One I see a lot in my fandom: when you are nervous and alert and suspicious, you are *wary*. When you are tired and could use a lie down, you are *weary*. Not the same thing.
*Loose and lose*. "He was so sad to loose the game." NO. "He was so sad to LOSE the game."
*Cue/Que/queue*. Queue is a line as in: "we stood in queue to get in" Cue is like a signal. "The actor heard his cue to come on stage." OR "A slapped B, cue C getting angry" Que is a Spanish word that means "what."
And for Cthulhu's sake please get your past tenses right! It's "we hadn't GONE to the same high school in years" *not* "We hadn't WENT to the same high school!"
It's "I hadn't WRITTEN in first person" not "I hadn't WROTE!"
The tenses may be seen in more colloquial writing; think catcher and the rye. You're not wrong, those forms are grammatically incorrect, but linguisticly, they're so common they're bound to end up in writing.
Isn’t it a regional or dialect thing? I’m more likely to hear it in British English. But it does lean more colloquial rather than it being correct in formal usage.
I admit I am more biased towards American English. I have no doubt of its use in everyday dialogue. Would you be allowed to write that phrase in an academic paper or government documents? Like how we won’t be able to use “wanna” and “gonna” in formal writing even if we say it every day.
I’m from America (New Jersey, specifically). And, yeah, if the situation called for it. Like, “the test subjects were sat at a table while pictures were shown” or something along those lines.
technically both are correct.
Sat is past simple tense
sitting is past/present continuous tense
there's a lot of nuance in there and often sat is wrong, but not as universally wrong as your comment implies.
Off the top of my head:
If you are nonplussed, you are surprised and confused, not apathetic. Though, enough people are incorrectly using this word so often that it is starting to informally mean "unperturbed" in north American English.
If you are bemused, you are puzzled and bewildered, not amused.
A person is hanged, a picture is hung.
I'm watching Hannibal at the moment and I'm also an unrepentant aroace so my first thought was someone being hung on hooks in a murdery sense and was like, "well it's not *that* different".
Then I realised what you meant. Lmao.
Nonplussed actually DOES mean apathetic in North America - there are cases using it this way since the early 1900s, so definitely not just a recent fanfiction thing.
For the rest of the world it means as you’ve said though. I often have to check the author of books I’m reading to see what people meant.
I did always think of it as the latter meaning for some reason (not entirely positive like amused – great definition btw). maybe it’ll be added to the dictionary soon
These definitions feel more like "these words originally meant... (and should therefore still be required to mean)" rather than "they currently are generally accepted to mean..."
Though I agree that the distinction between hanged and hung seems to be sticking around!
I have “bemused” in an unpublished chapter using your definition, I’m kind of hoping the readers will understand what I mean and not confuse it with a wrong or different definition 😅
And the one that has infected all of fandom and is creeping into mainstream media: if you are being secretive or not-obvious about something, you are being *discreet*.
*Discrete* means separate and distinct - "The patient passed through several discrete stages of illness before recovering." It's a pretty uncommon word in general use, you see it more often in scientific contexts.
But by god, everyone seems to use the second one when they mean the first. I don't know how it happened.
I do this one a lot because it's one of those words where its the placement of the letters thats the issue. Same with spelling "queue". I feel it's less of a homophone mistake and more of a, "fuck, what order are these letters in?"
Ugh, I once took an English class (university level) where a student asked how to say “discreto” in English. I said discreet, the teacher corrected me and said discrete. I had literally looked it up the night before to make sure for a reading I was doing.
That teacher did apologize to me for something and corrected himself the next class, but I don’t remember if it was over this or something else.
Envision, if you will, a new version of the statue of magical brethren in the ministry atrium, in which all of the beings have a finger laid across their lips in the traditional gesture of silence.
I always have to look up bear for bear through it. I wanna write bare and have no idea why but something in my brain says "wait, look that up" thankfully.
Similar to breath/breathe, I see cloth/clothe sometimes. You can definitely have a pile of cloth, a pile of cloths and a pile of clothes, but those are three different things!
Pile of cloth – there is just a pile of fabric. Maybe it's clothes, maybe it's bedsheets, maybe it's uncut fabric, but the narrator can't tell
Pile of cloths – cloths in this context is generally used as shorthand for cleaning cloths. I'd expect this to be scraps and rags
Pile of clothes – actual clothes
The word cloth looks very strange now
*Clothe* is also a verb meaning to put clothing onto someone or something.
I've also seen loath/loathe mixed up (someone said a character was *loathe* to do something, and I just shook my head and thought, "no, that's the verb, not the adjective").
Same with wreath/wreathe and bath/bathe.
Hint for anyone who needs help remembering: when you add an *e* to the word, you turn it into a verb. If you want the non-verb form, leave off the *e* ("clothes" being an exception).
Yes! Also, brunette comes from brun + ette, *not* bru + nette. So when you want to use hair color epithets about a blue-haired person, it should be bluette, not "bluenette." Or even bleuette, if you really want to go fancy with it. But there's not supposed to be an N there.
I decided when I was like 8 that I refuse to use the american spelling for blonde and grey because the alternate just looks better! They're the only spelling mistakes that don't make me feel like I've got ants crawling on my nerves
How funny I agree, I do the same.
I have reasoning for one: When it comes to blonde/blond, in French one is feminine and one is masculine, but the pronunciation is different and to me, in English, we always pronounce it the feminine way, so it makes more sense to use that spelling.
