Daily Writing Tips: 50 Problem Words and Phrases

hannikan · March 2011

For our language police and offenders alike:

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/50-problem-words-and-phrases/

In peak/pique he should also have included peek. To peek around a corner should not be spelled peak. I see this a lot.

wary/weary should also have been included. Wary means you are apprehensive. Weary means you are tired.

Isle/aisle should be there, too. An isle is an island. An aisle is an interior walkway.

sm23 · March 2011

Your link doesn't work.

Structenggal · March 2011

I have a better way to remember the difference between lay and lie:

to lay is to place (as in to lay your purse somewhere). the "a" in lay goes with the "a" in place

to lie is to recline (as in I'm going to go lie down). The "i" in lie goes with the "i" in recline.

that's how I remember it, anyway.

hannikan · March 2011

sm23:
Your link doesn't work.

Seriously, why does this keep happening to me when I post? It won't work in my post but if I post it in a reply it does... sigh...

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/50-problem-words-and-phrases/

mrswall84 · March 2011

What drives me up the wall is when people say "supposubly" instead of "supposedly." Or when sentences end with prepositions (this bothers me less when spoken). I hate bad grammar and I try to drill grammar into my students' brains. I even use proper grammar in my text messages. It's almost like grammar is becoming a lost art.

sm23 · March 2011

mrswall84:
What drives me up the wall is when people say "supposubly" instead of "supposedly." Or when sentences end with prepositions (this bothers me less when spoken). I hate bad grammar and I try to drill grammar into my students' brains. I even use proper grammar in my text messages. It's almost like grammar is becoming a lost art.

I'm so glad to hear this! I know some students probably roll their eyes at this and wonder why grammar even matters. But it does matter and I hope at least some of them absorb what you're trying to teach them. It is important!

Passanie · March 2011

This is interesting. Thanks for posting. I always mix up jibe and jive.

And just to point out, ending sentences with prepositions is a rule many deliberately don't follow, including the in the journalism world.

MadameD517 · March 2011

Thanks for posting! I always wish I could have someone proof read everything to correct my mistakes, especially on here so that I could see what I'm doing wrong!

tilden2 · March 2011

They also forgot ball/bawl. The first one is a thing you kick around. The other is what you do when you get kicked around.

hannikan · March 2011

I'm always surprised when I see board/bored mixed up. Bored means you feel like nothing interesting is going on. A Board is something you tack stuff on. Another is roll and role. Roll can mean to roll a ball or a hula hoop. It can also mean a small, circular shaped bread. Role is a position or responsibility in something, like a job or a part in a play. When a teacher calls roll or to talk about roll call uses roll not role. Roll call is the calling of the names of people from a list (roll) to determine the presence or absence of the listed people

Daily Writing Tips: 50 Problem Words and Phrases

Re: Daily Writing Tips: 50 Problem Words and Phrases

Choose Another Board

Search Boards