These two words are easily confused, and often wrongly selected by autocorrect when you aren’t paying attention to the keys you are hitting.
Ingenious
Ingenuous
You can work out which word you need by remembering that a genius is often ingenious.
I can’t claim that incorrectly spelling burgher as burger is a common, everyday mistake. But the mix-up does occur, especially in student essays.
Burger
Burgher
The spelling of burgher does vary in historical texts – the versions include burger, bourger and burgar. This is because the word was adopted from the original German or Dutch burger (meaning ‘citizen of a fortified town’) and only later assimilated to the English burgh (meaning ‘borough’).
Affect and effect are often used incorrectly, particularly in student essays. In most contexts, affect is a verb and effect is a noun. When you affect something, it produces an effect – and I think that is where some of the confusion stems from.
Affect
Affect as a verb means ‘to influence or change’ or ‘to make a difference to’, and it is the most common use of affect.
The new rules will affect thousands of people.
It can sometimes mean ‘to pretend’ or ‘to take on or adopt something pretentiously’.
I affected a happy disposition. He was known to affect an American accent.
It has limited usage (usually related to psychology) as noun referring to an emotion or feeling.
His reaction displayed a happy affect.
Effect
Effect as a verb means ‘to do’ or ‘to bring about’.
I will effect change.
But the most common usage of effect is as a noun meaning ‘a result’.
It had an immediate effect.
The a, an or the test
If you struggle to work out which word you need to use, this simple test might help. Does a, an or the appear in front of it? Or if you inserted a, an or the would the sentence make sense?
The effect was insignificant. It couldanaffect your lifestyle.
If the answer is yes, you probably need effect (the noun). If the answer is no, you probably need affect (the verb).
Gourmand and gourmet have similar meanings, and they can be used as synonyms. However, one is typically considered to be more complimentary than the other.
A gourmand is a person who enjoys eating and often eats to excess. The original (15th century) meaning was ‘glutton’. Although it later acquired the meaning of ‘a judge of good food’, gourmand is not usually a flattering description.
A gourmet is a person with a refined taste in food. It has always had this meaning (originating in the early 19th century). You can use gourmet attributively (e.g. ‘a gourmet meal’) but you cannot do so with gourmand.
If you wish to compliment someone on their excellent palate, gourmet is the word to use.
I am always surprised by the number of people who supposedly flaunt rules.
Flaunt
Flout
The misuse is so widespread that, according to the Oxford English Corpus, the second and third commonest objects of flaunt are law and rules. The commonest object is wealth. Although the wrong use has been prevalent since the 1940s, it was not seen before the 20th century.
They may be pronounced the same way, but faint and feint have very different meanings. Perhaps the most confusing usage is that of feint as a word for lined paper – the lines may be faint but the type of paper is feint (or feint-ruled).
Faint
Feint
It is fairly common to see isle used where aisle would be appropriate, but the different meanings are straightforward to grasp.
Aisle:
Isle:
The similarity between isle and island is a useful indicator of which word to use. If the thing you are writing about is not an island, you know that you need to use aisle.
Coo and coup couldn’t really be more different in meaning. The sentences produced when they are used mistakenly can be distracting if you enjoy the surreal.
Coo
Coup
I am tickled by the idea of pigeons leading a violent regime change or armies taking part in a gentle murmur. But you probably don’t want that in your dissertation or novel. Unless you do …
This is fairly basic but it is easy to type or write the wrong word when you are in a hurry. I tend to find that plane is used in place of plain. I haven’t yet seen an aircraft referred to as a ‘plain’.
Plain
Plane
an aeroplaneThe difference between mold and mould is the u. The meanings are the same. If you use American English, the spelling is mold. If you use British English, the spelling is mould.
Mold/mould:
a shape, form, nature, character or type
Hannah McCall 