Category Archives: Troublesome pairs

I can’t honestly say that I’ve come across e.g. and i.e. being confused very much in my experience, but I’ve been asked by a couple of people to cover this one and I can but serve …

Both of these come from the Latin, and both are useful ways to say something in a short space (and one word, if you’re worried about word-counts!) although they tend to make the text look messy if they’re used too often, in my opinion.

First of all, e.g. – this abbreviation stands for “for example”, is used to introduce an example of whatever you’ve just been discussing, and comes from the Latin “exempli gratia”.  Bonus fact: don’t put it in italics and put a comma before but not after. “There are many power tools that can be used, e.g. drills, sanders and grinders.”

And i.e. means “that is” and again comes from the Latin; “id est”.  You use it if you want to explain what you’ve just said (rather than exemplify it). Another bonus fact – just like e.g., don’t put it in italics and put a comma before, but not after. “This project requires the use of power tools, i.e. those that require electricity to operate them.”

I would construct a sentence here containing both, but I don’t think it would look pretty and it certainly wouldn’t be recommended practice …

You can find more troublesome pairs here.

There are a few -c- vs. -s- word pairs kicking around, and I’m sure we’ll cover them all in the fullness of time.  We’ve already looked at “practice” vs. “practise”, and in fact this one both follows the same basic rules and bears the caveat that things are oh, so different in American English – so this post applies to British English only.

The difference again comes down to whether you’re using the word as a noun or a verb.

Licence is the noun (like our football practice).  So you have a driving licence, or licence to kill.  The second definition, which is actually packed into “licence to kill” with the first meaning, is freedom to behave as one wishes, without restraint.  “They took the wild music as licence to dance until dawn” – you can see that the meanings are very close.

License is the verb – to grant a licence to or authorise something.  “He is now licensed to drive a car – the DVLA licensed him and he has a driving licence.” By extension, we have a licensed premises (the licence to sell liquor has been granted to it) run by a licensee.

Just a little spelling quirk – if you’re licentious (disregarding rules; in the Oxford definition, rather sweetly, especially rules around sexual promiscuity OR grammar!) then it’s spelled like that, with the t.  Like a practitioner who practises something (in a doctor’s practice, for example).

You can find more troublesome pairs here.

As well as being asked to post about this by a number of people, I’ve also seen these two used incorrectly a number of times.  I think negative versions of words do get people confused – and why not, when you have odd things like “flammable” and “inflammable” knocking around …

These two don’t mean the opposite of one another, but they do have distinct, separate and different meanings.

Uninterested means not interested.  “I was uninterested in his plans for world domination”; “the cat remained uninterested in my new party dress”

Disinterested means impartial.  I think this must be connected with the idea of “declaring an interest”; the disinterested person has no interest or investment in either side of an argument. “Amid all the disucssions, the chair remained a disinterested party, keeping order between the warring sides.”

If you aren’t keen on sitting on the fence and want to get involved, you could quite easily be uninterested in being disinterested …

You can find more troublesome pairs here.

I’ve had so many suggestions of troublesome pairs from people – but please keep them coming!  With some of the pairs, I know the distinction immediately (but I still look it up, just to make sure); with a few, I really don’t know the difference (and sometimes there isn’t one!); and with others, like this one, I know the difference and will happily write one or the other, or exchange one for the other in someone else’s text, but I need the might of the dictionary to help me define them.  So I’m never setting myself up as the expert here; I’m just trying to guide us all to simple distinctions to help with our writing and/or comprehension.  I’ve even changed a few posts as a result of readers’ comments!

Anyway, here we go with comparative vs. comparable.

Comparable – able to be likened to another, similar, of equivalent quality i.e. the same.  “Smith’s skills on the cricket pitch are comparable to those of the previous captain, Robinson.”

Comparative – measured or judged by comparison, relative i.e. different. “Joe’s performance is poor comparative to Bill’s, and Bill is likely to beat Joe in the next race if he doesn’t improve his time.”  You can replace “comparative to” with “in comparison with” and still get the same sense out of the sentence.

Comparative to other posts, this one has been fairly easy.  It’s comparable to, say, “disinterested or uninterested”, rather than one of the trickier ones.

You can find more troublesome pairs here.

