This one is a real life example of something I found in an academic text. Luckily I spotted the error and saved the client’s blushes! But I also thought, “Aha – a Troublesome Pair!”

Asterix is a cartoon character, a Gaul resisting the Romans, in a series of French books.

An asterisk is one of these * – a little star which is usually used to indicate that there is some text in a footnote at the bottom of the page.

Don’t put a Gaul where you mean to put a little star, or, indeed, a little star where you mean to put a Gaul!

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