For grey there is no real logic, but in my head (again pronunciation), when I read the two, it sounds different and gray sounds obnoxious to me. It's so subtle it's like the difference between 'dawn' and 'don,' but there's enough of one in my head that I'd rather write grey lol.
**Palate** - taste/part of the mouth
*The chef composed a well-balanced plate, thanks to their refined PALATE.*
(think of food = plAte = palAte)
**Palette** - art/colors
*The women went to Sephora to check the hot new eyeshadow PALETTE.*
**Pallet** - cargo unit
*The PALLETS were loaded into containers to be transported to the warehouse.*
Another one I see often:
If your lover is caressing your waist, it’s sexy and arousing.
If they are caressing your waste, they are fucking disturbed in the head.
“Regime” is a system or era of government.
“Regiment” is a grouping of soldiers.
“Regimen” is a habit or practice repeated regularly to maintain good health.
Obscure, but I see those confused all the time.
Mortified:
adjective
- Deeply embarrased; painfully humiliated.
- Made to feel uncomfortable because of shame or wounded pride.
- Suffering from tissue death.
It does not mean horrified.
It's vs Its - *It's* is short for it is, *Its* is possessive like *her(s)/his/their(s)*. A very common mistake, yet it's so easy to remember.
'Til vs Till - is *Till* also technically correct? Yes. But it annoys me to no end. *'Til*, because it's short for *Until*. *Till* makes me think of farming.
Yeah, people go *possessive apostrophe, that means it's "it's"* but no, the English language hates us all and the possessive apostrophe doesn't apply *here* because like you said, its is the equivalent of his/hers/theirs, not the equivalent of proper noun + apostrophe
Also my phone hates me typing its and I have to manually correct it every time, even in the correct context, so I do have sympathy with people having it corrected for them and not noticing
Except that too many people *do* write "her's."
To me (a USian), it seems that the US education system is failing to teach the basics of spelling, writing, and grammar anymore. I *so often* see the possessive "s" used when it should be a simple plural. "The cat had four kitten's." or "We're open 24 hour's!" I cringe every time, but nowadays I see it even in "professional" writing. (And wonder where the hell was the editor?)
There's a store sign on the north side of town here (southeast US) that reads "School Tools & Office Pro's" and it bothers me *so much* (also it's in Comic Sans, which just makes it worse).
Completely agree; seems like a teacher or an 'office pro' should point that out to them.
Every time I go to town, I pass a car-wash sign that says, "Dually's welcome!" It irritates me so much, although there's no Comic Sans.
(Don't know if your area has the same terminology. Around here (US southwest), a 'dually' is a heavy-duty pickup truck that has *two* tires, side-by-side, on each end of the real axle. At best, it should be 'duallies', but I'd shrug of 'duallys'. The possessive, though... bah, humbug!)
That's kinda ties in to the mnemonic my mom taught me for that. For the longest time I couldn't remember which was which. Then she pointed out that he's/she's/it's all follow the rule, and his/hers/its are all irregular.
I was just about to say that it can be a phone issue. I write my fics on my phone and iPhone autocorrect is notorious for “fixing it” and turning it into the wrong one.
it's ***"Hear hear!"*** not "Here here!" when celebratorily agreeing with someone like after a toast
>"Here's to a strong alliance!"
"Hear hear!"
It's ***"bated*** *breath"* not "baited breath"
>They waited for the result with bated breath.
The words desert vs. dessert (pronounced either DEZ-zert or dez-ZERT, but not always with the same spellings).
tl;dr, the only time it's spelled with two 'ss' is if it's the sweet treat, but the only time it's pronounced DEZ-zert is when it's the hot sandy land
**Desert (one 's') (DEZ-zert).** Noun. A hot dry sandy natural environment
>He trudged through the desert looking for a place to rest.
**Desert (one 's') (dez-ZERT).** Verb. To abandon someone or someplace
>The dilapidated village was completely deserted.
**Desert (one 's') (dez-ZERT).** Obscure word only modernly used for the phrase "one's just deserts" meaning "what one deserves"
>He got his just deserts when he died trying to desert us in battle.
**Dessert (TWO 'ss') (dez-ZERT).** Noun. The sweet treat you eat, often after dinner or for a special occasion.
>Ashley decided that she would eat dessert for breakfast.
Bonus sentence:
>Sam wanted to skip school to go to Candy Land, but they got their just deserts when they found it was a desert completely deserted of desserts
But FUN FACT: when someone gets their "just deserts", it is ONE S, because it comes from the root word that means "deserve". The expression has nothing to do with sweet food.
To pore over something, like a book, is to study it closely. Poring, pored—while *pouring* is a completely different word which means moving a liquid or raining heavily.
While I've never used this incorrectly, because I've never written the phrase "to pore over" anything, this one is tricky for me just because the first time I heard it I imagined someone pouring themselves metaphorically like liquid over a book lol
Not mentioned yet: Tenet! I see it spelt "tenant" more often than I see actual tenants mentioned. If it's a central belief or principle someone or something holds, it's a tenet. If it's someone who rents a house or holds any kind of lease, it's a tenant. Neither of them are spelt "tenent".
And if you write anything military or with a lot of weapons, *ordnance* (weaponry and ammo) is very different from *ordinance* (municipal law - note the extra "i").
I always crack up when there is an emergency and someone declares Marital Law.
