
bazaar, bizarre life, borne means carried.
“I was born in the middle of a particularly
Bazaar is an exhibition or severe winter.”
fair; bizarre means weird, grotesque, “The logs were borne down the river to
alien. the mill.”

berth, birth bought, brought

Berth is a place to sleep on a boat or Bought is the past tense of
ship; birth is the beginning (usually of buy, brought is the past tense of bring.
life). So, I bought (paid for) a load of topsoil,
and a truck driver brought (delivered) it
beside, besides to my home.
Beside means by the side
of; besides means in addition to. braise, braze
Braise means to cook slowly in liquid
biannual, biennial (usually meat); braze most commonly
means to solder with an alloy of copper
These two are really
and zinc.
tricky! Biannual means happening twice
a year; biennial means every two years.
brake, break
blonde, blond Brake means to stop; break means to
smash.
Because these are borrowed from
French there is a feminine and
masculine form. Blonde is feminine bridal, bridle
and blond is masculine. Bridal has to do with brides and
weddings; bridle as a noun means a
bore, boar, boor halter or restraint; as a verb it means to
restrain or to draw oneself up in anger.
by, buy, bye harmful in some way, though movies
these days are more likely to be given a
By is a preposition meaning next rating instead; as a noun it refers to the
to; buy means purchase; bye means official who does the
farewell or good-bye. censoring. Sensor is something that
senses (for instance a burglar alarm has
canvas, canvass many sensors: for movement, body
heat, etc.)
Canvas is cloth or
fabric; canvass means to seek votes, to
survey, to sell door-to-door. coarse, course, cause

capital, capitol It didn’t occur to me that these could be

confused until I saw “of cause” instead
Capital means the seat of government; of “of course”. Coarse means rough-
money invested; excellent, as in “What a textured or scratchy; large (as in coarse
capital idea!”. Capitol is the building gravel); heavy and ugly (as in coarse
where government meets, although in features); loutish, vulgar, crude,
New Zealand that’s simply called The improper. Course (apart from its use in
Beehive. “of course”) is a noun meaning: route,
track, a raceway; progression,
caught, court development; plan, plan of action; a
programme of study; a schedule or
Caught is the past tense of
sequence. Cause as a noun means
catch. Court is a place where criminals
origins, beginnings; grounds,
are tried; a place where ball games are
justification; an ideal or belief; a case or
played; a royal household or residence.
lawsuit. As a verb it means lead to,
As a verb it means to curry favour, to
result in, make happen.
strive for or seek; or (in relationship
terms) to date someone of the opposite
gender. collaborate, corroborate
Collaborate means to work with
cereal, serial someone; corroborate means to
Cereal is something you might eat for establish the truth of something.
breakfast, such as porridge. Serial is
something in a series; something that compliment, complement
continues one after another, as in a Compliment means praise or
weekly instalment of chapters from a congratulate. You always pay someone
book. a compliment, not a
complement.Complement means to
censor, sensor supplement, round out. Mustard
complements ham, for instance, by
Censor as a verb means to officially “rounding out” the flavour.
inspect and make deletions or changes
(in books, letters, movies, etc.) usually continual, continuous
because the deleted or changed
material is regarded as offensive or
Continual means something that criteria, criterion
happens frequently, with breaks
between the Criterion is singular; criteria is plural.
occurrences. Continuous means
something that happens without curb, kerb
stopping!
Curb means to control, as in “curb your
“Continual interruptions distract me from
temper”, while kerb is the edge of a
writing.”
footpath or sidewalk.
“The continuous noise of the motor
mower distracts me from writing.”
currant, current
co-operation, corporation Currant is a fruit, usually
dried. Current as an adjective means
Co-operation (usually spelt without the
contemporary, fashionable; as a noun it
hyphen in US English) means working
means stream, flow.
together; corporation is a business
organisation.
desert, dessert
copyright, copywrite Desert means to abandon (and can also
be a noun, meaning a
Copyright is the legal ownership of a
wasteland); dessert is the sweet course
book, film, play, piece of artwork,
of a meal.
musical composition, etc, or the right to
print, publish, film, record or perform
them; copywrite is something you do if
device, devise
you are creating advertising or publicity Device is a noun, meaning a gadget or
material. (particularly in writing terms) an
invention; devise is a verb, meaning to
correspondence, invent or plot.
correspondents
discreet, discrete
Correspondence is written
communication; correspondents are Discreet means respectful,
those who write it. prudent; discrete means separate or
detached from others.
creak, creek
draft, draught
Creak is both a noun and a verb and
means squeak or groan (for instance, Draft refers to the first writing of your
rusty hinges and loose floorboards novel or story (or any other document).
creak);creek is a noun and means a You can also be drafted (enlisted or
waterway or stream. recruited) into the army, navy, etc.
Draught is an air movement, a drink (as
credible, creditable in “draught of ale”) or refers to a horse
(or other animal) used for pulling
Credible means ploughs, etc (e.g., “draught horse”).
believable; creditable means
praiseworthy or deserving credit. elicit, illicit
Elicit means to extract or draw The most common error is the use
out; illicit means not legal. of phase when the writer means faze.
To faze someone is to fluster or confuse
eminent, imminent them, whereas phase is mostly used in
reference to a stage in someone’s life—
Eminent means distinguished, though it can be a stage in almost
famous; imminent means near, close at anything else:
hand. “Like most children, Danny’s going
through a phase of refusing to eat his
everyday, every day vegetables.”
“Nothing fazes my mother, who can
Everyday means commonplace,
produce a meal for unexpected guests
ordinary; every day is used for
at a moment’s notice.”
something that happens daily.

