Most of the parts of speech are fairly easy to grasp—nouns are things that can serve as subjects or objects, verbs are things that usually denote actions or states of being, and so on—but some are a little more slippery. Take gerunds and participles, for instance. Maybe you know that there are … [Read more...]
The Difference between Incident and Incidence
Uh-oh. He did something stupid again, and in public. Forget worrying about who exactly he is — is this yet another incident or incidence? These two related words can be confusing for many, and their similarities can make it easy even for copyeditors to miss. Incidence is a mass noun that refers … [Read more...]
5 More Pairs of Uncommon Confusable Words
"Commonly confused words" lists exist in excess online, and professional copyeditors make a point of internalizing those common word problems as a matter of professional development. No, what trips us up are the confusable words that are uncommon, like the ten words listed below. Good copyeditors … [Read more...]
Know Your Creatures of the Night
If ever you were going to be visited by an incorporeal creature, Halloween would be the night for it to happen. Such apparitions would have every opportunity to hide in plain sight among the ninja turtles, Jedi, fairy princesses, and superheroes traipsing from house to house begging for … [Read more...]
Some Nouns Have Too Many Plurals
Forming regular plural nouns in English is a pretty simple concept, but that's where the simplicity ends. English has so many different irregular plurals — and so many different types! There are plurals that are identical to their singular versions (sheep: sheep), plurals that change for count and … [Read more...]
Homonym, Homophone, or Homograph?
As is too often the case, the differences among three concepts — in this case homonyms, homographs, and homophones — seem simple and clear . . . until you try to explain them. Whether it's indicative of a bona fide disagreement among word people or of a historical confusion that is reflected in … [Read more...]
Confusables: Assure, Ensure, and Insure
Spellcheck probably won't help you choose correctly among assure, ensure, and insure. In fact, because of some overlap in definitions, you might have some problems yourself deciding which word is the right one, especially if you're working with historical texts. According to Etymonline, ensure … [Read more...]
Toward a More Accurate Vocabulary of Hate
Greek gives us a useful combining form for creating words about hate, but we might not be using it as often as we should. Miso- comes from misein, meaning "to hate," and it gives us a handful of highfalutin words for low-brow antipathies, like these: misogyny: hatred of women misogamy: … [Read more...]