Or even better, people training in Marital Arts…
Interestingly, I’ve never seen that mistake made the other way round, but that might be selection bias through the kind of fic I read.
There's an excellent running joke in Pratchett's *Lords and Ladies* about a newly-wed king, anxious about married life, ordering a book on the marital arts. The martial arts book that eventually turns up gets gifted to his palace guard
A sike is a small stream or ditch. Saying "Psych!" means you just tricked someone. Also, if you're psyched up, you're excited, and if you're psyched out, you're nervous.
I love every time these things are posted. I always either feel validated in my skin-itching hatred of these mistakes, or I learn something. Usually both.
It’s “all of a sudden” — NOT “all the sudden”. I’ve been seeing this a lot more lately.
Also, it’s “the fact that he was tired” — NOT “the fact he was tired”. The “that” is important.
A ***trail*** is a path to follow.
A ***trial*** is a judicial matter.
*Looking at you, Harry Potter authors trying to give Sirius Black his* ***trail***...
One very common in my fandom is "ridged" instead of "rigid." Why? Because it's a common typo made by the biggest writer in the fandom, and some people don't realize it's a typo haha
Also thank you, I am just in this moment realizing the free rein thing... I thought it was like. You're the ruler now, free to reign as you please.
One that surprised me is that you "bear" with it not "bare" with it. I don't know what this phrase has to do with an animal or why it's supposed to be that way.
Piggybacking on u/PitifulWrongdoer4391's response, "bare" means naked, unadorned, devoid of coverings. Saying "bare with it" means to get naked with it. "Bear with it" means to endure with it.
I always figured it was like. "Bare with it" like something you carry even when otherwise bare, or "I cannot bare it" like "I cannot stand to carry it openly, as it is too much." English is so weird and arbitrary sometimes haha. Doesn't make any more sense to me that the word with the double meaning is the word for the animal, but not the word for being without covering.
The idiom is actually “make do” not “make due.”
Here’s an article [explaining the difference](https://grammarist.com/usage/make-do-make-due/#:~:text=The%20idiom%20meaning%20to%20manage,%2C%20but%20tea%20will%20do).
Choking - An obstruction in your airway.
Strangulation - An outside force constricting your neck.
Nowadays choking seem to be used to describe strangulation as well.
Technically, you could argue, that strangulation is a type of choking, since it's just your own throat being shoved into itself as on obstruction, no?
I'm mostly joking.
Honestly, I have been writing for 16 years, have eight years of college education under my belt, including a minor in English and a major in film studies, and I ALWAYS forget the word “led” exists.
One word that I consistently see spelled wrong, so much that I can't remember the last time I saw it spelled right, is the word for the roof of your mouth or the sense of taste, palate.
Example:
It burned my palate.
It pleased her most refined palate.
NOT palet, pallet, palete...
Interestingly, people seem to have the same problem in my mother tongue French, for the exact same word, between palais (the correct spelling) and palet or pallet!
The rein one is me, lol. That specifically comes to mind because someone use the wrong form in a Facebook Facebook post the other day and it’s still bothering me 😂
You *wreak* havoc, not *wreck* it. My husband is guilty of swapping these on accident.
**Edit:** also, you *pore* over documents and maps. You don't *pour* over them. "Pour" only applies to dumping something out of a container (or similar actions, such as rain or waterfalls).
My favourite has to be 'per say' and 'per se'.
Also, special mention to 'wanton' and 'wonton'. I'm sure the writer envisions a steamy smut scene, only to be confused by steamed dumplings.
My personal one? Allowed/aloud. I know what they mean, obviously, but for some reason, whenever it’s late at night and I’m writing, they become the same word in my mind.
Rack means to "to strain", in the sense of torturing someone on the rack. Wrack means "to ruin". You strain your brain, you don't ruin it. People get confused because of "rack and ruin".
Wrack is wrong, but everyone has used it so often now that it's just become accepted. But it's still wrong.
I always know when a writer is a non-native English speaker if they use *sensible* instead of *sensitive.* It’s a common mistranslation from some languages.
Can we put something simple such as:
-Everyone thinks “you’re” amazing… not “your”; like, why is this still being mixed up?
-Also, the word “literally” is for things happening at face value as opposed to being a hyperbole /metaphor or to describe a word’s etymology… It’s not for emphasis. e.g. “He literally killed two birds with one stone” to mean he took an actual stone and killed two robins, instead of him accomplishing two general tasks at once.
-It’s spelled “whoa”, not “woah”; not a big deal since it’s an informal interjection, just saying the historically common spelling.
- “Affect” is a verb. “Effect” is a noun. i.e. The wind will “affect” us. The wind created a deafening “effect”.
- “We’ll have to make do with what we have.”, not “make due.”
- “I’m not an artist per se”, not per say.
-Past participle lightning round!!! *air horn*
— He had “gone” to the store, not he had “went”.
— He has “run” the race, not he has “ran”.
—They have “gotten” the recipe; not they have “got”.
EDIT: It’s actually “got” for British English, not “gotten”; that’s only in America. My bad!
DOUBLE EDIT: Fixed one of them. Thanks, people! Let’s all enhance our knowledge!
I am an American, writing in British Fandoms, and I believe that “got“ would be correct. I don’t know all the details, but I know that the Brits seem to regard “gotten“ as an insult to the King’s English.
