Get It Right: Rite, Right, and Write

For those of you who speak English natively or at a very high level, this post may seem almost pointless. However, for those learning English, and a few of you who are a bit fast and loose with your spelling, this is a very important lesson.

If you've read our other Get It Right posts, you´re probably aware that we're slowly but surely working our way through some of the most common mistakes made in the English language. Today we're looking at three homophones: rite, right, and write.

Rite

We'll start with the most obscure of the three: rite. The term has a number of definitions, mostly pertaining to religious uses. As a type of religious act, the word made its way into Middle English from the Latin term ritus. In addition to its religious connotations, its meaning has also expanded to include social customs and other secular practices such as "funeral rites".

Right

In addition to being the opposite direction of left, right can act as a noun, adjective, adverb, and noun. Generally speaking, the term can either refer to the direction, that which is morally approved or correct, an entitlement to do something, or to correct something.

Before pens, feathers were used to write.

Write

The last of our three homophones today is write, the verb for marking the letters or characters of a language onto a surface. It is also used to describe the act of arranging words, as an author would do with a book, even if they aren't physically writing and are instead using a computer or even dictating their story to someone who is.

Wright

As a little treat and to make matters more confusing, we also have wright, a term that is very occasionally used in Scotland and Northern England. The term refers to someone who makes something for a living, particularly a carpenter or a joiner. However, you´re more likely to recognise the word as a common surname.

Well, we hope you've learned something today. If there are any terms you often struggle with in the English language, tell us about them in the comments and we'll try to get around to helping you get it right!

Get It Right: Nauseous and Nauseated

Today I'll be addressing a personal pet peeve: the difference between nauseous and nauseated. Have you ever had someone correct you and say that you can't be nauseous but you can be nauseated? Annoying, isn't it? Today we will show you how, finally, the grammar Nazis are wrong. However, before we even get into the differences between the two terms, let's have a look at some common suffixes.

Suffixes are common word endings that can, and usually do, dictate word type. Our two words for today, nauseous and nauseated, share a common root - nausea. The word nausea comes from the Ionic Greek nautia, which made its way into Latin as nausea, literally meaning seasickness. Now that we understand our root, we can begin to understand today's problematic words.

Ericameria nauseosa, also known as "rubber rabbitbrush".

The suffix -ous also comes from Latin, which means it pairs well with words with Latin roots. Though the Latin suffix was spelled -osus, it made its way into French as both -ous and -eux, whereas the former is preferred in English. This suffix makes a noun into an adjective as the suffix effectively means "having, full of, having to do with, inclined to", therefore making nauseous mean literally, full of nausea.

Our second word is from a verb, the infinitive to nauseate meaning "to become sick" or "be affected by nausea". Nauseated is of course the past participle of to nauseate, meaning that the person has been affected by nausea.

Most grammar Nazis will tell you that you can only use nauseous in reference to the thing that will make you feel ill, unwell, or akin to seasickness, such as rotten fish, mouldy cheese (except the good kinds that are meant to have mould), and dog poo. These self-righteous leaders of grammar will also tell you that you feel nauseated as a result of the aforementioned nauseous agents. Now that we have looked at the roots of these words can you really agree with them? Especially since if you feel sick you definitely have or are full of nausea, right?

Once you actually look at the word roots and take the time to find out what they mean, you'll understand why the OED and Merriam-Webster dictionaries both state that the two words can pretty much be used interchangeably with nauseous referring to feeling sick and the thing that makes you feel thus, and nauseated only referring to the feeling of being sick.

Next time a grammar Nazi tries to insult your intelligence by telling you that you don't feel nauseous but rather nauseated, you can tell them that their self-righteous and incorrect grammar correction is nauseous and makes you feel both nauseous and nauseated. Guess I have a few people to apologise to...

Get It Right: Good And Well

One of the simplest things in the English language is also something that many people get wrong most of the time. Today we're having a look at the difference between good and well, two positive words that have to work together with two particular word types.