everyone, every one flare, flair

Flare means to flash or blaze and (as a
Everyone means every person in a
noun) is a pyrotechnic
group; every one means each person
device; flair means ability or skill.
and is always followed by “of”.
“Everyone needs to know how to swim.”
“Every one of you should be able to forbear, forebear
swim.” Forbear means to refrain
from; forebear is an ancestor or
fair, fare forefather.
Fair means average, good-looking, pale,
unbiased (what a lot of meanings for foreword, forward
one little word!); fare is the money you Foreword is the preface in a book,
pay to go somewhere by bus, train, usually written by someone who is not
plane, taxi, etc. It can also refer to a the author; forward means ahead, near
passenger. As a verb it means do, as in: the front.
“I didn’t fare as well in my exams this
year as I’d hoped.” forth, fourth
farther, further Forth means forward; fourth is after
“third”.
Farther is used for physical
distance; further for non-physical. For foul, fowl
instance:
The farther we walked the more hostile Foul can mean dishonourable (by foul
the terrain became. means), disgusting (a foul smell),
I promised to give the plan further entangle (rubbish dumped in the river
thought. can foul fishing lines); fowl is a bird.

faze, phase found, founded

Found is the past tense of sentence!) I’ve even seen “Here! Here!”
find; founded means started, as in “My when the writer wasn’t having a
great grandfather founded this company character call another character, but
nearly a hundred years ago.” was expressing support for a real
person!
gibe, jibe
hoard, horde
Gibe means to taunt; jibe means to
agree, correspond or tally; in boating it Hoard means to stockpile and as a
means to shift the sails. noun it is a cache of stockpiled
stuff; horde is a large group.
gorilla, guerrilla
hole, whole
Gorilla is a large ape; guerrilla is a
particular kind of soldier. Hole is an opening; whole means
complete.
hail, hale
home, hone
Hail means to greet or to come from (as
in “She hails from Texas”) and as a
In this case the error is always using
noun it is frozen raindrops; hale means
“hone in” instead of “home
healthy or (as a verb) to haul.
in”. Hone means to sharpen.
hanged, hung
idle, idol
A criminal is always hanged; a picture
is hung: Idle means inactive, lazy; idol is
“We hung the portrait where everybody something that is worshipped or (in the
could see it.” case of a person) looked up to as a
“John Smith was hanged yesterday at hero.
dawn.”
Just remember, “I’ll be hanged if they’re immemorial, immortal
going to hang me,” and you won’t forget
the difference again! Immemorial means ancient beyond
memory (as in the cliché “since time
herd, heard immemorial”); immortal means
Herd is a group of animals; heard is the deathless, eternal.
past tense of hear.
incite, insight
here, hear Incite is a verb that means to stir up;
Here refers to a location (as in “over encourage: “Talk like this is likely to
here”). Hear is always what your ears incite a riot.” Insight is a noun meaning
do. I can’t see why writers should get intuition; awareness; understanding.
confused here, but they must do
because I have seen this more than intolerable, intolerant
once. (And, no, that’s not a sample
Intolerable means tiring, onerous entry in it again.”
crushing; intolerant means biased, In present tense the sentence would
prejudiced. Someone cannot be read, “She sighs as she lays the visitors’
intolerable of another’s beliefs. book beside the pen and lies back,
wondering if she will ever make an entry
irregardless, regardless in it again.”
BUT “I sigh as I lay the visitors’ book
There is no such word as irregardless; beside the pen and lie back, wondering
the correct word is regardless if I will ever make an entry in it again.”
(In practice, I would probably write I
its, it’s place/placed and she places/placed. It’s
This is confusing because possessives so much less confusing, not to mention
normally have an apostrophe, but in this less repetitive!)
case it’s is short for it is and its is “It lay on the desk beside an open
possessive—always. book.” Present tense would read, “It lies
“Its colour is green and it’s quite on the desk beside an open book.”
beautiful.” “Our hens lay every day.”
Other possessives that don’t have an “The hens laid ten eggs yesterday.”
apostrophe are theirs, hers, yours and
his—though I doubt anyone is likely to lay, lie
try putting one in his! When these two are confused it’s
usually because the writer is in the
knew, new wrong tense for a word that means
knew is the past tense of know; new is recline. “I am going to lay down because
the opposite of old. I don’t feel well” or “I am going to lay on
my bed and read” are both incorrect; the
later, latter word should be lie. In the second
sentence it sounds as though the writer
Later means afterwards; latter is the is going to lay an egg as well as read! In
second of two things. past tense, however, the correct usage
“Later that day we went for a walk.” is “I lay down because I didn’t feel well”
“We have two choices. The latter is the and “I lay on my bed and read”.
more reliable, but the former would be
cheaper.” lead, led
lay, laid Lead (pronounced led) is a heavy metal
or (pronounced leed) the present tense
This pair confuses writers almost more of led. So:
than any other. “He opens the door for me and I lead the
“He lay on his bed.” Although this guests upstairs to their rooms.”
sentence is past tense, “laid” would be “He opened the door for me and I led
incorrect and suggests he was laying the guests upstairs to their rooms.”
eggs.
“She sighed as she laid the visitors’ lend, loan
book beside the pen and lay back
wondering if she would ever make an
Lend is a verb meaning to give manner, manor
something temporarily to
someone; loan is a noun, meaning the I saw this pair confused in an email (“all
temporary transfer of something to manor of complaints”) and figured if one
someone else. So, “Dad, can you loan person could get them confused others
me a few dollars until pay day?” is could too. Manner means method,
incorrect. appearance, class, character; manor is
strictly a large, stately house.
lessen, lesson
mantel, mantle
Lessen means to make less; lesson is
something you learn. Mantel is the shelf above a fireplace, or
the fireplace surrounding; mantle is a
liable, libel cloak or blanket.

