Some phrase pairs will most likely at all times proceed to be confused. Listed below are 5 such, all of which have been talked about on this website previously. The examples on this submit date from current months.
pore: (verb) to look at carefully
Confused with pour: (verb) to switch water or another substance from a container.
[Agents continue] to pour by means of the roughly 11,000 paperwork the FBI had obtained in its search. —CNN
In actual fact, the brokers continued to pore by means of the paperwork.
ceremony: (noun) A prescribed act or observance in a spiritual or different solemn ceremony; a customized, behavior, or communal apply.
Confused with proper: (noun) Authorized, ethical, or pure entitlement.
The error happens with the expression “ceremony of passage.” The time period originated within the terminology of cultural anthropology to check with such coming-of-age ceremonies such because the Bullet Ant ritual of Brazil and the face-tattooing of Inuit ladies.
The time period now encompasses such adolescent life occasions as acquiring a driver’s license and graduating from highschool.
The next citation is from a remark a few locality the place faculties are closed on the primary day of the looking season in order that kids can accompany adults to the woods.
It was a practice that turned a proper of passage for a lot of.
In actual fact, the occasion was a ceremony of passage.
desert: (noun) One thing worthy of recompense, both reward or punishment.
Confused with dessert: (noun) the final course of a meal.
Three English phrases are spelled desert, however they aren’t all pronounced the identical:
desert: [DEZ-ert] (noun) an arid place
desert: [deh-ZERT] (verb) to desert.
desert: [deh-ZERT] (noun) worthiness of recompense.
The error happens with the expression “simply deserts.”
Sadly it took all of the years for Mr. Jones to get his simply desserts.
Mr. Jones received his simply deserts.
hardy: (adjective) Of an individual or animal: able to enduring fatigue, hardship, or antagonistic circumstances; bodily strong; wholesome.
Confused with hearty: (adjective) Of an individual: of kindly sentiment or goodwill; exhibiting heat of affection or pleasant feeling; cordial, kind-hearted, genial. Of meals or drink: wealthy or plentiful in order to fulfill the urge for food; nourishing, healthful, strengthening.
The error happens when the context refers to a scenario wherein the power to endure hardship is known.
However within the late 1700s, Catherine the Nice, the Russian empress, colonized it [a wild part of Ukraine] with hearty souls from throughout the empire. —New York Instances
These of us could nicely have been hearty, however, contemplating the atmosphere, they first needed to be hardy.
brooch: (noun) a decorative fastening, consisting of a security pin with the clasping half common into a hoop, boss, defend, or different system of treasured metallic or different materials, artistically wrought, set with jewels, and many others.
Confused with broach. The phrase with this spelling has two denotations.
broach: (verb) to pierce a container in order to attract the liquor; to faucet.
broach: (noun) a tapering pointed instrument; such a factor used for roasting meat upon; a spit.
Each vowel spellings [oo and oa] are pronounced as lengthy o.
Princess Charlotte “wore a black hat and small horseshoe broach on her gown” —Washington Put up
The princess wore a brooch.
Associated posts
Listed below are hyperlinks to earlier mentions and discussions of those phrases. The readers’feedback make fascinating studying.
Poring over pore and pour
rite of passage
just deserts
hardy/hearty
brooch/broach
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