This is a slightly tricky one – before I looked it up, I wasn’t sure what the difference was, and I would probably have used either of them in a sentence without thinking about it too much.  And it turns out that one is preferable to the other, not that they mean different things. It’s nice that we all get to learn something from these posts!

Due to, used for “because of” (as opposed to “timed to” – “the train is due to arrive at eight”), is usually seen as being incorrect, according to my OUP reference books, which prefer “on account of”.  I’m going to quote the New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors here: “Due to: traditionally condemned as incorrect in the sense ‘because of’; on account of is a better alternative.”  I don’t feel that we use on account of very much in common written or spoken English. So, maybe it’s best to stick to …

Owing to, which is defined as meaning “because of” or “on account of”.

So: use “because of” or “owing to” if you don’t want the good people of the OUP to think you’re incorrect!

“Owing to leaves on the line, and because of other issues with the track, this train, which is due to leave at eight, will not be departing on time.”

For more troublesome pairs, have a look on the category cloud or click here.

We don’t often have a Troublesome triplet, but these three do go together and I’ve been asked about them a few times now.  This is another one where the American English is a bit different  (enquire is more common in British English, inquire in American English, which matches use of ensure and insure), so we’re sticking to British English here.  The Dictionary doesn’t distinguish between them that clearly, but my “special” dictionary for Editors and Writers does, so that’s what I’m sticking with!

Enquiry – a request for information.  To enquire – to ask for information.  “I would like to enquire as to the price of this article”; “Please enquire within for information on our rates and services”; “Directory Enquiries”

Inquiry – a formal investigation (e.g. by the police, the courts, etc.).  To inquire – to make a formal investigation.  “An official inquiry has been launched into the murder of the policeman”; “The Select Committee are inquiring into the expenses scandal.”

Query – a question. To query – means to question, to ask a question about.  “She queried the amount she was asked to pay”; “I have a query about the expenses you’ve claimed.”

“I have an enquiry about the outcome of the police inquiry; can you answer my query about paragraph 4?”

You can find more troublesome pairs here.

The stationery / stationary pair mix-up is one I see a lot.  It’s an easy one to get wrong, but hopefully an easy one to get right (or else just bookmark all these troublesome pair posts, I suppose!).   If it comes to it, learn “stationery” as I’m fairly sure I see that more often than “stationary”, on the grounds that if you know one of them, you can work out the other one.  Or something.  Anyway, here we go:

Stationary – not moving, still.  “The traffic was stationary”

Stationery – writing materials.  “My wedding stationery has a pink theme”; “Have you done the office stationery order yet?”

“The stationery truck is caught in stationary traffic and we have no more notepads until it gets here!”

You can find more troublesome pairs here.

This explanation of this particular troublesome pair is very definitely confined to British English.  I will write something about the differences between British and American English on this blog at some stage.  But this one is strictly English.

Again, this can be explained quite simply, although people seem to get in rather a state about it all.  Maybe everyone’s bookmarking these posts so they don’t have to get in a state any more!

Practice is the noun – football practice, Best Practice, these dodgy practices have to stop.

Practise is the verb – Ben is practising his football techniques.  I need to practise making up good examples.  The GP practised handstands in the practice waiting room.

To sum it up in one go: Ben went to football practice to practise his goal-keeping skills.

You can find more troublesome pairs here.

And here we are with another troublesome pair that’s been requested by one of the Libro blog readers.  This one relates somewhat to good old fewer vs. less, in that you have fewer of a number but less of an amount.  Basically, an amount is uncountable, while a number is countable.

An “amount” is a total of something, whether it’s a number, a value, an extent or a size.  An amount can be of several countable things all added up together, or, more usually, of one of those uncountable, collective nouns we talked about in the “fewer or less” post.

A “number” is an arithmetic value, represented by a symbol, word or figure.  And it refers to the countables – hairs, rabbits, coins, sheep …

“He owed me three sheep, £2 and an acre of land, and paid the full amount.”

To hark back to the fewer and less post: A large amount of hair; a large number of hairs.  A small amount of coinage, a small number of coins.  A small number of sheep eating a large amount of grass.

Here’s an interesting side note:

“The number of” + a plural noun is used with a singular verb: “The number of children who can read is lower at age 5.”

“A number of” + a plural noun is used with a plural verb: “A number of children remain unable to read later on.”

For more troublesome pairs, click on the category cloud over to your right, or go here.