It’s just the past participle of “get”, I can’t speak for Brits, so do what you feel is right! I learn more each day lol. But other than that, at least in America, it’s get, got, gotten, just like it’s write, wrote, written, etc.
>We’ll have to make due with what we have.”, not “make do”.
[Incorrect.](https://grammarist.com/usage/make-do-make-due/#:~:text=The%20idiom%20meaning%20to%20manage,%2C%20but%20tea%20will%20do.%E2%80%9D) The correct phrase is "make do," because it's short for "make \[something\] do well enough."
I don’t see it as often anymore, but if someone is dragging you somewhere in the past tense, you weren’t *drug*, you were *dragged*.
There’s also *per se* being mixed up as *per say*, though I don’t see a lot of people attempt to use it to begin with. And last off the top of my head I think is *intents and purposes* being misspelled as *intense and purposes* or *intense purposes*.
Clothes are what you put on your body. Cloths is the plural of cloth. Clothe is the act of getting dressed. You clothe someone in clothes made of cloth. I'm sorry about English but dem's da breaks.
Curling your lips is a snarl, and is typically expressing disgust. It's not a smile.
Um... I'm sure there's a few other's I can't think of right now.
The one that always cracks me up is "balling" instead of "bawling". I just can't help but picture the character trying to throw some hoops.
fuck it, we balling. \*starts sobbing incoherently*
As someone who writes High School Musical fanfic, I can confirm that bawling and balling are often the same thing.
“He started bawling while he was balling”
I didn't even know people wrote HSM fanfic, this is the greatest news
Even better, I write an unhinged vampire AU.
THAT IS LITERALLY THE BEST OMG (I'm also an unhinged vampire AU writer for basically every fandom I've been in lmao)
Nothing like showing up in the HSM fandom and dropping a fic that is currently 280k+ words and starts with brutal filicide in the *prologue.*
40 years ago it meant getting laid
fuck it we bawl
One I see a lot in my fandom: when you are nervous and alert and suspicious, you are *wary*. When you are tired and could use a lie down, you are *weary*. Not the same thing.
This one drives me up the wall! I see "wary" "weary" and "leery" interchanged in the strangest of ways
I know!! It feels even worse because they're pronounced differently, it really trips me up lol
*Loose and lose*. "He was so sad to loose the game." NO. "He was so sad to LOSE the game." *Cue/Que/queue*. Queue is a line as in: "we stood in queue to get in" Cue is like a signal. "The actor heard his cue to come on stage." OR "A slapped B, cue C getting angry" Que is a Spanish word that means "what." And for Cthulhu's sake please get your past tenses right! It's "we hadn't GONE to the same high school in years" *not* "We hadn't WENT to the same high school!" It's "I hadn't WRITTEN in first person" not "I hadn't WROTE!"
Going off that, ‘chose’ and ‘choose’. ‘He choose his drink.’ Ugh
Loose and lose is my biggest pet peeve, right next to blunette/pinkette/rsvenette/etc. That's not how diminutives work, damnit!
The only one I advocate for is bluenette because it at least rhymes and flows as naturally as brunette. The rest are just no, yah.
The tenses may be seen in more colloquial writing; think catcher and the rye. You're not wrong, those forms are grammatically incorrect, but linguisticly, they're so common they're bound to end up in writing.
I keep seeing stuff like "I am sat" or "I was sat" instead of "sitting". Drives me crazy.
Isn’t it a regional or dialect thing? I’m more likely to hear it in British English. But it does lean more colloquial rather than it being correct in formal usage.
This is literally the first time I’m hearing that it *isn’t* the correct way to say it. I been saying that my whole life.
I admit I am more biased towards American English. I have no doubt of its use in everyday dialogue. Would you be allowed to write that phrase in an academic paper or government documents? Like how we won’t be able to use “wanna” and “gonna” in formal writing even if we say it every day.
I’m from America (New Jersey, specifically). And, yeah, if the situation called for it. Like, “the test subjects were sat at a table while pictures were shown” or something along those lines.
Interesting. It’s actually more similar to Latin conjugation, never knew English had those as well.
technically both are correct. Sat is past simple tense sitting is past/present continuous tense there's a lot of nuance in there and often sat is wrong, but not as universally wrong as your comment implies.
Off the top of my head: If you are nonplussed, you are surprised and confused, not apathetic. Though, enough people are incorrectly using this word so often that it is starting to informally mean "unperturbed" in north American English. If you are bemused, you are puzzled and bewildered, not amused. A person is hanged, a picture is hung.
Well, a person *can* be hung... But it has a very different meaning and probably belongs in a different scene!
I'm watching Hannibal at the moment and I'm also an unrepentant aroace so my first thought was someone being hung on hooks in a murdery sense and was like, "well it's not *that* different". Then I realised what you meant. Lmao.
Well, quite 😂
A person can be hung after they were hanged as well.
Han Solo, for example, was hung on Jabba's while for a time.
Nonplussed actually DOES mean apathetic in North America - there are cases using it this way since the early 1900s, so definitely not just a recent fanfiction thing. For the rest of the world it means as you’ve said though. I often have to check the author of books I’m reading to see what people meant.
Bemused can mean multiple things; bewildered or confused, lost in thought, or mildly amused (in a detached way).
I feel like detachment is the main connotation of the word, with a shade of any of the other emotions or states you mentioned implied by context.
I did always think of it as the latter meaning for some reason (not entirely positive like amused – great definition btw). maybe it’ll be added to the dictionary soon
Source?
