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Commonly misused words



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Fri May 25, 2007 2:00 am
JC says...



Don't you hate it when there are different spellings of the same words and each of them has a different meaning? Especially when you don't know the difference between them.

The most common ones that I see (and do) wrong are...

Affect/Effect:
Affect- A verb meaning "to influence" or the much rarer version meaning "emotion"
Effect- a noun, meaning "to reasult in" or less commonly, "to create"

Quick way to remember...
"When you affect a situation, you have an effect on it."


Two/too/to
I even used to mix these up, but now I know
Two-obviously the number
too- meaning "also"
to- any other use of the word is this one.

Another one that's often mixed up is
Avenge/revenge
Avenge and revenge are often interchangeable, but frowned upon. If you seek revenge in the pursuit of justice, you want to avenge wrongs; not revenge them.

There are a lot of other confusing rules in English. But hey, nobody said it was an easy language. Memorize it, and move on, or so they say. =D

-JC
But that is not the question. Why we are here, that is the question. And we are blessed in this, that we happen to know the answer. Yes, in this immense confusion one thing alone is clear. We are waiting for Godot to come. -Beckett
  





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Fri May 25, 2007 3:26 am
snap says...



Ooh, ooh, I have one!! I actually just found one while proof reading my writing.

Stationary and stationery. I ALWAYS get these confused.
Stationery: Writing materials
Stationary: In one place; not moving.
The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon.
~ Robert Cormier
  





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Fri May 25, 2007 8:10 pm
Tyd says...



JCobsesed wrote:Quick way to remember...
"When you affect a situation, you have an effect on it."


Rawr; thats not quick XD Thats confusing.
As is a tale, so is life; not how long it is, but how good it is.
  








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