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.

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.