Category Archives: Language use

Today we have three very different words, spelled differently and with different meanings.  I think most people, if they stop and think, could define each one individually.  But where I see people constantly coming unstuck, even venerable institutions that should know better, like authors with several books published, newspapers and the like, is with the phrases in which these words are commonly used.

Some definitions first.

Rain is precipitation of non-frozen nature – water that falls out of clouds.

A rein is a leather strap attached to a bridle, with which you guide a horse’s direction, either from on its back (usually reins) or walking by its side (a lead rein) or standing in the middle of a paddock with the horse going in a circle around you (a lunge rein).

A reign is the period of time during which a monarch (or, by extension, any high-up leader) rules over their people (or, in the extended version, their social group, organisation, etc.)

So far so good. So, those tricky phrases. In fact, you can work out quite easily which one should be used where, by considering the literal meaning.

“Don’t rain on my parade” – don’t ruin my fun (I’m having a parade up the main street of town, if it rains it’ll get all soggy and ruined and everyone will go home – no one’s ruling anyone (reign) and there are no leather straps involved (rein)).

“We’ll have to rein him in” – he’s out of control and we need to limit what he’s able to do and bring him back under control (we need to have a little pull on the reins and stop the horse running too fast – we’re going to rule him but not in the sense that we’re a monarch and he’s one of our subjects (reign), and he’s not going to get wet (rain))

“A reign of terror” – something or someone is making things rather uncomfortable for everyone else (they are reigning over something that they are able to rule and control – no one is getting wet (rain) and we’re not frightening any horses (rein))

So that should be all clear now, right?

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

Yours or your’s?  Here’s a clue. It’s never one of them.

Yours, theirs and its don’t take an apostrophe when they’re describing something that belongs to someone. Just like hers and his don’t.  So, it’s George’s book; the book is his. It’s your book; the book is yours. It’s their book; the book is theirs. It’s the book belonging to the club; it’s its book. No apostrophes.  The only apostrophe that comes along with yours, theirs, his, hers or its, is when it’s stands for “it is”.

So it’s never your’s – it’s always yours. If it belongs to you, it’s yours. Not your’s.  Not their’s.  Not it’s.

You’re means “you are”, like they’re means “they are” – your means “belonging to you”.

If the widget belongs to you, it’s your widget. No apostrophe.

“You’re improving your health, running regularly. Is that your sweatband? Are those trainers yours?”

Short but sweet. Now you won’t forget, will you?

More on apostrophes here.

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

I think I’ve seen “just bare with us” while we fix this site, reprint our menus, etc., etc., one too many times – but of course it is a troublesome pair, and not really one you’d want to mix up!  If the company or person asking you to bare with them knew that they were asking you to get naked alongside them, would they be so keen to say it?

As well as being a large, dangerous mammal in its noun form, to bear means to carry, to convey, to support (a weight) and, in the form in which we are encountering it here, to bear means to manage to tolerate (with the negative: “I can’t bear that colour!”) and to bear with someone or something means to be patient or tolerant with. “Please bear with us while we fix this website; in the meantime, here’s a picture of a puppy to look at.”

To bare means, in the language of the dictionary, to uncover a part of the body and expose it to view. We’re bare when we’re unclothed, we might bare our legs in the summer, and we can bare our teeth, which means to show one’s teeth, typically when one is angry. Like when one reads “please bare with us”.

Well, actually, we all know by now that I try to bear with people who make these mistakes, understanding that not everyone’s good at English, or can write well, or spell, or has English as their first language. I don’t ever mean to mock. And I certainly won’t start taking my clothes off next time I read “please bare with us”. Not unless the person behind the sign does it first, of course!

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

Another suggestion from Sorcha this morning – I really appreciate when people come up with ideas for these, so please keep them coming … (and watch out for Ron Usage and his Wrong Usage, coming soon with those troublesome single words!).

So today, we’re going to look at lose vs. loose. I do see this one a fair bit, although the two words are not really that similar or connected.

To lose something means to mislay it, to forget where you put it down, or to end up without it. “He tends to lose his gloves when they fall out of his pocket”; “I always lose the keys somewhere in the house and I can’t come out until I’ve found them”; “she would go on to lose her fiance in the First World War”.  The past tense of lose is lost. Something can’t be lose, it can only be lost.

