Blog: Words For Thought |
Blog: Words For Thought |
Welcome to the new edition of Words For Thought. Today we are looking at three common words. Two of these words are pronounced exactly alike, the third word is so close in pronunciation and other ways that I have chosen to include it in today’s discussion.
The problem with homophones is they sound alike, when we read and write most of us say the words aloud in our mind; we have been taught to sound them out from the earliest age. That skill, while always helpful, can create problems if we are not diligent in catching the incorrect word for the context. This problem is widespread in the English language and common usage. Two examples: to, too, and two; there, their, and they’re. The English language is full of these tripping hazards. These three words are related in Latin, an ancient Romance language; all of them have traveled extensively through Old French, Middle English and into our current era. Council usually refers to an official body directed to consider one or more matters necessary to the operation of a governmental, business, ecclesiastical, or private organization. A Council can be temporary or permanent, elected or appointed. Counsel can be a noun. It can be the proffered results of the previous word, Council, the advice or decision made after deliberations have ended. It can also be a lawyer or lawyers, as in Counsel for the Defense. As a verb, it means to give advice, by an authority or trusted friend. There are many synonyms for both of these words, differing shades of meaning are one of the things that make the English language such a rich medium of expression. Consul is a person appointed by a governmental body to represent it in a different organization or foreign country. An ambassador or diplomat would live in the foreign country and represent the interests of the sending body. There we have our three words, similar in sound and closely related in definition. Using the wrong word in your context will not trigger your spell-checker and a pothole has been created for your reader. Be sure to prevent those problems from happening, use Word Reiner, beta readers, a critique group, proofreaders or editors. We all want a smooth ride for the consumers of our writing. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed this issue of Homophones Hurt Your Writing. Follow me on twitter: @wordrefiner for more alerts about hazardous homophones, search #HomophonesHurtYourWriting. Don’t forget the free offer for writers under the “Learn More” tab on our website. Remember: Words Have Meaning and Spelling Makes a Difference. Copyright © 2015 Mark L Schultz
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Welcome to this edition of Words For Thought, the blog on wordrefiner.com. Like many of the previous blogs we are looking at homophones. Words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings.
I understand how important it is to have an error free manuscript. With over 40 years of experience, I have found that homophones give almost every writer fits and difficulties. Because we sound words out in our mind, it is easy to write the wrong word. Let’s not forget typographical errors also, a slip of the finger on the keyboard can create a different word that may not be caught by a spell-checker. There are many groups of words that vary by only one letter, such as vary and very, or must, mist and most. The correctly spelled word in the wrong context will not be flagged by most spell-checkers. Word Refiner is dedicated to uprooting all of these hidden errors and providing your document free of spelling errors that you want and deserve. Now, onto today’s episode! Today we have some interesting words, of course, all words are interesting; they have histories, growth and migrations; they move around quite a bit sometimes. Words are part of the baggage that people carry with them wherever they go. Two of these words are fairly regional, commonly used in areas with active seaports. Two of these words might be mispronounced, more on that later. These words are borrowed from the Romance languages like so many others. Quay can be traced to French several centuries ago it was spelled “quai” and is related to Old Spanish “cayo”. Beyond that in the 14th century it was “keye”, and with a Celtic origin as “kai”. The definition of quay is a structure for loading and unloading ships running parallel to the shore. Serving as a breakwater is another function of a quay, slowing down the intensity of incoming waves. This is unlike a pier or wharf, which are built perpendicular from the shore and stick out into the water. Cay is from the early 1700’s and is from Spanish. Like the previous word, it has origins in “cayo”. Some think it is related to quay also. Cay is a small sandy island on top of coral. Many of them are nearly submerged by high tides, some completely. This word is used very frequently in the Caribbean. These little islands are frequented by sea birds and crabs of different kinds. Key is actually closely related to the two previous words in one of its definitions. When you search for key on Google, the second version is similar in definition to both quay and cay. Most of us know it primarily as a small metallic object with notches used to lock and unlock doors or padlocks. Of course there are the devices that I am using to type this blog: the keys of my laptop keyboard. There are standardized tests that have an answer key to facilitate correcting the tests. There are uses in music and other disciplines as well. Now it is later, let us talk about pronunciations. The definition of a homophone is two or more words that sound the same but are spelled differently. Some people might think these three words are not homophone, maybe two of them, but not all three. If you use Google again, you will find that all three can be pronounced the same and pronounced differently. They can all be pronounced as “kee”, my choice today. I have chosen to treat them as homophones for the purposes of this blog. Feel free to disagree with me at length in a cordial fashion. There they are, three words with identical sounds and a somewhat related history. If you use the wrong word the reader might think they hit an unknown speed bump and lose the momentum you worked so hard to build. Use every tool available to prevent that from happening, do not give your readers a reason to not finish your story. Use Word Refiner, beta readers, critique partners, proofreaders and editors to ensure that your work is error free and as smooth as possible. Thanks for stopping by, we hope you enjoyed this issue of Homophones Hurt Your Writing on Words For Thought. Follow us on twitter: @wordrefiner, for more alerts about hazardous homophones search for #HomophonesHurtYourWriting or #TyposHurtYourWriting on twitter. Don’t forget the free offer for writers under the “Learn More” tab on our website. Remember: Words Have Meaning and Spelling Makes a Difference. Copyright © 2015 Mark L Schultz Welcome to this edition of Words For Thought, the blog on wordrefiner.com. Like many of the previous blogs we are looking at homophones. Words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings.