If you are familiar with two of the most common grammatical elements in most languages, verbs and nouns, then this should cause no problem.

Nectar from the heavens.

Good

Good is an adjective. As a result it should really only be used with nouns. You can play well, but you can't play good. Another example: beer is good. Though at times, we believe that has one too many o's...

Well

Well is an adverb and as a result should be used with verbs. You can't have a "well" noun, though you can do something well. You should definitely make sure that you haven't used a verb with "good" as an adverb, because it's not one.

Get It Right: Bear, Bear, Bear, And Bare

In our ongoing mission to inform everyone of how to correctly use the English language, today we're looking at bear, bear, bear, and bare, and no, that's not a typo. Just like Goldilocks, we have three "bears" and then bare, just for good measure.

The reason we have three bears is because they are homonyms, words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. Two of the meanings are verbs and the other is a noun. However, all four of today's terms are homophones, words that are pronounced the same.

A grizzly bear enjoying a lovely mountain view.

Bear

As a noun, the word bear refers to the large mammal, often represented in popular culture as either a cute bear cub or a "teddy" bear, named after the American president who couldn't bring himself to shoot such an adorable creature.

Bear

The second variant of bear is a verb that refers to carrying, holding, or displaying something. The American flag bears fifty stars and thirteen stripes, while the Second Amendment to its accompanying Constitution permits citizens, when part of an organised militia, the right to bear arms.

Bear

The final of our three homonyms refers to tolerating, enduring, or generally putting up with something, as in: "I can't bear it any longer!" or "sometimes you just have to grin and bear it".

Bare

The final word in our list for today can be both a noun and a verb. The noun form refers to something that is uncovered or empty, such as bare arms or a bare cupboard. The verb refers to the uncovering of something, so you can technically both bear arms and bare arms, though we'd recommend that you do neither of these things.

Get It Right: Rain, Reign, And Rein

As we are sticklers for grammar, spelling, and generally getting things right, we could no longer bite our tongues on this whopper of a common mistake in English. The three words in question, reign, rein, and rain,  are known as homophones, meaning that they are pronounced the same.

Homophones are an interesting element of language, especially in spoken language where context is the only way to distinguish one from another. However, thanks to the written form of languages, writing systems, and orthography, these words can be distinguished from one other. Let's have a look at the differences between the three so that you can get it right.

Rain, rain, go away; come again another day.

Rain

Most people should be aware of this one. Rain, put simply, is a weather system in which water falls from the sky due to a chemical process known as evaporation and condensation, in which elements change their state from the liquid form to a gaseous form, then back again. If you remember geography or science lessons in primary school, then you should have no problem with the water cycle. If you're British, you should be more than familiar with rain.

Reign

The second of our homophones is reign. Reign is the noun for the period of time in which a monarch or a sovereign is in power. Given that yesterday was the celebration of the end of British rule in the US, you should see this word more and more frequently in the news over the coming days, giving you a fantastic opportunity to become familiar with the difference.

Reindeer can also be controlled with reins, especially
for delivering Christmas presents to good children.

Rein

Our final homophone is the word rein. As this word is written almost identically to reign, this is where a lot of confusion arises. Rein is a noun and it describes the harness that is used to "drive" a horse. Unless you are a jockey, work frequently with horses, or are a cowboy, you probably won't use this word as frequently as the other two options, so make sure that when you do, you get it right!

Get It Right: Loan And Borrow

Some of you may think that the title of today's post may seem a bit insane. We can assure you that this is a mistake that people actually make. Due to the semantically similar definitions of loan and borrow, those who aren't too smart sometimes confuse the two despite them effectively being opposites.

The Bank of England is all too familiar with the differencce
between loan and borrow.

