Commonly Confused Words

Quote by cydia

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/lay-lie/

Because it 🐻🐻 repeating.

Y'all should know, whenever I read "I take off my panties and I lay on the bed", I immediately picture your protagonist as a chicken for the rest of your story. 🤭

This one always trips me up. My solution is to ask my wife, because she understands and remembers the rule, whereas I am just lazy and forgetful.

Discreet and Discrete is probably the one the one bugs me the most, but I also realize it is might often be a typo that got missed rather than consciously messing them up. I hope.

Quote by cydia

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/lay-lie/

Because it 🐻🐻 repeating.

Y'all should know, whenever I read "I take off my panties and I lay on the bed", I immediately picture your protagonist as a chicken for the rest of your story. 🤭

I keep this with me.

Quote by dronette56

I keep this with me.

The easiest way for me to avoid confusion is to check if someone is putting something/someone somewhere, the first column in your pic applies. Lay (present) needs a subject and an object.

If it's just someone/something resting on a surface, then is lie (present), or the right column in your pic

Ugh! Discreet vs discrete is driving me crazy! There are at least two entries in the competition using “discrete” incorrectly! Actually, one of them might be an intentional pun, but it’s not obvious enough to be sure.

“Tammi cheated on Jeff on at least three discrete occasions, but she was discreet about it.” There! That’s how you do it! /rant

I was taught Australian English when I emigrated from SA. Did I emigrate from South Africa and immigrate to Australia? Have I learnt English or have I learned English? I am far more learned in Afrikaans than English. I stood stationary whilst (or while?) perusing the stationery section.

Thankyou or thank you?

Quote by Boerseun

I was taught Australian English when I emigrated from SA. Did I emigrate from South Africa and immigrate to Australia? Have I learnt English or have I learned English? I am far more learned in Afrikaans than English. I stood stationary whilst (or while?) perusing the stationery section.

Thankyou or thank you?

Immigrate is not a verb in common use in British English. Emigrate is used for the to and from senses.

Learnt and learned are interchangeable in most senses, but learnt is more common in the UK I would say. But note the exception, 'It was a learned affectation in her speech.' I can't imagine learnt being used in this way.

Whilst and while is a real doozy. But in the sense you used above, either is correct.

Poisonous and venomous. Toadstools and Golden Dart Frogs are poisonous; Black Mambas and Box Jellyfish are venomous.

Poisonous things are of themselves toxic. Venomous things deliver the toxin by biting etc.

How about hoe and ho. Huge difference!

Quote by Quietlywatching

How about hoe and ho. Huge difference!

Do you judge these to be commonly confused?

Quote by Quietlywatching

How about hoe and ho. Huge difference!

Quote by DanielleX

Do you judge these to be commonly confused?

I don't think they are commonly confused in the singular, although I have occasionally read a story referring to a woman as a "hoe." Maybe the confusion has to do with the plural for both words being spelled "hoes?"

Quote by DanielleX

Poisonous and venomous. Toadstools and Golden Dart Frogs are poisonous; Black Mambas and Box Jellyfish are venomous.

Poisonous things are of themselves toxic. Venomous things deliver the toxin by biting etc.

I wasn't aware of that distinction. I will remember that.

Quote by DanielleX

Poisonous and venomous. Toadstools and Golden Dart Frogs are poisonous; Black Mambas and Box Jellyfish are venomous.

Poisonous things are of themselves toxic. Venomous things deliver the toxin by biting etc.

Sooo Alice Cooper going "You're poison running through my veins" is technically impossible...?

It all depends on how it got there, like so many things in life.