Confused words
Three questions
Here are some similar looking and sounding words which may cause confusion. Do you know the difference between these three pairs of words?
Prevaricate and Procrastinate?
Affect and Effect?
Farther and Further?
Prevaricate = act in an evasive way (from Latin, go astray or walk crookedly)
Procrastinate = delay or put off (from Latin pro – forward + cras – tomorrow)
If people prevaricate they often procrastinate.
Affect = make a difference / have an effect on (verb only)
Effect = result (noun); bring about a result (verb)
Further = additional (as in furthermore)
Farther involves distance.
Note: Increasingly further is used in both senses but traditionalist may protest.
More Confused and misused words and clichés
Advance = progress, move forward.
Advancement = promotion
Aggravate= make worse. NOT the same as …
Annoy = irritate.
Alibi = is NOT a synonym for Excuse.
Alternative =can only be used when there are 2 choices.
Options is the word for more choices
Chronic = means lasting a long time. It does not mean acute or severe.
Collateral = additional, secondary, parallel, together with [often using as jargon / cliché for marketing materials].
Compare to = suggest a similarity.
Compare with = assess in relation. (Compared with her contemporaries she has a distinctive style of writing).
Continuous = without a break (The performance was continuous with no interval)
Continual = happening throughout (There was continual coughing throughout the concert)
Different = not the same"That different can only be followed by from and not to is a superstition" Fowler's Modern English Usage
Various = a variety of
Due to = owing to (not because of)
Ensure = to make safe or certain.
Insure= to arrange for compensation in the event of loss or damage
Assure = make something happen/ give people confidence
Forego = go before
Forgo = do without
Hung = for meat and paintings
Hanged = for people
Immanent = pervading or inherent
Imminent = about to happen
Infer = to conclude (NOT the same as imply, which indicates the truth of something). There is a subtle difference.
Invaluable = precious and cannot be valued. Opposite of valueless = worthless
Licence (noun), License (verb)
Similarly practice and practice.
American spelling uses -ce for both noun and verb
Masterful = overbearing
Masterly = skilful
Oblivious = ignorant (not forgetful)
Precipitous = steep (as in a precipice)
Precipitate = hurried, rash
Principal = main or chief (adjective or noun)
Principle = fundamental truth
Quite = an overused qualifier or intensifier so the word can confuse.
Responsibility= can only refer to people and not things.
Robust = firm strong in a physical sense. Best avoided because it has become a cliché.
Shambles = a slaughterhouse, so there needs to be a sense of ‘bloody destruction’ as in a plane crash. It is not the same as disorder or a riot.
Stationary = standing still
Stationery = writing materials
Sympathy = feel with (literally); feelings corresponding to
Empathy = ability to understand and share feelings.
Transpire = leak out (narrower than happen)
Unique = one of a kind; unmatched (so ‘absolutely unique’ and ‘quite unique’ are wrong).
Waive = abandoned
While = during the time that (something is happening simultaneously).
Clue: Can you replace ‘while’ with ‘during the time that’?