Home
>
Writing
>
Pairs/Groups Of Words Often Confused - Part 5 of 6

Pairs/Groups Of Words Often Confused - Part 5 of 6

PASSED, PAST

Passed is the past tense of pass. Past means a time that has gone.

"Time passed and we all forgot the incident."

"In times past it was the custom for women to wear hats in church."

PEACE, PIECE

Peace means the absence of war (or even noise); piece is a portion of something.

PEAK, PEEK, PIQUE

Pique means to excite or irritate; peek means to peep or snoop; peak as a noun means the summit or tip, and as a verb means to climax. So, you pique someone's curiosity; you don't peek or peak it. If someone annoys you, you become piqued rather than peeked or peaked.

PLAIN, PLANE

Plain means obvious, also unadorned or lacking in good looks; plane is a carpenter's tool or an abbreviation of aeroplane.

PATIENCE, PATIENTS

Patience means forbearance; patients are people under medical care.

POUR, PORE

You pour sauces, gravies, etc, over your dinner, while pore means to study something--so, "pore over the book", not "pour over the book", which reads as though you might be damaging the book with an unnamed liquid substance!

PRESENCE, PRESENTS

Presence means being near at hand; presents are gifts.

PRINCIPAL, PRINCIPLE

Principal means chief or main, also the amount borrowed in a loan; principle means regulations or ideals.

"The principal reason for the company's failure was lack of money." (or)

"The new principal is making a real difference to our school."

"We are paying both principal and interest each month on our mortgage."

"She is completely without principles and would steal from her own mother."

"The principle of a clause like this in your employment contract is to protect you against unfair dismissal."

QUIET, QUITE

Quiet means without noise; quite when used in fiction usually means moderately, but can also mean totally or entirely. Use of the wrong word here could, of course, simply be a typing error that went unnoticed in the proof-reading stages!

RAIN, REIGN, REIN

Rain is the water that comes down from clouds; reign means to rule; rein is a strap, usually leather, for controlling an animal, especially a horse.

RAISE, RAZE

These two are exact opposites. Raise means to lift or build up and raze means to pull down:

"We will raise the reputation of our village to new heights."

"He instructed his army to raze the village to the ground."

REALITY, REALTY

Reality is real life; realty is real estate.

REFERENCE, REVERENCE

I don't know if this confusion is common. I didn't even realise the words COULD be confused until I saw one wrongly used in something written by ... a writer! Maybe it was just a typing error. Reference is something referred to, reverence means respect.

RESIDENCE, RESIDENTS

Residence is a house; residents are the people who live there.

RESPECTFULLY, RESPECTIVELY

Respectfully means politely; respectively means in the order stated.

"The containers stood in a row and were numbered 1, 3, 2, 5 and 4 respectively" means they were standing in this order rather than numerical order.

RIGHT, RITE, WRITE

Right means correct; rite is a ceremony, usually religious; write means to make words.

ROAD, RODE

Road is a long surface for cars and other vehicles; rode is the past tense of ride.

About The Author

Laraine Anne Barker writes fantasy for young people. Visit her web site at http://lbarker.orcon.net.nz. Fantasy for Children & Young Adults for FREE stories and novel excerpts. Sign up for the NOVELLA OF THE MONTH CLUB, absolutely FREE!

apartment cleaning near Wilmette ..

In The News:

Instead of fearing what comes next with artificial intelligence, think outside the box. Here are high-earning AI jobs that don't require a computer science degree.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says polite words like "please" and "thank you" cost millions annually, while direct prompts may improve ChatGPT accuracy by several points.

Chattee Chat and GiMe Chat exposed intimate conversations and photos, revealing users spent up to $18,000 on AI companions before the breach.

New Instagram parental controls allow families to manage teen screen time and content limits through the Family Center with stricter safety settings.

Third-party security breach at Discord exposes sensitive user information including government IDs, highlighting cybersecurity risks from external service providers.

Survey of 1,000 students shows teens using AI for personal relationships while two-thirds of parents remain unaware of their children's AI usage.

Cybersecurity experts warn about a ShadowLeak vulnerability that weaponized ChatGPT's Deep Research agent to steal personal data from Gmail accounts through hidden commands.

Tesla's Full Self-Driving system faces federal investigation following 58 reports of crashes, with six vehicles running red lights before colliding with other cars.

The Fox News AI Newsletter brings you the latest developments on artificial intelligence, with news on OpenAI moving to soon allow erotica for adult users.

Eric Schmidt alerts that hackers can reverse-engineer AI models to bypass safety measures, citing examples like the jailbroken ChatGPT variant called DAN.

Cybercriminals exploit Microsoft Teams through impersonation, malicious links and fake profiles to gather intel and deliver ransomware to personal and work devices.

Google, Dior, Allianz and dozens of other companies lost sensitive customer data in Salesforce-related breaches affecting millions of records across multiple sectors.

Apple launches iOS 26 with new Preview app that combines document editing, PDF annotation and scanning features into one streamlined iPhone experience.

New AI road monitoring system uses sensor-embedded fabric to predict infrastructure problems, potentially reducing maintenance costs and traffic disruptions for cities.

Holiday charity scams target retirees through lookalike organization names, untraceable payment requests, and data broker information to steal donations.

The Federal Trade Commission says criminals are posing as IRS agents, law enforcement officers or other officials, often over the phone or online, to steal thousands of dollars at a time.

AI phishing scams now use voice cloning and deepfake technology to trick victims, but Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson reveals warning signs to watch for.

Inversion Space unveils Arc, a reusable reentry vehicle that can deliver up to 500 pounds of cargo from orbit to anywhere on Earth in under an hour.

Red flags like processing fees, urgent countdowns and requests for full Social Security numbers expose fraudulent settlement sites targeting consumers.

Comprehensive analysis of Google Maps, Waze and Apple Maps examines usability, routing accuracy, data handling and features across the top navigation platforms.

Expert analysis reveals whether wired Ethernet or wireless Wi-Fi connections are safer for home internet use, plus practical steps to secure your network from attackers.

Australian construction robot Charlotte uses sand, crushed brick and recycled glass to 3D print fireproof, floodproof homes with reduced carbon footprint.

Cybercriminals are using fake invitation emails to trick recipients into downloading malware and stealing personal information and data.

Flying drones could help retailers fight a 93% increase in theft rates as Flock Safety promotes airborne security systems to track suspects and deter crime.

The Fox News Artificial Intelligence Newsletter brings you the latest news on the emerging technology every Saturday, highlighting top stories.

Pairs/Groups Of Words Often Confused - Part 5 of 6

Writing