There are lots of other word pairs with an -s- and -c- (for example, practise/practice) that are differentiated by the fact that one is a verb (the -s- one) and one a noun (the -c- one). This one gets mixed up just as much, so it’s time to talk about it!

Advise is the verb. It means to offer advice to or to recommend. “‘I would not advise you to climb the steep face of the mountain: walk up the slope, instead,’ said John.”

Advice is the noun. It’s what’s advised: a recommendation or guidance offered with respect to future actions by the person being advised. “We took John’s advice, and took the easy way up the mountain.”

It should become easier to remember these once you have established that (in UK usage):

The word with the s is the verb, and involves doing something

The word with the c is the noun, and involves the thing itself.

You can find more troublesome pairs here and the index to them all so far is here.

Two more words that look similar and sound similar but mean different things. Will there ever be an end to these?

To defuse means to reduce the tension or danger in something. This could be a physical something, like a bomb, or a less concrete thing, like an argument or a situation. “To defuse the fight situation that was building up, Tom jumped forward and kissed Dave on the nose.”

To diffuse means to spread out over a wide area. It’s what one of those room scenter things does, in the concrete form. Again, there’s an abstract – you can diffuse an idea and help it spread around the world. Diffuse, the noun, means spread out over, well, a wide area. The group of people from Kent was diffuse now, a few in each neighbourhood. The adjective can also mean lacking in clarity: “That was a bit of a diffuse argument you presented there” – the sense is carried over in the idea of it being all over the place, spread out, rather than precise and targeted.

If you defuse an idea, you render it harmless, eliminate it. Fewer people will hear about it. If you diffuse it, you spread it to more people.

You can find more troublesome pairs here and the index to them all so far is here.

This Troublesome Pair was suggested by a reader of one of my previous posts. Do keep your suggestions coming if there’s one you are confused about yourself or notice other people mixing up!

Wonder and wander is probably another pair that gets mixed up because the two words sound (fairly) similar, or exactly the same in some accents.

To wander is to move around aimlessly, to walk or move in a leisurely manner through or over an area. You might “wander lonely as a cloud” across the Lake District, for example (thanks to Wordsworth). A wander (the noun) is an aimless walk.

To wonder is to feel curious or desire to know, or to feel wonder, as in surprise and admiration caused by something unfamiliar, unexpected or beautiful (wonder (noun) being that feeling). “The sunset caused a sense of wonder in the onlookers”; “Mary wondered where her lamb had got to”.

To distinguish the two: “Mary wandered all over the farm, wondering where she had left her lamb”.

You can find more troublesome pairs here and the index to them all so far is here.

Having a Bank Holiday is no excuse for avoiding the big questions: so here we go with -ise and -ize. We’re talking here about whether you use organisation or organization; analyse or analyze.

Now, people assume that -ise is British and -ize is American, but that isn’t exactly the case. And – of course – it isn’t that simple, either. The one thing that is vitally important, however, is being consistent within a document or documentation.

In British English, either -ise or -ize is acceptable (most people don’t seem to know that. Oxford University Press, for example, use -ize in their house style. If you’re writing articles for journals, it’s important to check for house style on this). In American English, however, it’s -ize all the way. Well, nearly all the way.

Ise is obligatory in some words, and I have to thank New Hart’s Rules for putting this all in one place as an easy reference. So, -ise rather than -ize is obligatory when:

• it forms part of a larger word element, such as -cise (cutting: excise), -vise (seeing: supervise), -mise (sending), or -prise (taking) [if you can think of any examples of the last two with that meaning, please let me know – I presume they are words coming from the French roots mener and prener but apart from that I’m stumped for examples that include the meaning sending or taking]
• it corresponds to a noun that has an s in the stem: advertisement – advertise; television – televise

Common words that must use -ise in American and British English:

advertise, advise, apprise, arise, chastise, circumcise, comprise, compromise, demise, despise, devise, (dis)enfranchise, disguise, enterprise, excise, exercise, improvise, incise, merchandise, premise, prise (open), revise, supervise, surmise, surprise, televise

When we move on to the -yse / -yze debate, it’s much more simple: -yse in British English, -yze in American, so analyse vs. analyze, etc.

This issue comes up a lot for me, because I work with many students who, although studying in the UK, have American English as their standard language in Word and use American spellings throughout. Except when they don’t. If they mix them up, as they invariably do, well, I used to ask which they preferred but now I just pick the most common version they use and tell them that I’ve done that.

But the most important things are to

1. Obey house style, if there is one (particularly important if you’re writing journal articles)
2. Be consistent.
3. If you are quoting from a source which uses a different spelling from your required one (e.g. you are working with -ise and it uses -ize), leave the word in the original form in which it was printed in a direct quotation. See more in my posts on quoting sources [coming soon].

You can find more troublesome pairs here and the index to them all so far is here.