I understand how important it is to have an error free manuscript. With over 40 years of experience, I have found that homophones give almost every writer fits and difficulties. Because we sound words out in our mind, it is easy to write the wrong word. Let’s not forget typographical errors also, a slip of the finger on the keyboard can create a different word that may not be caught by a spell-checker. There are many groups of words that vary by only one letter, such as vary and very, or must, mist and most. The correctly spelled word in the wrong context will not be flagged by most spell-checkers. Word Refiner is dedicated to uprooting all of these hidden errors and providing your document free of spelling errors that you want and deserve. Now, onto today’s episode! Three common words in the English language. Like so many other words, these have been borrowed from another language. We own them now. Homophones present an interesting problem for a lot of people, because homophones are words that sound alike. When we read, we are saying the words “aloud” in our mind; we know what we are reading and it makes sense. When we write, we are operating in the same fashion; reading out loud in our mind, and it is easy to choose the wrong word if you are not paying close attention. Most spellcheckers have an inherent weakness, (God bless the person who invented the spell checker!), and they will not flag the correctly spelled word in the wrong context. Voila! You have a hidden spelling error because the spellchecker will not see it as wrong. Some people, who are not good spellers, may or may not notice the error when reading. The rest of us will feel like we just hit a speed bump without warning! I find these spelling errors and others in 95% of published books. What was a great ride suddenly became uncomfortable, and the pure pleasure of reading was marred. Fresh Eyes is one solution to this problem. See my other blog about Fresh Eyes for more information. Now, on to the game! Confident is a great word, it comes from 16th century France, and it means having Full and Complete Trust. All three of these words are derived from an identical Latin root. An adjective, it brings texture and color to a subject. A carpenter is confident in his skill to fix the broken table. I am confident the pilot can land the plane safely. Confidant and Confidante are nouns and from the French language also. They mean a person that you share your most private and important secrets with. The former is considered masculine, while the latter is feminine. You are sharing with a boyfriend or a girlfriend, depending on which form you choose. There they are, three words with identical sounds and a somewhat related history. If you use the wrong word the reader might think they hit an unknown speed bump and lose the momentum you worked so hard to build. Use every tool available to prevent that from happening, do not give your readers a reason to not finish your story. Use Word Refiner, beta readers, critique partners, proofreaders and editors to ensure that your work is error free and as smooth as possible. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed this issue of Homophones Hurt Your Writing on Words For Thought. Follow me on twitter: @wordrefiner, for more alerts about hazardous homophones search for #HomophonesHurtYourWriting or #TyposHurtYourWriting on twitter. Don’t forget the free offer for writers under the “Learn More” tab on our website. Remember: Words Have Meaning and Spelling Makes a Difference. Copyright © 2015 Mark L Schultz Welcome to this edition of Words For Thought, the blog on wordrefiner.com. Like many of the previous blogs we are looking at homophones. Words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings.
I understand how important it is to have an error free manuscript. With over 40 years of experience, I have found that homophones give almost every writer fits and difficulties. Because we sound words out in our mind, it is easy to write the wrong word. Let’s not forget typographical errors also, a slip of the finger on the keyboard can create a different word that may not be caught by a spell-checker. There are many groups of words that vary by only one letter, such as vary and very, or must, mist and most. The correctly spelled word in the wrong context will not be flagged by most spell-checkers. Word Refiner is dedicated to uprooting all of these hidden errors and providing your document free of spelling errors that you want and deserve. Now, onto today’s episode! Eminent is a very common word, it means outstanding or famous in most senses of the usage. There is an extension in the realm of law and politics. When a governmental body uses its status to take control over private property, this is called Eminent Domain. Imminent is a word almost as common as Eminent. Imminent means about to happen, likely to occur very soon. One of the most frequent phrases we see is “Imminent danger”. Immanent is a word we seldom see. It is used by theologians and philosophers. The theological meaning refers to an attribute of God, that He is present everywhere throughout the universe at the same time. Philosophers use this term in their discussions to mean something is inherent. Quantum mechanics has a similar attribute. Einstein described it as "spooky action at a distance." He was not a fan of quantum theory. There they are, three words with identical sounds and a somewhat related history. If you use the wrong word the reader might think they have hit an unseen pothole and lose the reading momentum you worked so hard to build. Use every tool available to prevent that from happening, do not give your readers a reason to not finish your story. Use Word Refiner, beta readers, critique partners, proofreaders and editors to ensure that your work is error free and as smooth as possible. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed this issue of Homophones Hurt Your Writing on Words For Thought. Follow me on twitter: @wordrefiner, for more alerts about hazardous homophones search for #HomophonesHurtYourWriting or #TyposHurtYourWriting on twitter. Don’t forget the free offer for writers under the “Learn More” tab on our website. Remember: Words Have Meaning and Spelling Makes a Difference. Copyright © 2015 Mark L Schultz Today’s blog is brought to you by the letter “G to the power of 4”.
