Hot answers tagged paronyms
The noun is usually "effect" -- unless in more formal or literary contexts in which case "affect" as a noun can mean feeling or emotion. The verb is generally "affect", although "effect" is possible if the meaning is "put into place" or "carry out". Here are some example sentences: "His plans had no effect on me." "His disconsolate eyes brought on a sad ...
The "common errors" site mentions 3 different meanings for affect (verb): When “affect” is accented on the final syllable (a-FECT), it is usually a verb meaning “have an influence on”: “The million-dollar donation from the industrialist did not affect my vote against the Clean Air Act.” “to make a display of or deliberately cultivate.” ...
In most contexts “specially” is more common than “especially,” but when you mean “particularly” “especially” works better: “I am not especially excited about inheriting my grandmother’s neurotic Siamese cat.” “Especial” in the place of “special” is very formal and rather old-fashioned. Source "specially" Definitions: (adv) in a special manner ...
The word praxis is definitely an extremely formal academic word. Using it in general prose elevates that prose to a formal academic style. Some people may be taken aback by use of the word, which is likely unfamiliar to many. There are just 454 total incidences of praxis in the Corpus of Contemporary American English, 394 of them in academic texts, where ...
By rearranging a sentence, you can figure out what your intention is. Remember that "specially" and "especially" are adverbs, so try to figure out what they mean for the verb. Also remember that "especially" is the adverb of the adjective "especial", which means "unique". For instance: He has a specially made key. Making the key was special. ...
That's an interesting question. Even though the word "agreeance" appears in some dictionaries as a synonym for "agreement", it is in the error list of the book "Common Errors in English Usage": agreeance/agreement When you agree with someone you are in agreement. That is on page 8 of the PDF sample of the book. To be on the safe side, I will ...
complimentary: free on the house complementary: to go with something
I don't think that "agreeance" is a commonly accepted word. That's not to say that it's not used in certain circles or regions, but I don't remember that I have ever heard it or read it, and it strikes me as odd. I would never use it myself. When you say "people in my area" do you mean a geographic area or a particular occupation or discipline? I'm curious ...
A paronym word is a word that derives from another word, and that has a related meaning. It is also used for words originated from a word in a different language. wisdom with wise angelic with angel carry with carrus
The answer is a click away at Answers.com "Two words are paronyms when their phonemic representations are similar but not identical. (Salvatore Attardo, Linguistic Theories of Humor. Walter de Gruyter, 1994) You should read the whole entry.
After some more searching, I found this Index of Commonly Confused Words over at About.com. It's not perfect, but it's a good start. Also, as has been mentioned on meta, there are at least two books on the subject: "Who's Whose: A No-Nonsense Guide to Easily Confused Words" by Philip Gooden and "NTC's Super-Mini Dictionary of Easily Confused Words" by ...
Yes, it really is that simple. Complimentary = free. A possible mnemonic device for you: If it's compl-I-mentary, I get it for free.
I think the basis for "complimentary drink" is the simple fact that it comes with the "compliments of the house"; the compliment presumably being that one is a valued customer and therefore deserves special treatment in the form of a free drink. Not everyone receives a complimentary drink - except in Vegas ;)
The rule that mostly works it this: affect = verb, think "a" for action, wheras effect = noun, the result of the action to remember: "a" comes before "e" in the alphabet, and you must affect something to cause an effect
"Religious practice" is far more common than "religious praxis" (500 000 vs. 15 000 results in Google). In fact, I've rarely seen "praxis" used by native English speakers in any context. I've heard it most commonly used by German speakers to mean "work placement", the equivalent of "stage" in French.
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