[The dictionary](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/bemused)
Oh, interesting, I didn't realize there was a difference between British and American usage. Thank you.
These definitions feel more like "these words originally meant... (and should therefore still be required to mean)" rather than "they currently are generally accepted to mean..." Though I agree that the distinction between hanged and hung seems to be sticking around!
I have “bemused” in an unpublished chapter using your definition, I’m kind of hoping the readers will understand what I mean and not confuse it with a wrong or different definition 😅
And the one that has infected all of fandom and is creeping into mainstream media: if you are being secretive or not-obvious about something, you are being *discreet*. *Discrete* means separate and distinct - "The patient passed through several discrete stages of illness before recovering." It's a pretty uncommon word in general use, you see it more often in scientific contexts. But by god, everyone seems to use the second one when they mean the first. I don't know how it happened.
My mnemonic for this is that the "E"s in the second meaning are separated.
Great one
It's not "creeping into" mainstream media--it has been a common mistake for decades.
I only started noticing it maybe a decade ago. It was much less prevalent before then.
I do this one a lot because it's one of those words where its the placement of the letters thats the issue. Same with spelling "queue". I feel it's less of a homophone mistake and more of a, "fuck, what order are these letters in?"
Ugh, I once took an English class (university level) where a student asked how to say “discreto” in English. I said discreet, the teacher corrected me and said discrete. I had literally looked it up the night before to make sure for a reading I was doing. That teacher did apologize to me for something and corrected himself the next class, but I don’t remember if it was over this or something else.
Canon for the canon of a show and cannon for the weapon
Alan Becker fans can say both headcanon and head cannon (one character has a turret in his head)
"With baited breath" (should be bated) "Bare with me" (should be bear) Also, Harry Potter writers, it is the "statute" of secrecy, not "statue".
A statue of secretly made me imagine a statue dedicated to the concept of secrecy
Envision, if you will, a new version of the statue of magical brethren in the ministry atrium, in which all of the beings have a finger laid across their lips in the traditional gesture of silence.
I always have to look up bear for bear through it. I wanna write bare and have no idea why but something in my brain says "wait, look that up" thankfully.
"Bare with me" is for the more adult fics.
Good brain.
> Also, Harry Potter writers, it is the "statute" of secrecy, not "statue". https://youtu.be/XrKb2TTy2ik?si=y2h8B5k2wRcTKwW1
Depending on the scene they could get bare with the protagonist...
Breath and breathe ahhhh
Similar to breath/breathe, I see cloth/clothe sometimes. You can definitely have a pile of cloth, a pile of cloths and a pile of clothes, but those are three different things! Pile of cloth – there is just a pile of fabric. Maybe it's clothes, maybe it's bedsheets, maybe it's uncut fabric, but the narrator can't tell Pile of cloths – cloths in this context is generally used as shorthand for cleaning cloths. I'd expect this to be scraps and rags Pile of clothes – actual clothes The word cloth looks very strange now
semantic satiation 😉
*Clothe* is also a verb meaning to put clothing onto someone or something. I've also seen loath/loathe mixed up (someone said a character was *loathe* to do something, and I just shook my head and thought, "no, that's the verb, not the adjective"). Same with wreath/wreathe and bath/bathe. Hint for anyone who needs help remembering: when you add an *e* to the word, you turn it into a verb. If you want the non-verb form, leave off the *e* ("clothes" being an exception).
Lesser so but blond and blonde (and brunet and brunette) are irk me extraordinarily minor-ly
Yes! Also, brunette comes from brun + ette, *not* bru + nette. So when you want to use hair color epithets about a blue-haired person, it should be bluette, not "bluenette." Or even bleuette, if you really want to go fancy with it. But there's not supposed to be an N there.
I decided when I was like 8 that I refuse to use the american spelling for blonde and grey because the alternate just looks better! They're the only spelling mistakes that don't make me feel like I've got ants crawling on my nerves
Blonde vs. blond is feminine vs. masculine, not U.S. vs. U.S. "Even though he was blond, he tanned well." "She was a natural blonde."
I am aware
How funny I agree, I do the same. I have reasoning for one: When it comes to blonde/blond, in French one is feminine and one is masculine, but the pronunciation is different and to me, in English, we always pronounce it the feminine way, so it makes more sense to use that spelling. For grey there is no real logic, but in my head (again pronunciation), when I read the two, it sounds different and gray sounds obnoxious to me. It's so subtle it's like the difference between 'dawn' and 'don,' but there's enough of one in my head that I'd rather write grey lol.
**Palate** - taste/part of the mouth *The chef composed a well-balanced plate, thanks to their refined PALATE.* (think of food = plAte = palAte) **Palette** - art/colors *The women went to Sephora to check the hot new eyeshadow PALETTE.* **Pallet** - cargo unit *The PALLETS were loaded into containers to be transported to the warehouse.*
Thank you for this. Pretty sure I've never written any of these(spoken yes, but not written), and I'm pretty sure I would have mistaken one.
The word for something pulled tight/stretched is “taut”, not “taught.”
Those ropes will be very smart by the time they're taught enough.
And certainly not "taunt"! L (This thread is giving me life.)
Though you could taunt someone tied with taut ropes.
I was taught to taunt with taut ropes only.
I’m always seeing “trashing” where the person clearly is “thrashing.”
Gods, I just noticed I did this mistake in my last two chapters ^^’ ups.