Liable means subject to, answerable for marshal, marshall

or likely; libel is written (as opposed to
spoken) untruths about someone, for Marshal is a military officer or a
which you may be taken to court. sheriff; marshall is a verb meaning to
“He is liable to sudden attacks of ill muster, usher, guide; align, array,
temper for no apparent reason.” organise.
“Politicians should be made liable for
their bad decisions.” maybe, may be
“Pollen is liable to cause hay fever or
Another tricky one, best explained by
even asthma attacks in certain
demonstration:
individuals.”
“Maybe you could explain this to us a
little clearer.”
licence, license “It may be a good idea to give us a
In British usage, licence is always the clearer explanation of this.”
noun and license the verb.
meet, mete, meat
lightening, lightning
The two more often confused are meet
Lightening means making lighter or and mete. Meet means to encounter
brighter; lightning (which is always a (and can also mean fit or
noun) is what comes out of the sky, suitable); metemeans to allot, apportion
usually followed by a crack of thunder. or distribute; meat refers to flesh as
food.
lose, loose
Lose always means mislaying or moat, mote
dropping something and not being able
to find it, while loose means slack or Somebody found this confusion
free: in Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. Moat is
“If the fastening on your wrist-watch is a deep, wide ditch surrounding a castle,
loose (slack) you may lose your watch.” fort or town. Usually filled with water, it is
intended as a defence against
attack. Mote is a tiny piece of “In times past it was the custom for
substance, as in motes of dust that can women to wear hats in church.”
show up in a sunbeam. Apparently
Meyer had written “dust moats”. peace, piece
Peace means the absence of war (or
mute, moot even noise); piece is a portion of
Mute as a verb means to silence or something.
quieten down, as a noun it’s a little
gadget used by string players pedalled, peddled
(particularly violinists) to soften the
Pedalled is the past tense of pedal,
sound from their instruments. As an
which as a verb means to use your feet
adjective it means dumb or making no
to turn the pedals on something, such as
sound, as in “He looked at me in mute
a bicycle, to make it move; or to operate
appeal.” Moot means debatable. So, it’s
the sustaining and/or soft pedals on a
a “moot point” not a “mute point”.
piano, or the lower keys on an
organ;peddled is the past tense of
no, know peddle, which means to sell.
Strange that these two should get
peer, pier
confused, but they do. No is always the
opposite of yes; know is to be certain Peer as a noun means a person who is
(that you know the difference!) your equal and as a verb it means to
squint or look obliquely at
none, nun something;pier is a type of wharf or
dock. Two other words that sound
I could hardly believe my eyes when I similar are pear (a fruit) and pare (to
read “and nun at the top” instead of “and peel) but I haven’t seen any instances
none at the top”. A nun is strictly a where these have been confused.
woman belonging to a religious
community. When you mean “not any” plain, plane
the spelling is none.
Plain means obvious, also unadorned or
overdo, overdue lacking in good looks; plane is a
carpenter’s tool or an abbreviation of
It baffles me that people get these mixed aeroplane.
