I hope you find my writing and business tips and observations useful. My business and blog are dedicated to helping businesses communicate clearly and reach their potential.
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Do patients have patience?
I have received emails/letters that include “thanks for your patients” where I’m sure the writer didn’t have the slightest idea that they really meant “thanks for your patience”. Do you know the difference?
patience: bearing or enduring difficult or trying circumstances, usually in a calm and accepting manner
The audience’s patience was rewarded with a wonderful concert.
patients: people receiving the services of medical practitioners – often ill or injured people but not always
The doctor had a queue of patients waiting to see her during the epidemic.
Given that patients refers to a group of people, it is no surprise that the word ends in s, the common plural ending.
All together now…
Altogether: completely or totally. Overall.
He was altogether mad!
All together: the entire group at the same time or place.
We were all together when we got the news.
Think of altogether being one word and meaning complete compared to all members of a group being separate even when together.
Ants or -ance?
Assistants: two or more people who are helping
His assistants were busy preparing the report.
Assistance: the help being provided
I really appreciated your assistance yesterday.
The use of -ants and -ance is often confused because they sound exactly the same despite the very different spelling. The easiest way to remember which is which is to think of ants (yes, the insects!) as doers and use that ending when you are writing about people doing something.
You’re from the days of yore?
One pair of misused words that I find really annoying is your/you’re. It isn’t hard to learn one is possessive and one is an abbreviation (for you are), but so many people use the incorrect word which shows a lack of knowledge and attention to detail that does not represent them , their content or their business well.
Your: refers to something you own
Is that your bike?
You’re: an abbreviation of ‘you are’.
You’re going to work tomorrow.
Yore: referring to the past, although it isn’t often used now
In days of yore, a Lady’s ankle was never seen.
Although these three words sound exactly the same, they obviously can’t be used as substitutes for each other. No catchy memory tricks for this one – you simply need to remember that the apostrophe replaces the a in you are to create you’re.
Driving torture?
Another pair of words many people could easily confuse is tortuous and torturous.
Tortuous – twisting and winding, such as driving along a tortuous road.
The wagon was too long to drive along the tortuous track.
Torturous – painful, agonising, upsetting, such as a torturous stay in prison
Listening to the new student play the violin was torturous to the music lover.
To tell them apart, think of the word torture and torturous together as painful and unpleasant.
Allude to an illusion
If you’re not careful with the pronunciation, allusion and illusion can sound very similar, and they are occasionally incorrectly swapped for each other.
An illusion is not real; so someone may have a false idea or see something that isn’t really there – they are facing an illusion.
Allusion is a reference to knowledge you assume your reader/listener understands, especially when referring to literary or art knowledge. For instance, I will make an allusion to Shakespeare’s work when I write: the young couple considered themselves to be as tragic as Romeo and Juliet. I can assume that most people know the story of Romeo and Juliet so the allusion explains a lot in few words.
To remember which is which, consider that illusion starts with I and often relates to a trick of the eye. Allusion starts with A and usually relates to Art and literature.
Click to join the clique
Although spelt very differently, click and clique are pronounced the same.
click: a sharp sound.
We could hear her coming by the click of her shoes on the wooden floor
clique: a tight group of people.
A clique is often hard to join as they are fairly exclusive.
Remember you only need a queue to join a clique, not to click your fingers!
Set your sights to the details
Although we may use the word sight a lot more often than site or cite, it is worth knowing the difference between them!
Cite: to mention or quote a document or legal result.
He cited Judge Brown’s findings from case 32.
Site: a relevant place or piece of ground. It includes a construction site (where building works are taking place), a sacred site (a place of significant meaning to some people) and a crime site (the area where an activity took place, in this case an illegal activity).
They chose the best site for their sleeping tent.
Sight: the ability to see and what is seen.
Sight is one of the five senses.
It was a magnificent sight from the lookout.
Site is easy to remember if you think of a site being a place where you can sit.
Take my advice…
There are many pairs of words that sound or look very similar, but they can mean very different things. There is no easy way around these words, you have to learn them as you can’t rely on spell checkers and the like to pick them up every time.
One such pair of words is advice/advise.
Advice: Opinion given or offered as to action, counsel; information given. (noun)
As a business coach, I sometimes give advice to my clients.
Advise: Offer advice; recommend. (verb)
I advise you to wear a hat when walking in the desert.
So I advise you to take care with words. And my advice is to learn the correct use of each word.
How can you remember which is which?
“I give you advice and I give you ice” will help you remember which word is the noun.
* Definitions from the Concise Oxford Dictionary
Copping some flak?
Next time you are complaining about the stirring of your mates or the complaints of your Boss, you can say you are copping some flak and feel like you are being shot at! But be careful you don’t write you are copping some flack as that may be wildly misinterpreted!
Flack: (noun) press agent or publicist
The movie star relied on her flack to manage the press conference.
Flack: (verb) to act as a PR or press agent
Flak: (noun) anti-aircraft artillery or bursting of shells fired from anti-aircraft artillery;over the top and/or aggressive criticism; opposition, disagreement. {Flak is derived from the German name of aircraft defence gun – Flieger Abwehr Kanone}
The politician was copping some flak over voting against his party on the carbon tax issue.
Simply remember that a PR agent always adds a little extra – like the letter c in flack!
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