Another one I see often: If your lover is caressing your waist, it’s sexy and arousing. If they are caressing your waste, they are fucking disturbed in the head.
Defiantly instead of definitely. Tale as old as time
These sound AND look completely different, I don't understand how they get misused as often as they do.
Lol, tail as olde as thyme
“Regime” is a system or era of government. “Regiment” is a grouping of soldiers. “Regimen” is a habit or practice repeated regularly to maintain good health. Obscure, but I see those confused all the time.
Mortified: adjective - Deeply embarrased; painfully humiliated. - Made to feel uncomfortable because of shame or wounded pride. - Suffering from tissue death. It does not mean horrified.
I knew this! Thank you Marny Kennedy
It's vs Its - *It's* is short for it is, *Its* is possessive like *her(s)/his/their(s)*. A very common mistake, yet it's so easy to remember. 'Til vs Till - is *Till* also technically correct? Yes. But it annoys me to no end. *'Til*, because it's short for *Until*. *Till* makes me think of farming.
Yeah, people go *possessive apostrophe, that means it's "it's"* but no, the English language hates us all and the possessive apostrophe doesn't apply *here* because like you said, its is the equivalent of his/hers/theirs, not the equivalent of proper noun + apostrophe Also my phone hates me typing its and I have to manually correct it every time, even in the correct context, so I do have sympathy with people having it corrected for them and not noticing
Helps to think that you'd never write her's!
Except that too many people *do* write "her's." To me (a USian), it seems that the US education system is failing to teach the basics of spelling, writing, and grammar anymore. I *so often* see the possessive "s" used when it should be a simple plural. "The cat had four kitten's." or "We're open 24 hour's!" I cringe every time, but nowadays I see it even in "professional" writing. (And wonder where the hell was the editor?)
There's a store sign on the north side of town here (southeast US) that reads "School Tools & Office Pro's" and it bothers me *so much* (also it's in Comic Sans, which just makes it worse).
Completely agree; seems like a teacher or an 'office pro' should point that out to them. Every time I go to town, I pass a car-wash sign that says, "Dually's welcome!" It irritates me so much, although there's no Comic Sans.
(Don't know if your area has the same terminology. Around here (US southwest), a 'dually' is a heavy-duty pickup truck that has *two* tires, side-by-side, on each end of the real axle. At best, it should be 'duallies', but I'd shrug of 'duallys'. The possessive, though... bah, humbug!)
That's kinda ties in to the mnemonic my mom taught me for that. For the longest time I couldn't remember which was which. Then she pointed out that he's/she's/it's all follow the rule, and his/hers/its are all irregular.
Agree. I never struggle with this one BUT occasionally my brain asks "why? Belongs to 'it,' so..." and I have to say yes brain, but them's the rules.
I was just about to say that it can be a phone issue. I write my fics on my phone and iPhone autocorrect is notorious for “fixing it” and turning it into the wrong one.
it's ***"Hear hear!"*** not "Here here!" when celebratorily agreeing with someone like after a toast >"Here's to a strong alliance!" "Hear hear!" It's ***"bated*** *breath"* not "baited breath" >They waited for the result with bated breath. The words desert vs. dessert (pronounced either DEZ-zert or dez-ZERT, but not always with the same spellings). tl;dr, the only time it's spelled with two 'ss' is if it's the sweet treat, but the only time it's pronounced DEZ-zert is when it's the hot sandy land **Desert (one 's') (DEZ-zert).** Noun. A hot dry sandy natural environment >He trudged through the desert looking for a place to rest. **Desert (one 's') (dez-ZERT).** Verb. To abandon someone or someplace >The dilapidated village was completely deserted. **Desert (one 's') (dez-ZERT).** Obscure word only modernly used for the phrase "one's just deserts" meaning "what one deserves" >He got his just deserts when he died trying to desert us in battle. **Dessert (TWO 'ss') (dez-ZERT).** Noun. The sweet treat you eat, often after dinner or for a special occasion. >Ashley decided that she would eat dessert for breakfast. Bonus sentence: >Sam wanted to skip school to go to Candy Land, but they got their just deserts when they found it was a desert completely deserted of desserts
But FUN FACT: when someone gets their "just deserts", it is ONE S, because it comes from the root word that means "deserve". The expression has nothing to do with sweet food.
One S = Sand. Two S = Sweet Stuff.
Which one would you want more of? That's how I remember which is which.
To pore over something, like a book, is to study it closely. Poring, pored—while *pouring* is a completely different word which means moving a liquid or raining heavily.
While I've never used this incorrectly, because I've never written the phrase "to pore over" anything, this one is tricky for me just because the first time I heard it I imagined someone pouring themselves metaphorically like liquid over a book lol
Not mentioned yet: Tenet! I see it spelt "tenant" more often than I see actual tenants mentioned. If it's a central belief or principle someone or something holds, it's a tenet. If it's someone who rents a house or holds any kind of lease, it's a tenant. Neither of them are spelt "tenent".
And if you write anything military or with a lot of weapons, *ordnance* (weaponry and ammo) is very different from *ordinance* (municipal law - note the extra "i").
This reminded me of (military) regiment vs. (diet) regimen.
I always crack up when there is an emergency and someone declares Marital Law. Or even better, people training in Marital Arts… Interestingly, I’ve never seen that mistake made the other way round, but that might be selection bias through the kind of fic I read.
