The article lists commonly misused words, including apostrophes and contractions like “it/it’s” and “there/their/they’re”. Other examples include “accept/except”, “affect/effect”, and “proceed/precede”. A style guide can help correct usage.
The list of commonly misused words is extensive. There are several that tend to be more commonly misused and deserve to be included in a short list. Sometimes these misused words are simply the result of spelling mistakes, other times, misused words can significantly change the meaning of a sentence.
People tend to get into trouble with words by using apostrophes. Many people include apostrophes when changing a word to plural form. For example, if you want to pluralize friend, the correct plural is friends. The incorrect form is that of a friend. The apostrophe in this case implies possession.
Apostrophes are used for two purposes: to indicate the possessive form or to join two words such as non in “non”. However, two of the most commonly misused words are “it/it’s”. This is because the “is” does not indicate possession. Instead it is a contraction of the words “is”. “His of her” of her is possessive and a relative of him, her, you, them and us. He helps to think “his, his, his” to avoid abuse.
Another set of commonly overused words are “there, there, are, they, they”. “There” is a place, like “Ooh let’s go there for dinner”. “They/Their” indicates ownership, as in “That’s their car” or “The car is theirs”. Like “his,” “their” doesn’t require an apostrophe. “There is/They are” are both contractions. “There is” joins “there is” and “they” joins “them”.
“Who’s/Whose” are also commonly misused words. “Who is” is a contraction of “who is”. “Whose” indicates possession, as in “Whose shoes are these?” Even “your/are” is subject to the same confusion. “Your” owns, like “your shoes” and “you” joins “you are”.
Other commonly misused words often sound similar but have very different meanings, such as “insure/insure/insure.” To insure means to secure something, while to insure means to secure something. Insure really refers to insurance and should not be used in place of the other two words.
People often turn “accept/except” into commonly misused words. To accept something is to tolerate or accept it. Except is used to exclude something, such as “I like all flavors of ice cream except banana.”
Another commonly misused set of words is “affect/effect.” It’s helpful to remember that an effect is the result of something, as in cause and effect. Affect means to change something or alter something, such as “His speech profoundly affected the audience” or “He realized that he influenced the outcome of the experiment by forgetting to turn off the lamp.”
Other commonly misused words are “that/then”, “later/later”, proceed/precede” and “preface/forward”. The list goes way beyond these examples. A good style guide, such as Strunk and White’s Elements of Style, can help correct word usage. One can also find many books devoted specifically to commonly misused words that can help clear one’s writings of errors.
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