Category Archives: Language use

I’ve encountered this one a few times recently, so it’s time to differentiate between between and among. Or among between, betwixt, among and amongst. Did you see what I did there?

It’s all a question of numbers: in general terms, between is used when you’re talking about two things, and among is used when you’re talking about three or more thing, whether that’s points, places, people or choices.

So, between means into or across the space separating two points or locations or objects – “He regularly caught the train between Glasgow and Edinburgh”, “He squeezed in between Sally and Jan so he could be in the photograph”, or two things that need to be differentiated or otherwise chosen: “I couldn’t choose between the doughnut and the cream cake, so I had both”.

And among means surrounded by, in the middle of – “I was trapped among the cows in the field” – or indicates a differentiation, choice or division involving three or more parties or objects – “You must choose your holiday destination among Bulgaria, Hawaii and Outer Mongolia”

Between can be used for more than two objects, people, etc. when you are indicating a connection between several entities/parties (“There are links between Spanish, Italian and French”) although this one is a matter of stylistic choice, and I prefer among for more than two, and when a group does something – “We came up with his fine between us: although he got caught, we all raced the shopping trolley down the main road”, although I might be inclined towards among here, too, if I was being particularly picky.

These choices, where it’s not clear which has to be used, is why we editors have style sheets, by the way, so that when we make a choice the first time, we make sure we make the same choice next time.

Bonus information:

I’ve been asked about betwixt and between a few times. Betwixt is just the archaic form of between. Betwixt and between means “neither one thing nor the other”

And amongst, like whilst and while, is a mainly British English alternative form of among, but can seem a little over-formal.

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

I see these three, especially pallet and palette, mixed up all the time – of course double letters, e at the end of a word and e or a are all classic ways to confuse spellings, so it’s hardly surprising that people get into a pickle with these.

Your palate is the roof of your mouth, and, by extension, can also be used to describe someone’s ability to appreciate different flavours and distinguish between them (wine tasters, for example, should have a good palate).

A palette is that board, usually round with a thumb hole in, that artists use to mix their paints, or the range of colours that an artist uses.

And a pallet is a portable flat platform used to store and stack other things – it’s often made of wood but you also find them in plastic. It’s also a kind of flat knife used to shape clay or plaster. And (whisper) it can be used to describe an artist’s palette, but let’s not confuse matters by doing that, OK?

“The artist cleared his throat, stepped up onto the pile of pallets that had stored his bread, grasped his palette and mixed some colours, and let the taste of the wine swill around his palate.”

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

Of course this one comes under the “these words sound the same! Which on earth do I use?” category, as so many Troublesome Pairs do. What do you do if you’ve only heard the words spoken but want to write one of them (well, you look here or in a dictionary, but you know what I mean …).

So, here’s the difference:

A horde is a noun meaning a large group of people. It’s often used in a pejorative or slightly threatening sense (ravening hordes) but also in a positive, if slightly anachronistic way: “Hordes of people came to my tennis party!”

A hoard is a noun meaning a store of money or possessions. It’s usually used for something impressive and/or unusual, rather than just “some stuff”, for example a dragon will have a hoard of gold and jewels, and we had the Staffordshire Hoard archaeological find of golden and bejewelled items a few years ago. There’s a verb to go with this one: to hoard – to collect such things together, usually seen in a negative way to describe misers or people who can’t bear to throw anything away.

Interestingly, they do come from different routes: horde comes from the Turkish for (royal) camp, via Polish, whereas hoard comes from Germanic origins.

I used both words in one sentence in a post on my other blog today, as a little hint as to which troublesome pair I was going to post today – I wonder if any of my hordes of readers noticed …

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

There is quite a lot of confusion about this pair, with them being used pretty interchangeably. But, as is often the case, there is a distinction and there is a rule, and it’s nice to maintain those separate meanings and subtle points of difference. Isn’t it?

Historic, or, for that matter, geographic, pinpoints a particular time or example. So historic means famous or important in history: a historic event. “The historic moment when the Titanic sank”. Similarly, geographic refers to a specific thing, a specific point to do with geography: the geographic north pole.

Historical, on the other hand, is a more general term, getting across the idea of something as concerning history, for instance, historical evidence. It also means “belonging to or set in the past”, so a “historical re-enactment”. And geographical means concerning geography, so you have a Geographical Society.

“Historical evidence points to this historic event being a turning point in the War.”

“The Geographical Society undertook an expedition to the Geographic North Pole.”

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

This Troublesome Pair is one I come across constantly. Interestingly, it features just as much in non-native English writing as it does in native English writing – this is usually very much not the case, with the errors found in each kind of writing not overlapping much at all. I can only think that it’s a typing error rather than a misunderstanding or mis-learning.

