4.4.2: Commonly Confused Terms

A List of Commonly Confused Terms

Can you differentiate between these terms? How do you use each one in a sentence?

1. Affect/Effect
2. Accept/Except
3. Advice/advise
4. Atone/intone
5. Allegory/Alligator (;p)
6. Conscious/Conscience
7. Eminent/Immanent/Imminent
8. Lead/led
9. Passed/past
10. Capitol/Capital
11. Precede/Proceed
12. To/Too/Two
13. Than/Then
14. Their/There/They’re
15. Who/whom
16. Which/that/who
17. Quote/Quotation
18. Through/Threw/Thorough/Thru
19. Though/Although/tho
20. Lie/lay
21. Elicit/illicit
22. Complement/Compliment
23. Breath/breathe
24. Assent/ascent
25. Altogether/all together
26. Already/all ready
27. All right/alright
28. Apart/a part
29. It’s/its
30. Lose/loose
31. Stationary/stationery
32. Allusion/illusion
33. Disinterested/Uninterested
34. Bear/bare
35. Further/farther
36. Hanged/Hung
37. Bass/bass
38. Tail/tale
39. Arc/arch
40. Carte blanche
41. A la carte/A la mode
42. Gender/sex
43. R.S.V.P.
44. Requiescat in pace
45. e.g./i.e.
46. Among/amongst
47. Among/between
48. Assure/ensure/insure
49. Complement/compliment
50. Who’s/whose
51. Learned/learnt or Dreamed/dreamt
52. Historic/Historical
53. Purposely/Purposefully
54. Dissemble/Disassemble
55. Deprecate/Depreciate
56. Inquire/enquire
57. Should’ve/should of
58. Converse/conversate
59. Comment/commentate
60. Where/were/we’re
61. Evoke/invoke
62. Toward/towards
63. Emigrate/immigrate

Now see them in action!

1. Affect/Effect -- How do special effects affect your movie-going experience?
2. Accept/Except -- I can accept all forms of currency, except Francs.
3. Advice/advise -- I may advise you to get some different advice on this issue!
4. Atone/intone -- No matter what his mother intoned when asking about the broken window, he know that to atone for the act signaled his guilt.
5. Allegory/Alligator (;p) -- I hope this isn’t confusing for you, but it’s a good idea to look up allegory(opens in new window) if you don’t know what that is!
6. Conscious/Conscience -- While conscious of the consequences, my conscience was telling me to ignore the call.
7. Eminent/Immanent/Imminent -- I present to you her eminent majesty, imminently, that is—there’s been a slight delay. I’m afraid my power to conjure her at this exact moment is not immanent.

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8. Lead/led – He led the horse past the lead trough, which was obviously built by a dunderhead.
9. Passed/past – Regarding past civilizations, the representatives of them having long since passed on, we rely on archeological knowledge to reconstruct their quotidian activities.
10. Capitol/Capital There was an incredible amount of capital invested in reconstructing the dome on the state capitol.
11. Precede/Proceed – Please proceed to the area which precedes the boarding room.
12. To/Too/Two -- I too was once two, though I am too old to remember much.
13. Than/Then -- Then is not necessarily better than now; this notion of a golden past is called nostalgia.
14. Their/There/They’re -- Their differences unable to be set aside, they’re going to play a high stakes game of rugby there on the hill behind University Park.

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15. Who/whom – With whom did who do what?
16. Which/that/who – Who went over that hill, and which way did they go?
17. Quote/Quotation – To quote someone, you first locate a desired quotation.
18. Through/Threw/Thorough/Thru – A thorough glance around the field first, and then Jeckson threw the ball all the way through to the outfielder. (Thru is only for texting.)
19. Though/Although/tho – Although the sun dried tomatoes had had little time to desiccate, we decided to cook with them, though we later regretted the decision. (Tho is only for texting.)
20. Lie/lay – I did not lie down for an hour like yesterday when I lay for six just trying to get rid of this migraine.
21. Elicit/illicit – I heard him elicit a cheerful chirp as he inherited the illicit fireworks.

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22. Complement/Compliment – “The way your eyes complement that blouse is stunning,” he complimented me.
23. Breath/breathe – How do I breathe whenever I want to take a breath around you?
24. Assent/ascent – The ascent to the top of Mount Scushrum was not one to which I would assent accompanying my friend, Meclo, again.
25. Altogether/All together (opens in new window) – Now sing all together, in unison! Yes, this is the altogether best performance you’ve given!
26. Already/all ready – She is all ready for her close-up already, Mr. DeMille.
27. All right/alright/Aight – The kids are all right. The kids are going to be alright. (Aight is 13375p3ak.)
28. Apart/a part – I took a part in the play, but I wasn’t prepared for the director to tear my confidence apart.

