Emma Stewart Writes

Writer, Proofreader, Editor and Cat Lady

Category: Word Choices

Posts discussing word choices

infographic demonstrating the difference between there, their and they're.

Homonyms and Homophones

July 28, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Homonyms and Homophones

What do I mean by this? Let’s get into it. Homonyms and homophones are words that are similar but have different meanings. Homonyms are a kind of catch all term for homographs, words that are spelled the same, or homophones, words that sounds the same (with different spelling) and have different meanings. Some words are both, and come under homonyms.

‘Homo-‘ is a prefix used in a lot of words, and it means ‘the same’. Homogenous, homosexual, homozygous, it’s used a lot. It’s opposite being ‘hetero-‘. These prefixes come from Greek. So let’s get into the definitions properly before we look at some common examples.

Homograph: words that are spelled the same, although may have different pronunciations.

Homophones: words that have the same pronunciation but may have different spelling.

Homonyms: words that have the same spelling and pronunciation but with different meanings.

Homograph Examples

  • Read: a verb which is spelled the same and pronounced differently depending on the tense. Pronounced like ‘reed’ for present or future tense, and pronounced like ‘red’ for past tense. Oh, look some homophone examples too!
  • Bow: can be pronounced two ways, one meaning a weapon designed to shoot arrows, another referring to a respectful gesture of dipping one’s head. There are other meanings too.
  • Tear: can be a rip in something or it can mean the fluid produced that protects the eyes, and falls when someone is crying.

Homophone Examples

  • Lead and Led: lead meaning the heavy metal and led being the past tense of the verb ‘lead’ (which is a homograph of the noun, ‘lead’)
  • Sea and See: sea meaning coastal water between landmasses and see meaning to use ones vision to collect information.
  • Bear and bare: bear meaning a large grizzly animal and bare meaning to expose or reveal.

Homonym Examples

  • Stalk: can mean both the upright portion of a plant and to follow someone
  • Bark: the protective outer coating of a tree trunk and a sound a dog makes
  • Left: the past tense of leave and the opposite of right.

The Important Ones to Know

You might be thinking I’ve left a few out of the lists above. That’s on purpose, because I want to address them here. These are groups of homonyms that are commonly mixed up and confused. So I want to highlight them to help you make sure you know which is which. To read more, please see previous blog posts on pronouns and apostrophes.

Their, they’re and there

These ones get confused all the time. They all sound the same, but have different spellings and meanings, making them homophones. So, which is which and how do you know which to use?

Their: a possessive pronoun relating to either a group of people or a single person of unspecified gender. “It is their dog. They’re over there.”

They’re: a contraction of ‘they are’. “It is their dog. They’re over there.”

There: a demonstrative adverb referring to a place or position. “It is their dog. They’re over there.”

infographic demonstrating the difference between there, their and they're.

Your and You’re

Again, very commonly confused, these two words. Your is a possessive pronoun, used for something that belongs to you. “That is your dog? You’re lucky.”

You’re is a contraction of ‘you are’. “That is your dog? You’re lucky.”

Remember the apostrophe post? You’re has an apostrophe because it’s a contraction of two words. Make sense?

To, Too and Two

And the third group of homonyms that are very frequently confused, is these three.

To: a preposition expressing motion or approaching a place or condition. “Going to the supermarket.”

Too: means either ‘also’ or excessively. “She was driving too fast. You thought so too?”

Two: is the number 2.

Conclusion

I know this might all sound very simple and easy, basic English from primary school, but I’ve chosen to cover it for a reason. These are frequent mistakes seen everywhere from social media posts to academic essays. They’re easy to miss as well, as a basic computer spell check will not catch them, unless you have spelled the word wrong as well as using the wrong word. Modern grammar checks might catch them and realise you have used the wrong word, but they might not catch it either.

That is where a good proofreader comes in, because part of our job is to spot these kinds of mistakes. Don’t get me wrong, modern software and AI tools are a lot better than they used to be in the early days of spelling and grammar checkers but they’re not perfect, a human eye is needed to be sure it is all correct.

Pass on the Passive Voice

July 24, 2023 / / 0 Comments

What is the passive voice?

It’s something most of us have seen at some point. Especially in the early days of MS Word’s grammar checker, it was something I remember seeing the passive voice a lot when writing essays and school assignments. I didn’t really understand what it meant at the time, although I do now!

So, what is the passive voice? Essentially it’s the order of the sentence. So the subject becomes the object, and the verb happens to it rather than the subject doing the verb. It’s become passive. If the subject is doing the verb to the object, then it becomes active. Yeah, I know it’s probably still not clear. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples so you can see what I mean.

Passive vs Active voice

A classic scene from a classic novel and movie, let’s look at what happens in The Wizard of Oz at the beginning when the cyclone hits.

“The house was carried away by the cyclone.”

vs

“The cyclone carried the house away.”

Which one is in the passive voice, and which is in the active voice? Hopefully you got it right. The first one is passive: the house is the object being acted upon by the verb ‘carried’ and the subject ‘the cyclone’. The second sentence is active: the subject ‘the cyclone’ is acting ‘carried’ on the object ‘the house’. So they are different ways of looking at it, but both sentences do effectively say the same thing.