Loan

Will you be granting somebody else use of one of your possessions? Then you are loaning or lending something. If you still struggle to remember whether it's "loan" or "borrow", then you should note that you can attain a loan from a bank and it's certainly not your money. Though the word loan in this instance is the noun form, it should help to know that you can't get a borrow from the bank, though you definitely can borrow money from the bank.

Borrow

Borrow is effectively the opposite of loan. This is when you make use of or have possession of something that does not belong to you, usually with prior permission. You can "borrow" things without the owner's permission, though you really shouldn't because in the eyes of the law this usually will constitute theft.

If you still cannot work out the difference between these two simple words, you should ask a friend if you may borrow a book on English grammar. We're sure they will loan you a copy if they're not using it.

Get It Right: Can And May

Perhaps you've heard in the past that you shouldn't say "Can I go to the toilet?" as can refers to being able to do something, and you're not asking whether you're physically capable of using a restroom, but rather asking if you have permission to do so.

So what are the differences between these two words and when should you use them?

Can you do the can-can?

Can

The word "can" refers to the ability to do something. It's also a type of metal container, but in this context we're not talking about that.

In fact, "can" may be used when asking permission. The only difference between can and may is register. It is more formal to use "may", but over the years it has become socially acceptable to use "can". However, if you ask someone from an older generation, they will be much more likely to tell you that "can" should never be used for permission.

May

The word "may" is indeed used to ask for permission, but as we showed you before, it is not uniquely used to ask for permission, just when you need to be polite.

Do you have any other grammatical pet peeves? Tell us about them in the comments below. We'll be sure to write about them if we haven't already!

Get It Right: Fewer And Less

There are many people we hear using fewer and less almost interchangeably. Before we get into the words themselves, there's a very interesting concept that you need to wrap your head around before you can even begin to work out which word it is that you should be using.

The use of these words hinges on whether or not an actual quantity of something is involved and whether or not that quantity can be counted. Unsurprisingly, the nouns that can be counted are known as countable and those that cannot are known as uncountable. Once you have worked out whether or not the noun is countable or uncountable, you should be able to distinguish between these two words.

This lake has less water than the Atlantic Ocean.

Fewer

Fewer can only be used when a noun can be counted. If you can say that there are two of them then you are fine to use fewer. As a general rule of thumb, liquids tend not to be counted in integers, making them, more often than not, uncountable. You can have fewer apples but not less apples.

Less

Since fewer is used for countable nouns, then less must be used for the uncountable. Can you have three waters? Technically yes, but only if you're ordering in a restaurant. Usually water is uncountable, so you can have less water. Likewise, you can have less sand but fewer grains of sand.

Less is also used when referring to abstract concepts. You can be less successful, less efficient and less affluent but never fewer successful, fewer efficient and fewer affluent. It sounds horrible just saying it. Odds are, if it doesn't sound wrong when you say fewer, then you are probably correct in using it.

Do you have any common grammatical mistakes you feel we should address? Tell us about them in the comments below.

Get It Right: Lie And Lay

One of our biggest pet peeves is the almost blatant disregard of proper usage of the words lay and lie. Even native English speakers make this mistake, so let us lay down the rules.

Check the lie of the green and the lay of the land.

Lie

The word lie can be a verb, meaning either to be resting in a horizontal position or to tell inaccurate or false statements. It can also be a noun, referencing the position in which something lies, such as the lie of the green in a game of golf. The noun can also be the aforementioned inaccurate or false statement.

Example: I am going to lie down because I am tired.

Lay

Lay is not synonymous with lie, one cannot lay down in bed. You can lie down in bed. Lay means to place something down. When you lay down a body, it's usually because it's dead and is most certainly not getting back up. Lay as a noun refers to appearance, so you can talk about both the lie and the lay of the green, with the latter referring to its general appearance.

You wouldn't want to lay the table here.

Example: I am going to lay down some cutlery so we can eat dinner.