up, but they do. Overdo means to
exaggerate or carry something too patience, patients
far;overdue is what your bills are when
you forget to pay them! Patience means
forbearance; patients are people under
passed, past medical care.

Passed is the past tense of peek, pique, peak

pass. Past means a time that has gone.
“Time passed and we all forgot the Pique means to excite or
incident.” irritate; peek means to peep or
snoop; peak as a noun means the Presence means being near at
summit or tip, and as a verb means to hand; presents are gifts.
climax. So, you pique someone’s
curiosity; you don’t peek or peak it. If principal, principle
someone annoys you, you become
piqued rather than peeked or peaked. Principal means chief or main, also the
amount borrowed in a
perspective, prospective loan; principle means regulations or
ideals.
These two sound only vaguely alike yet “The principal reason for the company’s
seem to get failure was lack of money.” (or)
confused. Perspective means point of “The new principal is making a real
view; also panorama; prospective difference to our school.”
means future, inevitable, destined. “We are paying both principal and
interest each month on our mortgage.”
pour, pore, poor “She is completely without principles
and would steal from her own mother.”
You pour sauces, gravies, etc, over “The principle of a clause like this in
your dinner, while pore means to study your employment contract is to protect
something—so, “pore over the book”, you against unfair dismissal.”
not “pour over the book”, which reads
as though you might be damaging the profit, prophet
book with an unnamed liquid substance!
Poor is what you are when you don’t Profit means gain, earnings, advantage,
earn enough money, but I’ve seen it and is usually associated with business.
used when the writer meant pour. A prophet is a seer, a diviner. I saw this
mix-up in a writer’s group, of all places!
practice, practise “What doth it profit a man if he gains the
whole world, but loseth his soul?”
In British usage, practice is always the “A prophet is without honour in his own
noun and practise the verb. country.”

pray, prey quiet, quite

Pray is usually what you do when you Quiet means without noise; quite when
talk to God; prey as a verb means to used in fiction usually means
hunt, to stalk,; as a noun it means the moderately, but can also mean totally or
subject of the hunt. entirely. Use of the wrong word here
could, of course, simply be a typing error
premise, premises that went unnoticed in the proof-reading
Premise usually means assumption, stages!
supposition, while premises means an
apartment, house or building and its rain, reign, rein
grounds. Rain is the water that comes down from
clouds; reign means to rule; rein is a
presence, presents strap, usually leather, for controlling an
animal, especially a horse.
raise, raze order stated.
“The containers stood in a row and were
These two are exact numbered 1, 3, 2, 5 and 4 respectively”
opposites. Raise means to lift or build means they were standing in this order
up and raze means to pull down: rather than numerical order.
“We will raise the reputation of our
village to new heights.” retch, wretch
“He instructed his army to raze the
village to the ground.” Retch means to gag or try to
vomit; wretch is a grovelling person, a
rapt, rapped, wrapped creep.

