There are many words in the English language that may be interchangeable, there are also many words that should not be used as a substitute.
Some of the dilemmas faced include words such as: amount, quantity, number, biannual, biennial, weary, wary, elicit, illicit, further, farther, all right, alright, all ready, already, effect, affect, lie, lay. laid, into, in to …and trust me, there are many more. These are just some of the more popular confused word pairs.
Here are some meanings/definitions to show which word is the more appropriate, where I can I will try to throw in tips or usage to help you remember:
Amount of is used for things you cannot measure; quantity of is used for things you can measure (normally singular noun); number of precedes a plural, countable noun. There is a huge amount of love in this house. The quantity of people in the house is large. There are a number of cars in the driveway.
Biannual is twice in one year (think annually, yearly); Biennial is once every two years. He paid his taxes biannually. To save money, the company threw a holiday party only biennially.
Weary is to be tired; wary is to believe there is a need for caution. We were weary after arriving home from that long trip. He was wary about driving on those icy roadways.
Elicit is to (figuratively) extract something; illicit is illegal. The detective’s questions elicited a confession about the illicit acts he was guilty of.
Use farther for physical distance and further for metaphorical, or figurative, distance. How much farther do we go before we can stop for dinner? (hint, farther has the word far in it as in distance) He pushed her further knowing she could do the exercise.
All right is everything is right; surprisingly alright means the same thing but is not readily accepted as a word. Some sources feel that the shortened combined word is a modern variant and will eventually be recognized as are already and altogether.
Don’t swap affect and effect. Affect means to cause a change (starts with A for action); effect refers to the results of that action.
Many people get confused with the present tense of lie and lay. Lie down, you look tired. Lay is what is done to something or to put something somewhere. Lay the book on the piano bench when you are done. Now of course if gets even more confusing when we use the past tense; the past tense of lie is lay, and the past tense of lay is laid.
Into is a preposition; In the phrase in to, in is an adverb. Into means movement towards or into something; it should answer the question Where?. Put the cash into the cookie jar. Substitute the to in in to with in order to and see if the sentence makes sense. He came in to eat his dinner.
Writing exercise: Your protagonist is taking a long journey on a hot stuffy train. He (or she) is sitting next to a loud, inconsiderate individual who is talking on his cell phone, taking up more room than just his seat, and at some point falls asleep leaning on the protagonist’s shoulder. There are no other seats available, standing in the aisle is prohibited and there are no other travel options. Keeping in mind the kind of person your protagonist is, use a few paragraphs to describe how he handles this uncomfortable train ride.
Writing prompt: You have 15 minutes to pack an overnight bag for yourself before going halfway across the country to meet an important publisher who is interested in your work. What will be the first ten things you will pack?
