7 Commonly confused words

Someone once said that whenever you communicate thru writing, you're saying 3 things:
-something about your message
-something about the reader of your message
-& something about yourself

I'm not perfect, but whenever i see words wrongly used out of context, i get this funny feeling deep inside and .. just a tinge of pity to those who have abused or probably misused those uncomplaining units of language that a native speaker can identify.

1. FARTHER vs FURTHER
farther is more suitable to use as a distance word , like "She moved farther away to the north". While further is more like to describe quantity or to express time, like, "He quitted inorder for him to further his studies"

2. ALOT vs A LOT
alot is an uncorrect form; a lot which means "many" is the correct form

3. BREATH vs BREATHE
breathe is a verb, an action word which signifies the inhale/exhale process while breath is a noun - the air that is inhaled or exhaled. "He breathed his last breath as soon as he had a glimpse of his son"

4. IRREGARDLESS vs REGARDLESS
irregardless is non-standard, it's considered as incorrect on most dictionaries. So use regardless which means, no matter or irrespective


5. LOOSE vs LOSE
lose means "fail to win" - a verb; while loose can be categorized as
an adjective, as in, "not tight";
as a verb, as in, "turn loose";
as an adverb, as in, "without restraint"

6. THAN vs THEN
this is quite obvious, Than is used when you are comparing; while Then can be used
as an adverb (most of the time), as in, "first came lightning, then thunder"
as a noun, as in, "we were friends from then on"
as an adjective, as in, "the then president"

7. IT'S vs ITS
Its - the posessive form of it; of or belonging to it, as in, "Turn on the laptop on its power button"
It's - is the contraction of it is, as in, "it's so nice of you to smile like that"

Eloquence is important whenever you are communicating, it's not an innate virtue but a skill that can be improved over time. When you write clearly, you are achieving results and a sense of productivity. Let's say... your emphasis on what you want to convey has an impact - the bottom line is improved!



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