Category Archives: Language use

This one has come up a few times and so I am sure there are a few people out there who are confused when trying to choose between using advisor or adviser.

So, which is it to be? I think people may think that advisor is more formal (even posher) in some ways, and it’s definitely used more in official documents and marketing-ese.

But in reality, this is another pair that means exactly the same. Adviser or advisor: just pick one!

What I would say (and what I always say), is be consistent. If you introduce a mortgage advisor on page 1, make sure they haven’t changed into a mortgage adviser by page 4!

Oh: but it’s always advisory (not advisery, which isn’t a word) when you’re talking about having the power to make recommendations (but not to enforce them, interestingly). “The panel is operating in an advisory capacity and cannot force the employees to wear baseball caps”.

I personally prefer advisor. What do you think?

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- (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.

I saw this one at the weekend – it’s another one where people know the difference between the two words but sometimes get into a pickle with phrases (see rein, rain or reign, peak, peek or pique, bear or bare or cue or queue for more examples of this issue).

So, fair means “just or appropriate” and “treating people equally” and “moderately good” as well as “blond(e)”, and the adverb fair means “in a fair manner”. So, “I said I will give all applicants fair treatment and judge them solely on their ability”; “Yes, the process was fair and everyone was treated appropriately”. “It’s not FAIR”, of course, too, when you expect to get something and you don’t. A fair is also a public entertainment made up of stalls and attractions, but I don’t think that is the version that gets confused.

Phrases associated with fair include fair and square (honestly and accurately); fair game (a reasonable target).

Fare, however, has a few disparate meanings, which is probably how the confusion creeps in. It refers to the money paid for a journey on public transport – “have you got change to pay the bus fare to get into town?”. It refers to a range of food – “traditional English fare is available at the pub”. And it is used in the sense of to perform in a specified way – “he fared badly in the local elections”. The archaic meaning of travel also survives in farewell (fare thee well, travel well).

So none of them are a fayre (that’s just a pseudo-archaic spelling of fair), and you fare badly, you don’t fair badly, which is the one I tend to see.

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

Well, I have to admit that I don’t often see these two mixed up as such, but because they look quite similar, there is a need, in my opinion, to have a quick and easy way to distinguish them laid out. And that’s what these Troublesome Pairs are for, after all. I do monitor how many searches I get on the pairs, and it’ll be interesting to see how many people search for these in a search engine and come through to here. (If you have a website or blog, statistics are your friend, and can give you surprising results, too!)

Anyway …

Homogeneous means of the same kind, consisting of parts all of the same kind (it is also the name for a chemical process involving substances in the same phase, i.e. all liquids or all gases, if that helps you remember it). It comes from the Greek for same race or kind. Yes, the same as homosexual. The way I remember this is that homogenised milk is the one where the cream is mixed into the milk rather than sitting on the top (that made me feel a bit nauseous for a moment, as I only drink skimmed milk, myself!)

Heterogeneous, on the other hand, means diverse in character or content (a heterogeneous chemical process is one involving substances in different phases, e.g. mixing a gas with a liquid, in case that helps you remember). It comes from the Greek, again, for other race/kind. And, yep: heterosexual.

Note the spelling, by the way: -geneous, not genous. Not even if you’re in the US, I believe.

So a word pair and a pair of prefixes defined for you today: extra value!

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

Here is another pair of words with an identical meaning but subtly different uses. There’s a style warning at the end, too. We like a style warning, don’t we!

Both though and although mean” in spite of the fact that”, “however”, “but”. “Although he’s messy at home, he’s very organised at work”, “She was a plainly dressed woman, though with a flamboyant taste in hats”, “The dogs, though fierce in appearance, were friendly”.

Although is the more formal of the two. I prefer it to though at the beginning of a sentence, which is the traditional way of doing things. “Though he was firm, he was fair” just looks better to me as, “Although he was firm, he was fair”.

You cannot replace though with although in adverbial uses – “it was nice of him to write, though”. or with as or even – “she doesn’t look as though she’s reading that book, even though she says she is”

And finally, you shouldn’t start a sentence with either of these if it’s actually acting as a linking word between the previous sentence and this one: “He was firm. Although he was fair too”, or if it’s making a link between two concepts in the upcoming phrases: “Although he was firm. He was fair too”. Make sure both of the linked ideas are in the same sentence.

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

Another pair of words that sound the same but don’t mean the same, and that get mixed up more times than I’d care to mention. Read on to find out how to differentiate between pore and pour.

First off, the more uncommon one. To pore (over) something is to be absorbed in the reading of it. “She was so busy poring over the article on semiotics that she missed her stop on the Tube”. A pore is also a minute opening in the skin (etc.) through which liquids and gases can pass. But I don’t think that’s the usage that gets mixed up with this pair.

To pour (over, out, etc.) is to flow or cause to flow in a steady stream. “Water poured down the wall as the shower leaked from above”; “she poured herself a cup of tea”.

Short but sweet. The same sound, but different spellings, meanings and, well, words.

“As she pored over the ancient manuscripts, it began to pour with rain”.

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

We have an extra value Troublesome Triplet today, with a look at peek, peak and pique. These all sound the same, but not only are they spelled differently, they mean very different things, too.  But this doesn’t stop them getting mixed up – presumably the fact that they sound the same overrides all other factors!

To peek is to look furtively or quickly, and the noun means a quick or furtive look. “I’ll just take a peek at your first chapter but I’ll read it properly later”; “She peeked in through his window and saw him reading a book”. Going along with this shifty, round-corners type of feel, to peek can also mean to protrude slightly so as to be just visible: “the end of the dog’s tail peeked out from under the duvet, revealing his location”.

Moving on (or up) to the peak, this is the pointed top of a mountain (or refers to a mountain with a peak) and in a similar way, a point of highest achievement or activity (“The peak of his achievement in running was winning a gold medal”), point in a curve or on a graph that is highest point, and, well, the brim at the front of a cap (it sticks out/up). The verb to peak means to reach the highest point (“the hits on my website peaked at 229 in one day and never achieved that heady height again”) and the adjective peak refers to maximum or utmost – “he’s at peak fitness right now, just in time for the big athletics meeting”) or characterised by maximum activity or demand – “phone call charges increase at peak hours”.  There is a secondary, archaic, meaning, from the 17th century, to decline in health and spirit – we use this one when we refer to someone as looking a bit peaky, if they look a bit pale and unwell.

Pique has two linked meanings to do with prickings and prickliness: it’s either a feeling of irritation or resentment resulting from a slight especially to one’s pride – “he stormed off in a fit of pique” – or refers to stimulating interest or curiosity, again with a little prick or prod: “he piqued her interest with his fascinating talk of shower sealant, and she resolved to take a plumbing course”.

So, in essence, “She piqued his interest in mountaineering when she scaled the highest peak in the range and peeked at him from behind the cairn at the top”.

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