While I was editing a client project the other day, I came across the word “defuse”, and I realized that it could be easy for people to confuse “diffuse” and “defuse”. Here’s the difference:
Category: Grammar
Pasteries: is that a real word?
The other day, I encountered a word I had never seen before: Pasteries I quickly checked Google and saw that it actually had over 300,000 search results!
Difference between proceeding and preceding
I recently came across an oddly worded sentence that made me realize that some people apparently confuse the words “proceed” and “precede”. Although they sound similar when said quickly, they’re not homonyms. It’s easy to confuse them, but here are their meanings:
Difference between free reign and free rein
The other day, I came across the following headline on the website of a radio station in San Antonio in Texas: How to Reign in College Costs in TX? Just days later, I came across this one on the website of an Australian newspaper: Former Cowboy enjoys free reign at Jets Both of these examples are… Continue reading Difference between free reign and free rein
Do you capitalize newspaper headlines?
I used to manage a citizen journalism website, so I often keep my eye on logistical issues regarding the local media. One thing I’ve noticed is their inconsistency in capitalizing words in a story headline. Here are some recent examples of Lethbridge news sources that capitalize headlines:
Is wedding anniversary capitalized?
Here’s an example I saw on Facebook today: Kinda busy celebrating my 20th Wedding Anniversary with my dear husband. Notice that “Wedding Anniversary” is capitalized? I see examples of this fairly often; in fact, capitalization is one of the writing mistakes I correct most frequently. Here’s the thing: you should capitalize words in basically only 3… Continue reading Is wedding anniversary capitalized?
Is midnight 12:00 a.m. or 12:00 p.m.?
Have you ever tried to tell someone to meet you at midnight but weren’t sure whether to write 12:00 a.m. or 12:00 p.m.? Or maybe got into a heated argument regarding which to use? Well, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that you’ve probably been wrong about it. Here’s why:
Difference between home and hone
Last week, while editing a client’s document, I came across the following phrase: “as I homed my skills”. That’s actually incorrect, and here’s why:
Difference between adieu and ado
Last week, a friend of mine posted on Facebook using the following phrase: “without further adieu”. It’s a phrase I’ve seen from time to time, and I wanted to highlight here why it’s wrong:
Difference between biding time and buying time
While editing a document for a client recently, I came across the phrase “buying time”. While the phrase is completely normal, in this context, it should’ve been “biding time”. So what’s the difference? Biding time To bide means to wait, so biding one’s time is just another way of saying “to wait” or “to be patient”.… Continue reading Difference between biding time and buying time