Rapt means enchanted, rifle, riffle

engrossesd; rapped is the past tense of
rap, to hit or criticise; wrapped is the Rifle (apart from being a firearm) means
past tense of wrap, to coat or enfold. to steal; riffle means to leaf through or
browse. So your character doesn’t
reality, realty rifle through someone’s belongings and
only rifles them if stealing them.
Reality is real life; realty is real estate.
right, rite, write
reference, reverence
Right means correct; rite is a
I don’t know if this confusion is common. ceremony, usually
I didn’t even realise the words could be religious; write means to make words.
confused until I saw one wrongly used in
something written by … a writer! Maybe road, rode
it was just a typing error. Reference is
something referred to,reverence means Road is a long surface for cars and
respect. other vehicles; rode is the past tense of
ride.
regimen, regiment
role, roll
Regimen is a noun and is mostly used
to refer to to a prescribed way of life, or Role is a part in a play or film; roll as a
diet or exercise. It is also the action of noun is a document or something that is
governing. Regiment as a verb means cylindrical in shape and as a verb it
to direct, command; as a noun it refers means to make something into a
to a military unit. cylindrical shape, to turn or spin:

residence, residents sale, sail

Residence is a house; residents are Sale is either offering something for
the people who live there. purchase (“for sale”) or offering it at a
special price (“on sale”); sail is part of a
respectfully, respectively ship or boat.

Respectfully means scene, seen

politely; respectively means in the
Scene is the place where something shore, sure
happens; seen is the past participle of
see. Shore as verb means to brace or
“Yet he had seen nothing suspicious at support; as a noun it is usually a beach
the scene of the accident.” (Of course but can also be a support or a
you wouldn’t write a sentence like that; brace; sure means certain, confident.
the two words make for a clumsy So you do not sure up a company by
combination. I would probably replace borrowing more capital; you shore it up.
“scene” with “site”.)
singly, singularly
seam, seem Singly means individually, one-by-
Seam is most often used to refer to the one; singularly means strangely,
joining of two pieces of fabric with uniquely. I found the wrong use of this
thread, but it can refer to other types of pair on a writer’s site, where singularly
joins; seem means appear: “He makes it was used instead of singly, and figured if
seem so easy to do.” one person could get it wrong so could
others.
sell, cell
site, sight, cite
Sell is to exchange for money; cell is a
small room (invariably lacking in Site always refers to location or place:
comfort); also an organism (as in “stem building site; archaeology site.
cells”); the small divisions in something “We will site the house to take
large such as a container or a table in a advantage of the panoramic views.”
web page or word-processed document. Sight always refers to vision, as in the
cliché “a sight for sore eyes”.
sever, severe “We sighted two horsemen coming over
the hill.”
Sever means to separate, “It was a sight I would never forget.”
detach; severe means grim, stern. “She feared she might lose her sight.”
Cite means to summon, or to refer to a
serf, surf source, as in the following sentences:
“I was cited as a witness to the
Serf means slave or servant; surf is a
accident.”
wave and as a verb is also the action of
“He cited in his defence an incident in
riding the waves on a board or using a
which these same people were
computer to find something on the
involved.”
Internet.

shear, sheer sleight-of-hand, slight-of-

hand
Shear means to cut or
clip; sheer means transparent (as in It occurred to me that these could be
“sheer nylon hosiery”); steep (as in “a confused only when an editor changed
sheer drop”); total or absolute (as in my “sleight-of-hand” to “slight-of-hand”,
“sheer stupidity”). making me wonder how come I had
made such a mistake. The latter is
definitely incorrect; it suggests hands kind. Sought is the past tense of seek
that are slender rather than deft or and it’s what these sellers meant when
skilful, which is what the word sleight they claimed the article they were selling
means. was “sort after”.

slither, sliver stationary, stationery

A colleague found these words Stationary means standing
constantly confused in a book published still. Stationery refers to writing paper.
by a big-name publisher. Slither means
to slip, slide; sliver is a noun, meaning a statue, statute, stature
thin piece, such as a flake, paring or
chip. Statue is a carved or moulded
likeness; statute is law; stature means
some time, sometime height or status.