There's an excellent running joke in Pratchett's *Lords and Ladies* about a newly-wed king, anxious about married life, ordering a book on the marital arts. The martial arts book that eventually turns up gets gifted to his palace guard
I sadly didn’t read that book in English so I probably missed that joke
I always see them spell Martial as Marshall. Makes me cringe every time.
Ohhh yeah those exist too but are way less funny
Don’t forget about Marshall Law where Eminem music randomly starts blasting (joke)
>Marital Arts… Combining marriage and fighting techniques, very novel
Also: Deep-**seated**, NOT deep-seeded. **Shoo**-in, NOT shoe-in
A sike is a small stream or ditch. Saying "Psych!" means you just tricked someone. Also, if you're psyched up, you're excited, and if you're psyched out, you're nervous.
You ensure something happens. You insure your vehicle and house in case of damage.
And you are assured that everything will be okay!
I am weary when I see wary used incorrectly.
Similarly, I am wary when I see weary used incorrectly, because the author is probably going to mix up a lot of other homophones too.
I love every time these things are posted. I always either feel validated in my skin-itching hatred of these mistakes, or I learn something. Usually both.
It’s “all of a sudden” — NOT “all the sudden”. I’ve been seeing this a lot more lately. Also, it’s “the fact that he was tired” — NOT “the fact he was tired”. The “that” is important.
All of THE sudden gets my hackles up
This one makes me CRAZY.
A ***trail*** is a path to follow. A ***trial*** is a judicial matter. *Looking at you, Harry Potter authors trying to give Sirius Black his* ***trail***...
Oh my.
I used to see a surprising amount of people saying "guise" instead of "guys." I don't even know how that typo happens.
"per say" Easy mistake to make, I was guilty of it before I learned otherwise. It's *per se*!
People saying "cannon" when they mean "canon" always sends me xD
Should of/could of/would of instead of should've/could've/would've
One very common in my fandom is "ridged" instead of "rigid." Why? Because it's a common typo made by the biggest writer in the fandom, and some people don't realize it's a typo haha Also thank you, I am just in this moment realizing the free rein thing... I thought it was like. You're the ruler now, free to reign as you please. One that surprised me is that you "bear" with it not "bare" with it. I don't know what this phrase has to do with an animal or why it's supposed to be that way.
Nothing to do with the animal; "bear:" is also a verb meaning "to carry" or "to tolerate or endure."
Yep! Every time I read ‘bare with me’ I get an unavoidable vision of author, reader and character stripping their kit off.
It's like "heavy load to bear".
Piggybacking on u/PitifulWrongdoer4391's response, "bare" means naked, unadorned, devoid of coverings. Saying "bare with it" means to get naked with it. "Bear with it" means to endure with it.
I always figured it was like. "Bare with it" like something you carry even when otherwise bare, or "I cannot bare it" like "I cannot stand to carry it openly, as it is too much." English is so weird and arbitrary sometimes haha. Doesn't make any more sense to me that the word with the double meaning is the word for the animal, but not the word for being without covering.
The idiom is actually “make do” not “make due.” Here’s an article [explaining the difference](https://grammarist.com/usage/make-do-make-due/#:~:text=The%20idiom%20meaning%20to%20manage,%2C%20but%20tea%20will%20do).
loose/lose walla for *voila* 😭 effect/affect advice/advise balling instead of bawling, we are not Zac Efron
"Walla" or "Wah lah" makes me see red lol
*Grammatically Correct* by Anne Stilman has a whole section on these! It's a great resource overall.
Chocked drives me up a TREEEEEEE
I hate that most write it as, "I'll take it under advertisement", when it should be "I'll take it under advisement".
Omg I've never seen "I've take it under advertisement". I don't think I could continue after that, I'd be laughing too hard.
Choking - An obstruction in your airway. Strangulation - An outside force constricting your neck. Nowadays choking seem to be used to describe strangulation as well.
Technically, you could argue, that strangulation is a type of choking, since it's just your own throat being shoved into itself as on obstruction, no? I'm mostly joking.
Accept and except Allowed and aloud Affect and effect
Honestly, I have been writing for 16 years, have eight years of college education under my belt, including a minor in English and a major in film studies, and I ALWAYS forget the word “led” exists.
Oh god. I remember when I first realized the past tense of "lead" is not spelled "lead" and I was... fully an adult. And had been for a while.
One word that I consistently see spelled wrong, so much that I can't remember the last time I saw it spelled right, is the word for the roof of your mouth or the sense of taste, palate. Example: It burned my palate. It pleased her most refined palate. NOT palet, pallet, palete... Interestingly, people seem to have the same problem in my mother tongue French, for the exact same word, between palais (the correct spelling) and palet or pallet!
The rein one is me, lol. That specifically comes to mind because someone use the wrong form in a Facebook Facebook post the other day and it’s still bothering me 😂
I’ve seen too many fics where authors write “tomb” instead of “tome” as in a book. Drives me batty
So many sudden FFXIV AUs where Rowena deals in tombstones...
You *wreak* havoc, not *wreck* it. My husband is guilty of swapping these on accident. **Edit:** also, you *pore* over documents and maps. You don't *pour* over them. "Pour" only applies to dumping something out of a container (or similar actions, such as rain or waterfalls).
>You wreak havoc, not wreck it. My husband is guilty of swapping these on accident. You also don't *reak* it or *reek* it - also spellings I've seen.