If you said that you were about to lay down in bed, you were lying about lying and if you can't lie down in your bed it's probably because the lie of the bed isn't right so you should check before you lay your bed down. Confused? No? Don't lie!

Do you have any other grammatical annoyances or pet peeves? Tell us about them in the comments below. We'll be sure to write about them if we haven't already!

Get It Right: Apostrophes

Few punctuation marks cause as much trouble as the apostrophe. In English, the apostrophe serves several purposes, many of which are unknown to the general public.

These DVDs are waterproof... we hope!

Plurals

The apostrophe is not used for plurals! Despite what you may see, things such as DVDs (note the correct pluralisation) should not be written as DVD's, unless it's possessive.

Possessive

As we saw in our previous example, "DVD's" is actually possessive. When a noun becomes possessive we add an apostrophe before the s.

Example: I really enjoyed the DVD's extra features.

Nouns ending in s

Some nouns end in s. Usually one would add 's to the word to indicate the possessive. Here you have a choice. You may add an apostrophe without the letter s.

Example: James' house.

However, if you so wish you can add both.

Example: James's house.

This hungry chipmunk has contracted
a serious case of cuteness!

Personally, we prefer omitting the additional s but both are considered correct and rather than getting into a fight about it, you should just be consistent.

Contractions

An apostrophe is used in when two words have contracted to form a new word. The combination of I and am contract to form I'm, for example. Combine it and is and you will get it's.

Example: I like the DVD, it's really good.

Its (not it's)

Even though the contraction of it and is uses an apostrophe, when you're talking about the possessive of the third person neutral, it, then you do not use an apostrophe.

Example: The DVD was a success thanks to its extra features.

Get It Right: I And Me

One of the most common mistakes we hear is the almost interchangeable usage of the word I and me. As most people will know, they are not interchangeable and here's why.

I

I as the word, rather than the letter, is the subject personal pronoun for the first person. Lost? Put simply it refers to the speaker (the first person), is a replacement for their real name (personal pronoun), and indicates that they are carrying out the action or verb in the sentence.

John and I are going to the park.

If somebody says "I am", thanks to the use of "I", you know that they are not only referring to themselves as they are using "I" but also that they are the active participant in the sentence.

The real problem arises when paired with other people, places or things. We often hear "Me and John are going to the park", for example. Aside from making our ears twitch and our sphincters tighten, it's also wrong. Imagine the second person wasn't there and it was just you going to the park. You wouldn't say "me am going to the park" as it's stupid.

Me

Me, unlike I, is not the subject of a sentence. It is the object. Ensure that you use it only in cases when the word could be replaced by him, her, us or them.

I and me follow similar rules to who and whom since they also portray the difference between subject and object. If you still struggle with that difference, we're sorry to say that you get an F.

Get It Right: Who And Whom

Knock knock!

Who's there?

To...

To who?

It's to whom, actually...

There's truth in this terrible joke. Despite not being commonly used, "whom" is not only a word, but a word that should be used. More often than not, the word who is used in place of whom. Today we'll be explaining the correct (and therefore best) way to use these troublesome words.

Owls don't follow the rule either!

Who

Who is a pronoun and the subject of a verb. 

E.g. "Who brought all the beers?"

We can't say it much simpler than that.

Whom

Whom is almost identical to who, with the main exception that it is the object of the verb.

E.g. "He brought all the beers for whom?"

If you recall all the word categories then this shouldn't pose a problem. If you can replace the word with "I", "he", "she", "we" or "they", then you should be using the word "who". If you can replace it with "me", "him", "her", "us" or "them", then "whom" should definitely be used.

Of course there are very few people who still observe the rule and even fewer who are bothered by its misuse. If you are losing sleep over it, now you know!

Get It Right: Spelling

One of the most annoying things for language enthusiasts is the misspelling of words. We often come across (not accross) a large number of errors, especially when it comes to handwritten notes. Thanks to spell checkers, many people don't make time for spelling things correctly and assume that no matter where they go, they can hope to see a squiggly red line when they need to review the spelling of a word.

