fewer: not as many items (i.e. relates to things you can count)
There are fewer tasks on my to do list now

less (or less than): not as much of something (i.e. relates to a collective noun)
Antibiotics resulted in less disease after WWII.

faze: to worry or scare
The weather predictions didn’t appear to faze anyone at the campsite.

phase: a specific time or stage in a sequence
He is in the drafting phase of the annual report.

I have just come across an example of why it is critical to proof read everything before you publish it, and why attention to details such as spelling and grammar are important.

Actually, I first saw this site about 8 months ago and they still haven’t noticed or corrected it. I had forgotten it but for my amusement I’m glad it was still there!

In the header of every page of the site, they have used an a instead of u in their tagline. One little letter could be a simple typo, of course, but your tagline and header are the first things people notice! And in this case, it doesn’t look like a typo as it makes a real word which gives a VERY different meaning.

The tagline in the header is “Pass a drag test no sweat” which instantly brings to mind men dressing as women (testing to see if they are real drag queens is perhaps unusual but I guess we don’t want people pretending to be in drag?)

Elsewhere, they use the tagline “Pass a drug test no sweat” which related to the fact they sell “products is removing unwanted substances from your body and provides for quick detoxification of your organism.”

I’m not going to touch the rights and wrongs of passing drug tests this way, but it is clear that there is a huge difference between drag and drug.

So check your work carefully and don’t just rely on spell checks to get your work correct.

Use your words wisely!

Caret: a mark that indicates where text is to be inserted. In editing, it is ^ but on a computer screen it is usually >.
The fox jumped over ^log.

Carat (ct):a unit of weight used for gems and precious stones. It is a metric measurement based on 0.2 grams per carat.
A five carat opal weighs about one gram.

Karat (k): a measure of the purity of gold – pure gold being too soft for jewellery, it is mixed with other metals to make an alloy.
My necklace is 18k which means it contains 75% pure gold.

Telling them apart can be simplified. Carrot is the most commonly used version, and the only one likely to rot.

Caret is a very specific word that most people would rarely come across, especially as the word cursor is used more often in a computer sense.

As for carat and karat, carat refers to how much gemstone you have to carry (i.e. the weight) while a karat refers to the King’s gold!

electrocution: dying from electricity being applied to the body
He was electrocuted when he touched both live wires.

Electrocution, electrocuted, electrocute – whichever form of the word, it means being killed by electricity. Yet so many people talk about being electrocuted themselves – if you believe in ghosts, that could be possible but otherwise if the person is talking about it they were not electrocuted!

An electric shock on the other hand means feeling electricity through your body but you surive the experience – it can be as mild as the shock you get from synthetic carpets through to an almost fatal shock.

As for our TV host, he had given many of his contestants an electric shock but I’m pretty sure he hadn’t killed them despite saying he had electrocuted them.

either: an introduction of two alternatives separated by the word or
You can either buy or rent this property

neither: an introduction of two unavailable alternatives separated by the word nor
neither John nor Mary can run the meeting.

What is important to note is that both words refer to a choice of TWO options – if there is a list of choices, either/neither can’t be used.

wrong – You can choose either chocolate or vanilla or strawberry.
correct – You can chose either chocolate or strawberry.
correct – You can choose chocolate, vanilla or strawberry.

Site: a location or area
They had to clear the site before they could build on it.

Sight: being able to see; what is seen
She lost her sight after staring at the eclipse.
“What a sight!” said the hikers when they reached the mountain top.

The word cite is used less often in general conversations and probably doesn’t suit most business documents. But I do see site and sight being misused.

Think of site as a place where you can sit and it may help you remember which is which.

Sometimes, a capital letter can change the meaning or significance of a word.

Digger: an Anzac soldier
The Diggers proudly walked off the ship in Melbourne.

digger: someone who is digging or regularly digs
Sitting in the sandpit, the digger created a moat around his castle.

The general rules for the use of capital letters obviously still apply, as does the annoyance of over using capitals. For the above example, I added a capital letter to a regular noun to make it a proper noun as I could also do for words such as Mother/mother, Father/father, Nurse/nurse and Captain/captain.

Calvary: the Crucifixion place for Jesus; also used to refer to crucifixion crosses and sites in general or to describe intense pain
The pilgrims went to Calvary in Jerusalem.

Unless you write or read a lot of Christian materials, you probably won’t come across Calvary so learning to spell cavalry alone may be enough!

Breathe: the act of taking air into or out of the lungs. Also refers to letting air through a material (e.g. letting red wine breathe or choosing a fabric that can breathe)
It can be harder to breathe at high altitudes.