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29. It’s/its – It’s its own mystery, isn’t it?
30. Lose/loose – The runner’s loose shoelaces caused him to lose the race.
31. Stationary/stationery – Being stationary for months in lockdown, I acquired some snazzy stationery to write snail mail.
32. Allusion/illusion – The ability to use allusion in writing gives the illusion of academic involvement.
33. Disinterested/Uninterested – We prefer scholars to be disinterested when conducting studies, but the uninterested scholar may find completing their tasks difficult.
34. Bear/bare – Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, but he had no hair, so he was a bare bear.
35. Further/farther – As we ventured farther, the end of the rainbow and its pot of gold stretched further away.

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36. Hanged/Hung – The stockings were hung by the chimney with care while the corpses were hanged on the gallows with despair.
37. Bass/bass – My band’s bass player ordered grilled bass, ironically.
38. Tail/tale – As we got to the tail-end of the lad’s tale, he fell asleep mid-sentence.
39. Arc/arch -- If you draw out a character’s progression, his/her/their arc in a story, it resembles an arch, or a parabola.
    1. The arch-mage casts arc lightning (for the gamers).
40. Carte blanche – We were given cart blanche at Chipotle after their catering gave my entire wedding reception norovirus.
41. A la carte/A la mode – On our a la carte menu, you can find the pie a la mode, that is, with ice cream on top!
42. Gender/sex – If you are cisgender, your sexual orientation is in agreement with your biologically assigned sex.

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43. R.S.V.P. – French for “repondez s’il vous plait,” literally “respond please.”
    1. Note: S’il vous plait is formal French, while the informal choice would be s’il te plait. The difference for them is in the vous or the te, which are pronoun-type words. The vous is like a formal, or respectful, form of you; te is an informal/familiar way to address someone like a friend or equal. How do we designate our respect for people linguistically in English, if we do at all?
44. Requiescat in pace (RIP) – Although “rest in power” has become a cool new way to honor those who’ve passed, the traditional RIP is from Latin—requiescat in pace, rest in peace. (Can you see the word requiem in the Latin expression?)
45. g./i.e. – For example (exempli gratis or e.g.) versus That is (id est or i.e.)
    1. We have covered many concepts in this course, e.g., rhetorical appeals. We have covered many concepts in this course, i.e., everything we can related to writing for college settings.
46. Among/Amongst – Use either one, but the British generally prefer more letters (amongst = U.K. English).
47. Among/between – Among all the teachers vying for the principal’s position, it was between Ms. Vanderpump and Mr. Schneckles.
48. Assure/ensure/insure – They named the drink Ensure after the term ensure because they want to assure you that it will ensure you get adequate nutrition. But does drinking Ensure insure this?
49. Principal/principle – The principles discussed in the paper are principal to epigenetic developments.

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50. Who’s/whose – Whose dreams these are, or who’s dreaming them, we may never know. All we know is that we are made manifest by the dreamer.
51. Learned/learnt or Dreamed/dreamt– I learnt quite a time ago that it was right bloody good and daunting a task, but I had never dreamt to be so boggled by it all! It’s preposterous! (Heh, learnt/dreamt are chiefly U.K. English expressions.)
52. Historic/Historical – The historic moments of my youth, e.g. Sept. 11, would not be so if they had no importance to the collective of humanity.
    1. Note: Any event can be historical (happening in the past), but only momentous ones are designated historic.
53. Purposely/Purposefully
    1. To make matters worse, Cooper purposely exaggerated the call and told police the bird watcher was attacking her.
    2. There’s a difference between a purposefully told lie and an accidentally told truth.
54. Dissemble/Disassemble – Disassemble the mechanism! Dissemble yourselves, soldiers—the Admiral is on deck!
55. Deprecate/Depreciate – We do not depreciate our dead with tawdry taxidermic displays; such acts as stuffing corpses for display are not unheard of, but they are deprecated by most moral beings.
56. Inquire/enquire – The British prefer “enquire” as their lawyers are also called either “barristers” or “esquires.”

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57. Should’ve/should of – You should’ve been taught that should of is not proper English. It’s the way we think “should’ve” sounds, so we spell it that way, but I assure you that the expression is “should have” or “should’ve” as a contraction. Should of is considered an error.
58. Converse/conversate – Like the next one, these words are weird. Conversate forms from conversation, but it’s only around because people confusingly use it over and over again. These (commentate and conversate) are back formations of their longer noun forms: commentator or conversation—but we should write “comment” when we talk about what a commentator does, and we should write “converse” when we talk about what’s going on in a conversation (Whitman).
59. Comment/commentate – see above
60. Were/we’re – Now that we’re almost at the end of the list, were you paying attention to any of these clever memory pegs?
61. Evoke/invoke –

Usage Example: Invoke and Evoke

Watching the priestess invoke her deity for healing and protection evoked in me a strong pull toward the divine.

62. Toward/towards – Toward = U.S.; towards = U.K. (remember, they like extra letters)

63. Emigrate/immigrate – Im/in = a part of; E = away from (think escape, elude, evade) (prefixes)—We emigrated from Somalia in 2002, and now we live as immigrants in a polarized United States.

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Work Cited

Whitman, Neal. "Is Conversate a Word?" Quick and Dirty Tips, MacMillan, 26 July 2018, www.quickanddirtytips.com/articles/is-conversate-a-word/.