This isn't a problem if you're using a computer, but if you don't know how to spell you will definitely (not definately) look like a fool. Bad spelling is basically (not basicly) the best way to show other people that you have a limited knowledge (not knowlege) of the English language. We've lost count of the number of emails sent to us by colleagues (not collegues) that are almost completely (not completly) misspelt.

This sign makes us want to cry.

If you actually care about languages, it can be embarrassing (not embarassing) to see the squiggly red line, the computer's way of telling you that you cannot be trusted to use your own language. If you do struggle with spelling, there are many mnemonic devices you can use to help you.

The word "necessary" (not neccessary) can be easily remembered if you recall that a shirt has one collar (one instance of the letter c) and two sleeves (two instances of the letter s). It's even easier to remember if you're actually wearing a shirt.

Unfortunately (not unfortunatly), this tendency won't change until (not untill) people begin to understand the importance of correct spelling and stop relying on spell checkers. If you couldn't tell, this issue really (not realy) annoys us.

All the underlined words (excluding links, of course) are featured in Oxford Dictionaries' list of common misspellings.

Get It Right: Affect And Effect

It's been far too long since we've done a condescending post on correct usage of the English language (our last one was on further and farther back at the start of December!) and we felt it was time to do another.

Today we're looking at one of the simplest errors. If you know anything about words and their classification is makes this very easy.
 

No jokes about the gender of the driver, please!

Affect

Affect is a verb. It means something is doing something. Something affects something else. Since it's a verb it can be conjugated which means, in English, that it can have the -ed suffix in the past tense. There is no such word as effected.

For example: Drinking ten pints of strong continental lager seriously affects your ability to drive.
 

Effect

Effect is a noun. A noun, put simply, is a thing or a concept. If preceded by the or a then it's effect you need.

Example: The effects of drinking alcohol are detrimental to one's ability to drive.

Get It Right: Uninterested And Disinterested

People frequently make mistakes when deciding between usage of disinterested and uninterested. More often than not we hear people using disinterested in place of uninterested, and rarely the other way round. We've taken the opportunity to tell you why when you say disinterested you actually mean uninterested and vice-versa.

Uninterested

Does something bore you to tears? Do you have absolutely no interest in it? Then it's uninterested you're thinking of. When you couldn't care less. That's when to use uninterested.

As cool as it looks, you'd probably still be
uninterested in watching this paint dry.

Disinterested

Though the dis- prefix is often used for antonyms, disinterested is not the opposite of interested. If you are not interested in something, that does not make you disinterested. Disinterested is being impartial and having no bias.

If this is still too difficult for you, disinterested can be thought of as meaning impartial, unbiased or even uninvested. Uninterested can be thought of as indifferent, as in not caring.

If you're ever unfortunate enough to end up in a bar brawl, then pray the police dealing with your case are disinterested and not uninterested!

It doesn't matter how cool your car is.
A good policeman is always disinterested.

Get It Right: Further And Farther

It's been a while since we've had a condescending post on common mistakes in the English language so we've got one for you today. Have we gone too far? We hardly think so.

Our confusion today comes from the changing of one little vowel. Is it a or is it u? Here we have two words that have similar meanings and similar spellings. They are usually used interchangeably and in all fairness you shouldn't be sent to the gallows for doing so.

We'll take the liberty of explaining things for you. With what we're calling "how's your farther?"

That said, if you do want to know the difference it's quite simple.

Further

Further is in degree of progression. It's having progressed more in a task, it technically does not mean in terms of distance. Though that is shifting with the common usage of it to mean both.

"How is your essay coming along?"
"I'm further along than I was yesterday..."

"...as in I have the paper."

Farther

Farther is a degree in distance. "My house is farther away than yours". It's easier to remember as it has the word far in it. If you do get stuck, avoid using it. Further is generally more acceptable and, if you like a bit of a gamble, is more likely to be correct that farther.

