Most people assume they know which which to use when, but often, the most commonly used words are used incorrectly.
For instance, the homonyms their, there and they’re are often misused. Their is possessive for they: It’s their problem. There refers to a place: Let’s meet over there. They’re is a contraction for they are: They’re using the wrong tense in that sentence.
Another common culprit is the trio of to, too and two. To is a preposition, and is used to address motion or direction toward a thing. Two is the number. Too is used to mean also, in addition, or an excess of something: The English language has too many rules to follow.
Commonly Misused Word Pairs:
Here/hear
Bare/bear
Accept/except
Affect/effect
Allude/elude
Passed/past
Principal/principle
Who’s/whose
Board/bored
Brake/break
Conscious/conscience
Lay/lie
Lose/loose
Elicit/illicit
See why you can’t trust a spellchecker?
Words That Aren’t Words
Often, bad usage of words infiltrates popular dialect, and we use words in our writing that aren’t words at all. Any dictionary entry that states a word is nonstandard really means that the word is not a word, but a mistake that happens so often the dictionary editors were compelled to include it.
Here are some of the most frequent violations:
Allright and alright. The proper word is two words: all right.
Irregardless. The word is regardless.
Enthused should be enthusiastic.
Theirselves is themselves.
Anways, somewheres, nowheres. None of these words should be plural.
Idioms
Idioms can be problematic because they are most often heard in speech, rather than seen in writing. Often, when they are written, the mistake goes unnoticed because we don’t know the origin of the idiom.
These can usually be deciphered by addressing the meaning of the idiom. “Grin and bear it” means to take punishment, not smile and remove your clothing, so the right word is bear, not bare.
“Toe the line” means to behave in a disciplined manner rather than engage in physical behavior, so the word is toe, and not tow.