Credit: James Foley
Thanks to a collaboration from Richard, a fellow blogger, author of “One More Good Adventure”, I was able to partly clear some confusion I had about several English words. He sent me an e-mail with an article explaining the difference between word-pairs easily confused, even by English-speaking persons. The difference between them is very subtle and it requires concentration to notice the difference between them.
The name of the article sent by my friend is, “Shades of Meaning: Five Commonly Confused Word-Pairs” written by William B. Bradshaw, author of “The Big Ten of Grammar: Identifying and Fixing the Ten Most Frequent Grammatical Errors”. If English is your second language, reading this article will be highly beneficial in polishing up the language. Reading the book will further consolidate the understanding of the difficult language of William Shakespeare.
“Most of the world’s prominent grammarians have reached consensus for the appropriate uses of many often-confused word pairs. I explore the details of many of these grammatical errors in The Big Ten of Grammar and am sharing the grammarian’s official verdict on the usage of five commonly confused word-pairs.
These are the five word-pairs selected by William B. Bradshaw:
- “Sure” and “Certain”
- “Less” and Fewer”
- “Further and “Farther”
- “Big” and “Large”
- “Often” and “Frequently”
Bradshaw offers a comprehensive distinction between the often confused English word-pairs. Even though I’ve read his explanation of items 4 and 5, I still feel confused as to the proper usage of the terms. I’ll keep my ears close to the ground to see how they are used by recognized authors. In the meantime, I’m still inside the English maze trying to find my way out.
Source: “Shades of Meaning: Five Commonly Confused Word-Pairs” penned by William B. Bradshaw
Any time I hear the phrase “grammarian’s official verdict”, I grow wary.
Now, I’ll grant you that many of these pairs are used incorrectly. One set, “less and fewer” has a real difference in meaning and it’s misuse is one of my pet peeves.
But you can end up splitting frog hairs, as my grandmother would say. (It’s another idiom! The point being that frogs don’t have hair – you’d be wasting your time trying to do it.)
It’s good to have all these resources, and wonderful fun to explore them. But choose your experts carefully, always double check what one has to say with another, and above all don’t try to be TOO correct. Language can be both absolutely grammatical and absolutely unreadable.
Morning Linda:
That is exactly my problem with the English language. I never know when I’m being correct or exceedingly correct. The problem arises from not living in an English-speaking country. That’s why I have to compensate this disadvantage by reading good books, watching good movies, reading English magazines or speaking with Americans living here.
Now you know why I say I’m still inside the English maze. Feel I will never find my way out, although I keep trying. As the years pass by, I’m having a ball exploring the English language, as you have probably noticed.
I learn a lot reading your blog and your comments. It’s an excellent tool to learn the language. Thanks a lot.
Enjoy the weekend.
Omar.-