Five most commonly misused word pairs:

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For those who have looked at different areas of my site, you would find out that I’m a big fan to the radio show The Browser on the station KSL. I normally listen to KNRS but I like learning about new things that is provided by the browser. Today they talked about: Five most commonly misused word pairs
And referenced a book called The big ten of grammar. The radio host gave five set of word pairs that are frequently misused and I thought that would make a good entry for today’s blog. So here you go.

Thanks The Browser and the book The big ten of grammar.

Big when you talk about size and importance but not in proportion
Large has to do with comparison/proportion

Sure : believe through intuition and feeling
Certain is when you’re talking about facts

Less: when referring to bulk
Fewer: refers to individual items or something that can be compared.

Further: in relation to time
Farther: in relation to distance

Often: something happening many times and you expect more
Frequently: something happens at rapid intervals

referencing: The big ten of grammar: book
If you have some gotcha words that people mess up and you have a trick on how to use the correct one, please feel free to share it in the comment section of this blog. Thanks

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2 Responses to Five most commonly misused word pairs:

  1. Marny says:

    The way I learned to distinguish less and fewer: Fewer is for things that can be counted; less is for things that can’t be counted. So, “There is less sugar in this recipe” and “There are fewer books on the floor.”

    • admin says:

      Marny, That is a wonderful suggestion. Thank you for sharing it, especially since you have such a strong grammar foundation. I appreciate all you do and your skills. Thanks again.