A Mini would get you farther on this road
than a Hummer would.

Does it matter?

We like to think getting things right in terms of language is important. There's always a time and place for it and correct usage of the two words probably won't matter in the pub, but if you want to get it right then further is metaphorical progression and farther is physical progression.
 

Get It Right: Then And Than

If only we lived in a perfect world where people knew the difference between the letter a and the letter e (excluding Geordies who pronounce them the same)... the difference between these words is only one letter! How do people still get it wrong?

Then

Use it if something happened followed by something else. It indicates a continuation. "I learned how to speak properly, then people didn't think I was a moron."

It also is used to refer to a specific moment in time. "My stupidity was blatant then."

Sideburns were cool then.

Than

It's used for comparing or contrasting. "Now that I have learned how to speak properly, I feel smarter than before. People who use correct grammar are smarter than those who don't."

Think of it this way: You were using the words incorrectly, then you learned the correct way to use them and you felt better than before.

Mercury is smaller than Earth.

Sequential? Then. Comparative? Than.
 

Get It Right: Where, Wear, Ware, Were And We're

We always say that everyone should know the difference. As we've found out, not everyone does know the difference. If they did, we'd have nothing to write about.

Another of our pet peeves is using the wrong spelling for certain homophones (no gay jokes this week). What becomes even more annoying is when they're not even homophones (OK, so three of these are, and the other two may be depending on your accent). We'll carefully run through them in groups:

Where, wear and ware have the same pronunciation for most people, so you can see how they could be easily confused if somebody said them in isolation. However, if you're writing them, you have no excuse for getting them wrong.

Where - Places and stuff.


Wear - You do this with clothes and fancy hats. Just not in the bath... well...  maybe fancy bath hats.

Damn! Those are some fancy bath hats!

Ware - Goods and commodities. Stuff people make. Ever wonder why department stores call it the menswear and homeware/housewares? You can't wear a table.

The other two words, were and we're, don't usually sound similar or like the three above. Yet we feel they should be mentioned, because for some reason, we see people writing them interchangeably with the other words.

Were - Generally referring to things in the past. The way things were.

We're - This is a contraction of we and are making we're. You see how this happens? We + Are = We're. It's all so simple! It's in the present tense.

How are we now? We're fine.

Get It Right: There, Their And They're

Despite each having its own distinct spelling, meaning and usage, people continually confuse these three words. Most people can explain the differences, and yet keep making the same mistakes. Are people too lazy to use their own language correctly?

Three words, three meanings.

We'll quickly explain how to tell the difference:


There:

In, at or to a place. Are you talking about a place? Then it's "there" you want to talk about. You can also use "there" as an exclamation. So there!

Their:

This is when something belongs to "them". If you're talking about owning something or "having" something, this is the time to think of "their". It's possessive...

They're:

Why have an apostrophe? It's a contraction of "they" and "are" because English is a lazy language. If you get it wrong frequently consider pronouncing separately until you can wear your big-boy pants and attempt to use contractions.

These three words are classed as homophones as they are pronounced the same in most dialects.

Not that type of homophone!

Words that are written the same are homographs. There, their and they're are written differently and are therefore heterographs. They're not interchangeable and frankly we should stop putting so many homos and heteros in the same post before we get into trouble.

Get It Right: Two, Too Or To

For those who like to get their grammar correct, the misuse of to, too and two is perhaps too much to handle.

If you know how they're used then you can pat yourself on the back, you're part of an ever-decreasing group. If not, why? We're going to explain the differences:

Two: It's a number, if your age is more than this you should know.

Too: Very, excessive, to a higher degree than desirable. If this is too difficult then you're an idiot (if you're not a native speaker then you are forgiven).

To: This is the only one left, use it when it's neither of the above!

To, two, too or Tutu? By now you should know.