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awake, awaken, wake, waken

These words often trip up writers and speakers. All four of them have similar meanings, though some have usages the others cannot perform. Let’s start with some with unique features.Only wake can appear in expressions like waking and sleeping or ev...

bad, badly

Bad ordinarily acts as an adjective, badly as an adverb. Bad normally describes how things are while badly describes how things might act or appearMany people make mistakes with the linking verb feel. A linking verb links the subject of a sentence to...

because, as, since, for

See as, because, since, for....

besides, beside

As prepositions, these two are commonly interchanged, but their meanings do differ, according to traditionalists.Besides means “other than” or “in addition to” while beside means “next to.”If you say there is no one beside you on the bus,...

breath, breathe

Breathe (pronounced with a long “e”) is a verb, and breath (short “e”) is a noun.Example: He tried to take a breath but was unable to breathe....

bring, take

Note: You’ll find an in-depth discussion in the Common Grammatical Mistakes section of Grammar.com. Click here for the beginning of that discussion.Once again, entire chapters could be written about the subtle distinctions between these two words. ...

brought, bought

Brought is the past tense and past participle of bring, and bought is the past tense and past participle of buy meaning “purchase.” This is a common spell-checker mistake, but there should be no confusion about the meanings.Example: He brought me...

but

Don’t hesitate to start a sentence with But. It’s a coordinating conjunction, and great writers have been starting sentences with conjunctions for hundreds of years. You can remember the coordinating conjunctions by referring to the acronym BOYFA...

can, may

Both words are auxiliary verbs.Our teachers in high school insisted that can expresses ability and that may grants permission. But children do not ask if they may do something. They ask if they can do something. They get this idiomatic expression fro...

cannot, can not, cannot but

Use one word, not two. Thus: cannot.Can’t is the contracted form of cannot, meaning the negative of can. In formal writing, it is perfectly acceptable to use contractions.Some object to the idiomatic expressions cannot but and can but, criticizing ...

capitol, capital, capital (money)

The word capitol should be used only to describe an actual governmental building. (My fourth-grade teacher taught us that the building is spelled with an “o” as in “dome,” something that most capitols have on their roofs.)Capital has many mea...

chose, choose

The word chose is the past tense of the verb choose. Often, writers will incorrectly spell choose as chose.Example: They wanted to choose the most inexpensive car, but in the end they chose the nicest one....

climactic, climatic

Climactic relates to the word climax as in “the climactic scene” of a movie.Climatic relates to the weather as in “climatic conditions.”Example: The climatic conditions were ripe for a heavy rainfall, but no one expected the flood that led to...

clothes, cloths

Clothes are something you wear. Cloths are the bolts of fabric that might ultimately become your clothes. Cloth can be used to describe a very characteristic type of clothing worn in a specific profession or position. The term “man of the cloth” ...

coarse, course

Coarse means “common,” “rough,” or “vulgar.” Course implies movement over time or over a predetermined route. The phrases “in due course,” “matter of course,” and “of course” are all built on this meaning. A course is also a s...

compliment, complement

A compliment is a statement of praise or good wishes. A complement is something that goes well with another or completes it. In these meanings, the words act as nouns.Both words can also be used as verbs. To compliment means "to say something nice, t...

comprise, constitute, compose

Comprise means “to be composed of” or “to contain.” Constitute means “to be one of the parts of” something. You could say that the parts constitute the whole and the whole comprises the parts.According to the traditional rule, the whole c...

continual, continuous

Both words can be used to describe an event that recurs regularly.Continual describes an event that begins and ends and begins again over a period of time.Continuous assumes that the event goes on uninterrupted; it implies a lack of interruption.Exa...

counsel, council

Lawyers are most familiar with the word counsel, meaning “advice” or “guidance.” Also, a lawyer is often referred to as a counsel. A corporation, for example, has a general counsel, the head corporate lawyer. A council, on the other hand, is ...

coupled with, as well as, along with, together with, not to mention

Expressions such as coupled with, as well as, along with, together with, not to mention, and others do not act as coordinating conjunctions. Therefore, when you use these expressions to join one singular subject of a sentence with another noun or pro...

along with

See coupled with, as well as, along with, together with, not to mention....

as well as

See coupled with, as well as, along with, together with, not to mention....

together with

See coupled with, as well as, along with, together with, not to mention....

not to mention

See coupled with, as well as, along with, together with, not to mention....

criterion, criteria

Criterion is a singular noun that means the “standard” or “rule” used to make a judgment or decision.Criteria is the plural form of that word, although it is commonly misused as a singular word (what is your criteria?).You may use data and ag...