Typographical errors are thought to be a thing of the past by casual observers of the written word, They innocently think the computer spellchecker solves that problem. Those of us who labor in the written arts know all too better to the contrary. I find spelling errors in 95% of published books. While computer spellcheckers do a nice job of finding and correcting some typographical mistakes, they fail when the mistyped word is a correctly spelled word. Authors and other writers understand this problem well. We are going to look at a prime example of this issue, there are many others that we will discuss later. We have four words that start and end the same, the only difference is the letter in the second position: Gall, Gill, Goll, and Gull. Here we go! Gall has two main meanings: 1st is bad manners or impudent behavior. The 2nd is medical, related to the gallbladder or spleen. Gall is a bitter substance which aids in digestion. Gill is the organ by which a fish extracts oxygen from the water and is able to breathe. Fish and some amphibians have two on their body. Gill or gills, rather, are also a structure found on the underside of a mushroom cap. Goll is an archaic British word meaning hand or claw. So its use is limited for a lot of writers. Gull is a bird that populates coastal areas and is very comfortable around people. Some call them sky-rats because they scavenge and eat almost anything like those rodents. I was hoping to be able to use the word Gell. But it is another archaic word originating in Scotland, it means girl. So I decided to leave it out of the main list but could not resist the mention as a word-nerd. Bonus: We found another old word from The United Kingdom, it has five letters and thus was excluded from the main list. We include it at no extra charge here. Ghyll means a deep wooded ravine, or a narrow mountain stream. It has a nice ring to it. Thank you for joining us today. If there are other words that you would like to see examined, please leave a comment. There they are, three words with different sounds and a somewhat related history. If you use the wrong word the reader might think they hit an invisible tree root and lose the reading momentum you worked so hard to build. Use every tool available to prevent that from happening, do not give your readers a reason to not finish your story. Use Word Refiner, beta readers, critique partners, proofreaders and editors to ensure that your work is error free and as smooth as possible. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed this issue of Typos Hurt Your Writing on Words For Thought. Follow me on twitter: @wordrefiner, for more alerts about terrible typos search for #TyposHurtYourWriting on twitter. Don’t forget the free offer for writers under the “Learn More” tab on our website. Remember: Words Have Meaning and Spelling Makes a Difference. Copyright © 2015 Mark L Schultz Welcome to this edition of Words For Thought, the blog on wordrefiner.com. Like many of the previous blogs we are looking at homophones. Words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings.
I understand how important it is to have an error free manuscript. With over 40 years of experience, I have found that homophones give almost every writer fits and difficulties. Because we sound words out in our mind, it is easy to write the wrong word. Let’s not forget typographical errors also, a slip of the finger on the keyboard can create a different word that may not be caught by a spell-checker. There are many groups of words that vary by only one letter, such as vary and very, or must, mist and most. The correctly spelled word in the wrong context will not be flagged by most spell-checkers. Word Refiner is dedicated to uprooting all of these hidden errors and providing your document free of spelling errors that you want and deserve. Now, onto today’s episode! Three of the shortest words in the English language. So simple and yet they will trip you up, if they are used incorrectly. Because they sound alike. 1st is To. To is a preposition, it can be used with nouns, pronouns, and verbs. We go to the stadium to see the football game. We forgot to bring our blanket, we were cold. 2nd is Too. This word can be used in multiple ways also. You ate too much ice cream. I want some ice cream too. The first example deals with the concept of excess, the second is like saying also. 3rd is Two. While not often mixed up with the first pair of homonyms, it is subject to typographical errors, as they all are. An easy way to remember for my numerically challenged friends is the letter “w”. It is used in other words dealing with numbers like twice, and twenty. Perhaps this tip will help: when in doubt, try reading the section aloud; unless you are in a library, then reading aloud is not allowed. Oops, two more homophones. No extra charge. Thanks to my friend Ev Valle, of Valle Translations, for suggesting this trio of homonyms. There they are, three words with identical sounds. If you use the wrong word the reader might think they hit an invisible tree root and lose the reading momentum you worked so hard to build. Use every tool available to prevent that from happening, do not give your readers a reason to not finish your story. Use Word Refiner, beta readers, critique partners, proofreaders and editors to ensure that your work is error free and as smooth as possible. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed this issue of Homophones Hurt Your Writing on Words For Thought. Follow me on twitter: @wordrefiner, for more alerts about hazardous homophones search for #HomophonesHurtYourWriting or #TyposHurtYourWriting on twitter. Don’t forget the free offer for writers under the “Learn More” tab on our website. Remember: Words Have Meaning and Spelling Makes a Difference. Copyright © 2015 Mark L Schultz |
AuthorAn avid reader and hyper speller. I am a husband, father, and grandfather. Archives
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