This is a common confusion. Some straight, strait

time is a period of time
and sometime means at some time not Straight means without bends; strait is
specified. a passage of water.
“Some time ago you promised to
introduce me to your brother.” taut, taught, taunt
“Sometime when you’re not busy we Taut means tight, firm; taught is the
must do this again.” past tense of teach; taunt equals jeer,
insult.
sole, soul
tenant, tenet
Sole as an adjective means single, as in
“the sole cause of the problem”; as a Tenant is one who rents a
noun it is a type of fish and the under property; tenet is a principle or belief.
part of a foot or a shoe. Soul generally
refers to the invisible part of you that there, their, they’re
lives on after you die; also heart or mind;
There is a location: “Put it over there.”
a human being (as in “no living soul”).
Their is the possessive of they: “their
coats”
sort, sought They’re is short for they are: “They’re
I’ve seen these two wrongly used unlikely to miss seeing them.”
several times on a certain auction site So: “They hung their coats over there by
that shall remain nameless. (But I’ll give the door where they’re unlikely to miss
you a clue: it’s haunted almost seeing them on their way out.” Dreadful
exclusively by New Zealanders.) So sentence I know, but at least it
possibly other people might get them demonstrates the correct usage for all
confused. Sort as a verb is what you do three words.
when you put things in alphabetical or
numerical order, or according to size, to, too, two
etc. As a noun it means a type or
To is a preposition meaning verse, something a poet
towards; too means also or extremely writes; versus means against, in
(as in “You are walking too fast for comparison with.
me”); two is the number after one.
vicious, viscous
throes, throws
Vicious means savage,
cruel; viscous means thick, gummy.
Throes are violent spasms or painful
struggles, though not always physical.
For example, “She is in the throes of a waist, waste
nasty divorce case.” Throws means Waist is the part of your body around
hurls or tosses. As a noun it means which you fasten your belt; waste as a
blankets or other types of covering. noun mostly refers to stuff that’s thrown
away. As a verb it usually means to
through, threw squander.
Through is a preposition meaning in
wary, weary
and out of, as in: “We drove through the
tunnel.” Threw is the past tense of Wary means careful; weary means
throw; see the entry immediately above tired.
this one .
wave, waive
vane, vain, vein
Wave means to flap your hand in
Vane is something that shows from farewell and as a noun is also a breaker
which direction the wind is blowing; also on the beach; waive means to give up
(among other things) the sail of a one’s rights or claim.
windmill, the flat part on either side of
the shaft of a feather, a revolving fan or waver, waiver
flywheel; vain means too concerned
about how one looks (though one can Waver means to be
be vain about other things, of course!) undecided; waiver means the giving up
and also means useless, as in “a vain of rights or claims.
attempt”; vein is a blood vessel, a
channel. When you blaspheme you are way/ways, weigh/weighs
“taking the Lord’s name in vain”.
It didn’t occur to me that these could be
venal, venial confused until I read (in an email) that
something probably “ways a
Venal means dishonest, tonne”.Way means to be
dishonourable; venial means forgivable, undecided; weigh means the giving up
unimportant (as in “venial sins”). of rights or claims.

verses, versus weak, week

I saw this mix-up—the use of verses
instead of versus—in a small Weak is the opposite of strong; week is
newspaper. Verses is the plural of seven days, Sunday to Saturday.
weather, whether, wether your, you’re
Weather has to do with meteorological As in the entry for whose and who’s, this
conditions, climate; whether is a confusion is similar to its and
conjunction of condition (a bit like the it’s. Your is possessive and you’re is
word if) e.g.,“Whether it rains or shines, I short for “you are”.
have to go.” A wether is a castrated
sheep.

wet, whet
Wet as a verb means strictly to pour
liquid on something. You do not “wet”
somebody’s appetite for anything; you’ll
only land up doing the opposite of what
you want! Instead, you whet it, which
means to sharpen or stimulate.

which, witch
As a fantasy writer, I have trouble
believing people get these two
confused! Which is one of a
group; witch is a sorcerer.

whose, who’s
This confusion is similar to its and
it’s. Whose is possessive, and who’s is
short for “who is”.

wont, won’t
Wont means accustomed; won’t is
short for “will not”. The usual confusion
here is to use won’t instead of wont.

yoke, yolk
Yoke as a verb means to bind or
confine. In olden days, for instance,
oxen were yoked together for ploughing.
As a noun it is more usually the means
by which something is bound or
confined, though I remember the upper
part of a two-piece bodice on a dress or
blouse being referred to as a
yoke. Yolk is the yellow part of an egg.