Then means “at that time”, “after that, next”, and, as an extension of that meaning, “therefore”. “He went to the park, then he went to the shops”. “You have made a mess of the spelling, then you will find people can’t understand you”.

Than is used to introduce the second element forming part of a comparison – “A cat is usually smaller than a dog”. It is used to express a sense of something happening next in a very specific phrase: “No sooner had the company reinvested in stock, than it went into liquidation” and I wonder, on reflection, if that is how the thans have snuck into the place of thens – maybe there’s an echo of this in the writer’s mind, or it’s a case of a rewrite of a sentence that then goes a bit wrong.

Anyway, it’s not strictly necessary to use the no sooner than phrase, so it’s perhaps best to stick to then for times and than for comparisons.

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

Although these are two different words that mean two different things, they are spelled very similarly, and I think that’s how the confusion creeps in. Having said that, even though the a and e are not next door to one another on the keyboard (I had to check that: I touch-type and most of the letters have worn off my keyboard through over-use) this one does come up fairly frequently.

Expensive means of high cost – either in monetary or some other terms. An expensive training course costs a lot, an expensive manoeuvre might cost the army dear in terms of people or equipment.

Expansive means covering a wide area, or extensive (although I don’t see extensive mixed up with expensive, which you would kind of expect!). It also means relaxed, communicative and genial, when used to describe a person. “The grounds of the castle are expansive”.

So you may have grounds which are both expansive, as in large, and expensive in terms of their cost of upkeep. But there’s going to be no more mixing up of the two words, now, is there?

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

Yuck, yuck, yuck! I said to (well, Tweeted to) the last person I saw muddling these up, “Don’t make me do a Troublesome Pair on this one!” but actually there is a need, isn’t there.

I’ll make it short.

Pus is the liquid formed in infected tissue

Puss is a term of affection for a cat, or a coquettish (young) woman.

Pussy (pronounced to rhyme with “fussy”) means full of the above liquid. Pussy (calm down … and pronounced with a u as in “pushy”) is another affectionate term for a cat. Maybe that’s how the confusion has crept in.

Anyway, there we go: all done now. Eugh. But necessary, yes?

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

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.

I find that I and other people wince a bit when we see myself used, as it commonly is, in a seeming attempt to sound more formal, or managerial, or literary, or, well, something. We’ve all seen it – “If you have a problem, please contact myself”. Keep it simple is the rule here: “If you have a problem, please contact me”. There is a place for myself, but it’s a smaller, more precise place than people may imagine.

OK, I’m ranting a bit now; let’s just look at the rules for this one …

Myself is the reflexive first person singular – used by the speaker to refer to themselves as the object of a verb or preposition when he or she is the subject of the clause as well – “I picked myself up from the ground and continued on my way”, “I got myself dressed in time for the video call with my important client”. It’s also used in an emphatic way for I or me, emphasising that something was done personally by the speaker: “I didn’t go to the hairdresser, no: I cut my hair myself”. These, really, are the only times we use myself.

Me is the nice, plain, simple first person singular, used by the speaker to refer to him/herself as the object of a verb where someone else is the subject: “He gave the job to me”; “Please contact me or Linda if you need this work to be done”.

If you’re doing something to yourself, you can use myself. If someone’s doing it to you, you need to use me. “I cleaned myself up after I grazed my knees”/”I cleaned myself”; “Gill cleaned me up after I grazed my knees”/”Gill cleaned me”. Clear now?

Don’t get mixed up with themself/themselves and me/I, while we’re on this topic of how to refer to people …

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

There are lots of other word pairs with an -s- and -c- (practise/practice, advise/advice) that are differentiated by the fact that one is a verb (the -s- one) and one a noun (the -c- one). These two have become slightly more separated and slightly less confused, I feel (but maybe you’ve found differently).

To devise is a verb meaning to plan or invent something (usually something such as a process, procedure or mechanism that is quite complicated). “He devised a route to get from Manchester to Birmingham, not using any motorways”, “The clockmaker devised a mechanism for making a watch show the time in 15 different time zones”.

A device is a noun meaning a piece of mechanical or electronic equipment made for a particular purpose (“He constructed a device for making American recipes using English measuring instruments”), or a plan, trick or scheme (and, by extension, a form of words that’s intended to produce a particular effect: “She used a metaphorical device to explain quantum mechanics in her astounding poem”).

So, you could, indeed, devise a device, but I don’t think you’d want to, simply because of the cumbersome repetition (just like you don’t practise practices!).

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