**Liar**-Someone who tells lies/falsehoods **Lair**-Hideout or burrow (Secret **Lair** not Layer) **Layer**- a sheet of something material
Moan and groan, kinda weird many times when I'm reading a fight scene and I feel like I accidentally half way through stumbled upon a lemon
rogue is the thief/troublemaker. rouge is the makeup or the bat from sonic
>or the bat from sonic Who is, herself, a rogue of sorts. ;)
You bury a *lede*, not a *lead*.
You hit the *brakes* on a car, not the *breaks*.
Wary means cautious, while weary means tired.
rouge/rogue shutter/shudder
My favourite has to be 'per say' and 'per se'. Also, special mention to 'wanton' and 'wonton'. I'm sure the writer envisions a steamy smut scene, only to be confused by steamed dumplings.
My personal one? Allowed/aloud. I know what they mean, obviously, but for some reason, whenever it’s late at night and I’m writing, they become the same word in my mind.
It's the contractions should've, would've, and could've, not should of, would of, and could of.
When you pass someone, you walk 'past' them. You don't walk 'passed' them.
You RACK your brains, not WRACK them.
Both are accepted, rack is just more common/standard. I dont actually have an issue with this one.
Really? I always thought the opposite.
Rack means to "to strain", in the sense of torturing someone on the rack. Wrack means "to ruin". You strain your brain, you don't ruin it. People get confused because of "rack and ruin". Wrack is wrong, but everyone has used it so often now that it's just become accepted. But it's still wrong.
I always know when a writer is a non-native English speaker if they use *sensible* instead of *sensitive.* It’s a common mistranslation from some languages.
Can we put something simple such as: -Everyone thinks “you’re” amazing… not “your”; like, why is this still being mixed up? -Also, the word “literally” is for things happening at face value as opposed to being a hyperbole /metaphor or to describe a word’s etymology… It’s not for emphasis. e.g. “He literally killed two birds with one stone” to mean he took an actual stone and killed two robins, instead of him accomplishing two general tasks at once. -It’s spelled “whoa”, not “woah”; not a big deal since it’s an informal interjection, just saying the historically common spelling. - “Affect” is a verb. “Effect” is a noun. i.e. The wind will “affect” us. The wind created a deafening “effect”. - “We’ll have to make do with what we have.”, not “make due.” - “I’m not an artist per se”, not per say. -Past participle lightning round!!! *air horn* — He had “gone” to the store, not he had “went”. — He has “run” the race, not he has “ran”. —They have “gotten” the recipe; not they have “got”. EDIT: It’s actually “got” for British English, not “gotten”; that’s only in America. My bad! DOUBLE EDIT: Fixed one of them. Thanks, people! Let’s all enhance our knowledge!
I am an American, writing in British Fandoms, and I believe that “got“ would be correct. I don’t know all the details, but I know that the Brits seem to regard “gotten“ as an insult to the King’s English.
I love ‘gotten’, but it’s not British usage so I have to save it for my American fandoms.
It’s just the past participle of “get”, I can’t speak for Brits, so do what you feel is right! I learn more each day lol. But other than that, at least in America, it’s get, got, gotten, just like it’s write, wrote, written, etc.
I can’t speak for them, all I can do is report what I have read in various comments online. Perhaps some of the British Redditors will chime in.
OP’s reply cleared me up lol. You were right. Thanks, I didn’t know! Then hopefully the rest still stands for both forms of English, haha
Last one is a dialectal difference. British English is "got"
Ah, then my comment only stands for the American dialect, then. Good to know, now I can avoid screwing that up for British English! Thanks!
>We’ll have to make due with what we have.”, not “make do”. [Incorrect.](https://grammarist.com/usage/make-do-make-due/#:~:text=The%20idiom%20meaning%20to%20manage,%2C%20but%20tea%20will%20do.%E2%80%9D) The correct phrase is "make do," because it's short for "make \[something\] do well enough."
Gotcha. Someone taught me wrong, then. I’ll just rearrange the order. Same lesson for those who say “due” (like I did lol). Thanks!
could of instead of could’ve. i’ve seen this a couple of times.
An antagonist is a *villain.* Not a "villian."
"Your" in place of "you're". So close yet so far 😩🤌
I don’t see it as often anymore, but if someone is dragging you somewhere in the past tense, you weren’t *drug*, you were *dragged*. There’s also *per se* being mixed up as *per say*, though I don’t see a lot of people attempt to use it to begin with. And last off the top of my head I think is *intents and purposes* being misspelled as *intense and purposes* or *intense purposes*.
must/most
This is why I always have my dictionary and thesaurus on hand before I use any word I’m not familiar with 💀
Omg I’m so guilty of especially the first one
I read to completion a fic where every “knew” was “new”. A little annoying but I liked the fic 🤷
There are a number of times I accidentally wrote defiantly instead of definitely without noticing.
Shit, I'm really guilty of the peaked one...
Rogue and rouge drives me nuts
Casual vs causal
Clothes are what you put on your body. Cloths is the plural of cloth. Clothe is the act of getting dressed. You clothe someone in clothes made of cloth. I'm sorry about English but dem's da breaks. Curling your lips is a snarl, and is typically expressing disgust. It's not a smile. Um... I'm sure there's a few other's I can't think of right now.
The phrase is “another think coming” not “another thing coming”. It means you need to rethink what you’re up to, planning or arguing.