To loose something (as a verb) means to set it free, but it isn’t often used. “She loosed the horses into the paddock”. More often, it’s used as an adjective: wobbly, not secure, not firm, not tight. A loose tooth; “This printer cable is working loose and that’s why you can’t print”; “She wore a loose and flowing dress”. The past tense of the verb loose is loosed, but again, this isn’t used much. The more common verb is to loosen – “He loosened his tie as the evening got hotter” and this means to make less tight, rather than to set free, although you can also loosen the horses into the paddock.

“His loose tooth fell out, and he managed to lose it somewhere around the house.”

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

Another troublesome pair suggested by Gill – the list she and her husband generated on their trip away is still going strong but I’ll get to the end one day!

So: regretfully or regrettably?  These two look quite similar, but as usual have quite different meanings.

Regretfully means in a regretful manner. Regretful? Full of regret. So you are full of regret: “She walked away regretfully, upset that she had left him sinking into the mud, but with no other choice” (sometimes I do wonder where I get my examples from. All are made up out of my head).

Regrettably means unfortunately. “The mud was regrettably sticky”.

Now … apparently regretfully gets used where regrettably should be used “Regretfully, this branch is now closed” and the dictionary says that “despite objections from traditionalists, this use is now well established” but I think we now know which one to use when, don’t we!

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

I thought of this one yesterday, as I was at my part-time job and we were discussing the disappointment involved when you get a new piece of office equipment and it doesn’t quite come up to expectations (I’ll miss that office … ).  Were we dissatisfied or unsatisfied? Well, in this case, probably both, but there is a difference!

To dissatisfy (yes, that’s a word!) is to fail to satisfy, and if you’re dissatisfied then you are not content or happy; you are experiencing a lack of satisfaction. “I was dissatisfied with England’s performance in the test match”.

The dictionary helpfully defines unsatisfied as not satisfied, but the definition for unsatisfactory does get across the sense of “not good enough”. So if there’s not enough of something, or it is lacking in itself, then you’re unsatisfied (if it’s perfectly good for purpose, but not liked by you, then I’d say that you’re dissatisfied). “The portion of cake was so small that she was left unsatisfied and wanting more”.

“I hate this printer. I don’t know if I’m dissatisfied because it isn’t what I expected from an office printer, or unsatisfied because it never finishes a print job.”

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

OK: confession time. I mixed these two up myself the other day, and used the wrong one.  I was so excited about thinking up examples for another troublesome pair that I didn’t stop and think. Well, nobody’s perfect! And my penance is to write this post.

Both slander and libel deal with telling lies about somebody. But it’s the medium used to spread these lies that makes the difference.

Slander is the crime, or action, of making a false spoken statement that is detrimental or damaging to a person’s reputation.

Libel is the publication in print of a false statement that is detrimental or damaging to a person’s reputation, or to defame by publishing a libel.

So if you say it, it’s slander: if you print it (or publish it in a form that counts as printing it, like on the internet), it’s libel.

Got that? I have!

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

This one is a request from Sorcha, and I do find I see this quite a lot, so it’s probably time to feature it. It’s one of those ones like their/they’re/there or its/it’s which people seem to know there’s something odd about, but then take a wild stab in the dark and go for the wrong one. It’s all because of the apostrophe, and that feeling that if something belongs to someone, it should have one, isn’t it. Anyway, there is a rule, and I’m going to explain it now. If you know someone who does this one on a regular basis, do point them towards this blog!

Who’s is a contraction for “who is” or “who has”. If you can use “who is/has” in a sentence, you can use “who’s”. “Who’s that girl?”; “Who’s sat on my hat?”; “Who’s going to volunteer to think up some more troublesome pairs?”; “he’s the one who’s always going on about knitting”.

Whose refers to something belonging to, or associated with, a person, or “of whom or which”: “The man whose hat it was became very angry”; “whose girl is that?”, “whose turn is it?” “The dog whose tail was wagging most was awarded the prize”.

So – who is = who’s. Who owns = whose.  “Who’s sat on that hat? The man whose hat it is will be really angry!”

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