The Right Word: Correcting Commonly Confused, Misspelled, and Misused Words

168 Pages·2014·0.79 MB·English

by  Elizabeth Morrison

The Right Word
THE RIGHT WORD
Correcting Commonly Confused,
Misspelled,
and Misused Words
Elizabeth Morrison
Copyright © 2014 by Elizabeth Morrison All rights reserved under the Pan-
American and International Copyright Conventions. This book may not be
reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage
and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written
permission from the publisher, The Career Press.
THE RIGHT WORD
EDITED BY JODI BRANDON
TYPESET BY EILEEN MUNSON
Cover design by Howard Grossman
Printed in the U.S.A.
To order this title, please call toll-free 1-800-CAREER-1 (NJ and Canada: 201-
848-0310) to order using VISA or MasterCard, or for further information on
books from Career Press.
Text Copyright © Elizabeth Morrison
Exisle Publishing Ltd 2012
Published by arrangement with Exisle Publishing Ltd
The Career Press, Inc.
220 West Parkway, Unit 12
Pompton Plains, NJ 07444
www.careerpress.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Morrison,
Elizabeth (Teacher)
The Right word : correcting commonly confused, misspelled, and misused
words / By Elizabeth Morrison. pages cm Includes bibliographical references
and index.
ISBN 978-1-60163335-4 -- ISBN 978-1-60163-429-0 (ebook) 1. English
language--Usage--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. English language--Errors
in usage-Handbooks, manuals, etc. 3. English language-Orthography and
spelling--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 4. English language--Textbooks for
foreign speakers. I. Title.
PE1460M67 2014
428’.1--dc23
2014009775
Dedication
To all teachers
who endeavor tirelessly
to assist students
to understand the complexities
of the English language.
Acknowledgments
This project has taken quite a considerable time, and I would like to thank
my husband, Ron, for his unfailing support and enthusiasm, and my family, my
friends, and the staffs at Exisle Publishing and Career Press.
Disclaimer
Although this book is intended as a general information resource and all care
has been taken in compiling the contents, neither the author nor the publisher
and their distributors can be held responsible for any loss, claim, or action that
may arise from reliance on the information contained in this book.
CONTENTS
Preface
An A to Z of Homophones
Words Often Confused
Words Often Misspelled
References
About the Author
PREFACE
This book was originally designed to assist students (particularly those for
whom English was a second language) with the difficulties they encountered
when writing. Many of my students studying communications were from non-
English-speaking countries.
Problems with English usage became evident when students encountered
words that had the same sound but were spelled differently and had different
meanings (e.g., cite/ sight/site). Spellcheck could not be relied on every time to
identify a word spelled incorrectly, particularly if it seemed correct in the
context.
These words are known as homophones. (The word homophone derives from
the Greek homos, meaning “same,” and phone, meaning “sound.”)
Searching for the correct spelling of homophones using a dictionary can be
quite daunting and time consuming, as many times they appear under different
letters of the English alphabet (e.g., knot/not, air/heir, cue/queue, right/
rite/write). To overcome this problem, the homophones in this book appear in
alphabetical order and all have cross-references to the full entry. (For example,
cue/queue appears under C with a cross-reference to Q.) To assist understanding,
I have included, in most cases, the correct usage of homophones in phrases or
sentences as well as definitions. If a common saying is included, it will be in
bold so the reader better understands the term in everyday language.
After I started working on this book, I realized that many of the general
population, even if a native speaker, would find it very useful. Certainly many
people have difficulty with the correct spelling and usage of words such as
principal/principle, stationary/stationery, and their/there/ they’re. Also, some
translators, particularly those writing subtitles for English-speaking audiences or
providing technical information for English-speaking customers, should find this
book beneficial.
In a separate section, I have included other words that can cause considerable
confusion (e.g., elicit/illicit, childish/ childlike, imply/infer, and others such as
alright/all right, altogether/all together). A list of commonly misspelled words
has been added also.
To all who have problems with words that have the same or similar sound or
words that can be confused, this guide should be of great benefit.