List of commonly misused words
affect / effect
- affect is usually a verb (your decision
to take a new job will affect your life)
- effect is usually a noun (your decision to take a new job will
have an effect on your life)
- but effect can be a verb in one bureaucratic instance (you
effected a change by taking a new job)
a lot / alot
- a lot is correct
- alot is a misspelling
all right / alright
- all right is correct
- alright is a (very common) misspelling
between / among
- between refers to two items (let's keep
this information between the two of us)
- among refers to more than two items (let's keep this information
among the three of us)—though this use is becoming archaic as
between takes its place
compliment / complement
- compliment means saying something nice (she
paid me a big compliment)
- complement means to go along nicely with (her hat complemented
her outfit)
fewer / less
- fewer has to do with things you can count
(there are fewer bananas in the basket today)
- less has to do with things you can't count—but instead can
measure amounts of (there is less sugar in the bowl)
flammable / inflammable
- flammable means easy to catch on fire
- inflammable means the same thing—easy to catch on fire! Be
careful!!
imply / infer
- imply is something the speaker does (she
implied we'd be meeting soon)
- infer is something the listener does (I inferred from
what she said that we'd be meeting soon)
it's / its /its'
- it's means it is (it's a nice
day)
- its is possessive—lots of personal pronouns make the possessive
without an apostrophe, such as his and hers (The printer
dominated the room because its color was electric blue!)
- its' is always a misspelling
site / cite / sight
- site is a location (like a web site)
- cite means to refer to (to cite a web site or to cite
a reference in a book)
- sight is what you see with your eyes
stationary / stationery
- stationary means still
- stationery is the paper your write on
than / then
- than compares things (my dad is stronger
than your dad)
- then usually refers to time (then I went to the restaurant)
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Copyright
2007 by Edward P. Bailey
(all rights reserved)
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