Currency Exchange Boston Ma

Admin | February 11, 2012 | Comments Off

Currency Exchange Boston Ma

Currency Exchange Boston Ma

The following are pairs of words that are often mistaken for one another, as well as a few individual words that are frequently misused.

Adverse/Averse

  • Adverse: harmful, unfavourable, acting in opposition
  • Averse: having a feeling of distaste, opposition, or aversion; strongly disinclined

Affect/Effect

  • Affect: (as a verb) influence; change, imitate/adopt something (i.e., accents, styles of dress); (as a noun) emotion expressed in body language and facial expression
  • Effect: (as a noun) the result of an agent or cause, an impression; (as a verb) cause to occur

Altogether/All Together

  • Altogether: entirely, totally, completely, utterly
  • All together: Refers to a group experiencing something simultaneously or performing a collective action

Assure/Ensure/Insure

  • Assure: remove doubt, make certain, give confidence, reassure, promise
  • Ensure: make certain, guarantee
  • Insure: arrange, provide, or acquire insurance for; make secure

Auger/Augur

  • Auger: tool used to bore holes in ice or wood; drill bit; earth-boring machine with helical shaft; rotating helical shaft that is used for conveying material (i.e., part of a snow blower); (as a verb) bore a hole using an auger
  • Augur: (as a verb) predict, foretell, serve as an omen or sign; (as a noun) prophet, seer, soothsayer

Capital/Capitol

  • Capital: (as a noun) city or town with official seat of government within a given political entity (i.e., nation or state); city that is an activity hub or center; money, property, other resources; net worth of a business; advantage or asset; (as an adjective) excellent, first-rate; punishable by death (i.e., capital offense); involving the use of wealth for investment
  • Capitol: building or building complex where state legislature/U.S. Congress meets

Complement/Compliment

  • Complement: complete, make whole, balance
  • Compliment: (as a noun) expression of admiration, congratulation, or praise; formal act of courtesy, civility, or respect (compliments – good wishes or regard); (as a verb) praise, flatter

Console/Consul

  • Console: control panel for a piece of electronic equipment; TV or audio system cabinet
  • Consul: government-appointed official who resides in a foreign country to represent her own government’s commercial interests and citizens

Counsel/Council

  • Counsel: (as a noun) guidance, advice; the act of exchanging ideas and opinions; (as a verb) advise, give counsel, recommend
  • Council: assembly whose purpose is consultation or discussion; advisory or legislative body

Discreet/Discrete

  • Discreet: exercising wise self-restraint or prudence in behaviour and speech
  • Discrete: separate or distinct

Enervate/Energize

  • Enervate: destroy or weaken the vitality or strength of something
  • Energize: invigorate, excite

Fewer/Less

  • Fewer: used for things that can be counted as individual units (i.e., people, trees, kilometres, minutes)
  • Less: used for things that cannot be counted as individual units (i.e., time, distance, sugar, water)

Flammable/Inflammable

  • Flammable: easily ignited, able to burn rapidly
  • Inflammable: means the same as flammable, but many people mistakenly assume that this word means “not flammable”

Flaunt/Flout

  • Flaunt: exhibit shamelessly or ostentatiously
  • Flout: show scorn or contempt

Incredible/Incredulous

  • Incredible: sufficiently implausible to cause disbelief, extraordinary
  • Incredulous: doubtful, sceptical, disbelieving (does not mean difficult or impossible to believe)

Irregardless

  • Not actually a real word, but rather a casual hybrid of irrespective and regardless

Its/It’s

  • Its: the possessive form (The butterfly spread its wings.)
  • It’s: It is – (It’s raining today.)

Literally

  • Refers to something accurate, factual, and exact, but is often misused in figurative expressions (i.e., He ate so much food that he literally had to roll home.)

Penultimate

  • Second to last – often mistakenly used in place of “ultimate”

Precipitate/Precipitous

  • Precipitate: hurl downward (usually from great height); cause to happen prematurely or suddenly, condense and fall from the sky (i.e., rain); be separated as a solid from a solution
  • Precipitous: steep, sheer, resembling a precipice, having several precipices

Prescribe/Proscribe

  • Prescribe: impose or direct, set down as a guide or rule, order to be used (i.e., prescribe antibiotics), establish laws or rules
  • Proscribe: prohibit, forbid, denounce, condemn, banish, outlaw

Principal/Principle

  • Principal: (as an adjective) first or highest in rank, degree, worth, or importance; (as a noun) a person who holds the highest rank (i.e., school principal); financial holding that does not include revenue or interest; sum of money that is owed, on which interest must be calculated
  • Principle: basic truth, standard, or rule

Seasonal/Seasonable

  • Seasonal: dependent on or belonging to a specific season, occurring only during that season
  • Seasonable: appropriate to a given season (i.e., clothing such as scarves in winter)

Sensual/Sensuous

  • Sensual: related to and/or providing gratification for physical appetites (particularly sexual)
  • Sensuous: means the same as sensual but more often refers to senses involved in aesthetic enjoyment (i.e., music or art)

Unexceptionable/Unexceptional

  • Unexceptionable: beyond reasonable objection, irreproachable
  • Unexceptional: usual, normal

Wherefore

  • Means “why” or “for what purpose,” but is often mistakenly believed to be a synonym for “where”

See also The Most Beautiful Words in the English Language and Intelligent Words for Eloquent Writing.

Reference:

  • Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. (2004). 100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses & Misuses. Boston, MA: Houghton-Mifflin Company.