The difference is where the focus is placed by the word order, which will affect the impact of the sentence. It shifts the readers focus onto the subject and the action the verb is describing. The subject is doing something to the object, rather than the object having something done to it.

An easy way to spot the passive voice is to look for the ‘was’ or ‘is’ before the verb. You might be able to make passive sentences without these words but most of them will have one of these in it before the verb.

Is it always wrong?

That depends. Often you will find it being flagged by grammar checking software (such as the aforementioned MS Word) and even the SEO and Readability scoring software on this WordPress Editor. I get frowny faces if I use too much passive voice. This is likely because often passive voice is less engaging and interesting to read. Active voice gives your words more impact for your reader.

That said, everything you write has a purpose and you might choose to use the passive voice to direct your reader’s attention to something else. You may even want it to be misleading in some way, or to ‘soften the blow’, so to speak. That said, it is the general consensus that you should use the active voice the majority of the time. Certainly if you are writing advertising copy or another kind of persuasive writing, the passive voice will lessen the impact significantly. So when you are editing, proofreading or writing, it’s something to be conscious of and evaluate if there is a more impactful way to say what you want to say.

Thanks for reading! Remember, for more tips and tricks, subscribe to get an email every time there’s a new post. I’m posting three times a week on here. If you want some help with your writing, including spotting the passive voice, get in touch with me and I’ll be happy to help you out! Any questions or thoughts, the comments are open!

Why you should still be using a dictionary

July 17, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Why You Still Need a Dictionary

Word choice matters. English is a complex language with a lot of options for word choice. No matter how good you think your English is, it is important to be selective in your word choices. You need to make sure you are saying what you think you are saying. Some words which are used interchangeably when they shouldn’t be, as the meaning might be similar but not quite the same.

You might think people will know what you mean, but that’s not always the case. Someone reading might know what the word you have used means and realise it is incorrect. It is also possible for someone whose first language is not English to get confused if you use a word that’s not quite correct. Let’s look at a few examples.

Words You Should Check in the Dictionary Before Using

  • Venomous and Poisonous: both of these words are related to toxins but there’s a difference in how they work. Toxins are substances that have a detrimental effect on the body. Venom is where the toxin is injected into the body by a fang, a tooth, a stinger or claw. Poison is a toxin that affects the body when it is ingested. Some things can be both.
  • Psychologist and Psychiatrist: Both are professionals who deal with psychological problems and mental health, however, a psychiatrist is a medical doctor who has specialised and is able to prescribe medication as well as diagnose. Psychologists are scientists who have studied psychology and are able to assess and provide therapy but cannot prescribe.
  • Complement and Compliment: these words sound the same and have a positive meaning but they are slightly different. Compliment is when you make a positive comment about something: “Your t-shirt is awesome!”. Complement means something that enhances or emphasizes the quality of something: “This wine is the perfect complement for a steak dinner.”

Deciding which word to use

When it comes to choosing the right word, it can be tricky. If in doubt, double check with a dictionary. Look up the word you want to use and check that the definition fits with what you are trying to say. Keep in mind the purpose of what you are writing, and you can be sure you are saying what you want to say. There is no shame in having to look things up to double check. Even the most professional and experienced writers cannot possibly remember every single word and meaning right off the bat. Word choice can affect how your writing is interpreted, so you want to make sure it has your desired effect. (See what I did there, another example! ‘Affect’ is a verb, ‘Effect’ is a noun.)

Synonyms

Sometimes word choice is a stylistic choice. There are a lot of words in English that have a large number of synonyms, words that have a similar meaning. Some words can have a few different but related meanings as well, so you might find a synonym that makes things clearer for your reader. Let’s look at an example, and take the word ‘good’.

Meanings of the word ‘good’

  • of a high standard or the required qualities
  • skilled at doing a specific thing
  • healthy, strong or well
  • useful or beneficial in effect
  • appropriate to a purpose
  • having moral virtue
  • showing kindness
  • obeys rules or conventions
  • enjoyable or satisfying
  • smart clothes suitable for formal wear
  • noun for that which is morally right
  • noun for a benefit or advantage

A long list, isn’t it? That’s why I chose this as an example, ‘good’ is a word that has a lot of different meanings and uses. It’s also a word that is used a lot in many forms of writing, particularly fiction, articles about people and marketing. You can’t really sell a product if you can’t show what is so good about it, right?

What synonyms should we consider?

Obviously we have a lot of potential meanings for the word ‘good’, and depending on the context, we might want to choose a different word to make the sentence more accurate or more interesting. So, the first part is to establish what context we are using this word. So let’s say we are writing about my writing skills.

“Emma’s a very good writer.”

Not bad, but could we make it better? The context here is talking about a skill I have, that is also of high quality so we could choose a synonym that fits with this. so here’s a few alternatives:

  • Emma’s writing is of a high standard.
  • Emma’s a superb writer.
  • Emma’s writing is wonderful.
  • Emma is an accomplished writer.
  • Emma is a talented writer.
  • Emma’s an expert writer.

However, you might find other synonyms that don’t work so well.

  • Emma’s writing is nutritious. (You can’t really eat my words.)
  • Emma’s writing is obedient. (I follow the rules, but this sounds odd.)

It is important to remember your context when making choices about words to use and synonyms. I would caution against using a thesaurus too much, you can overdo it and end up with something ridiculous like: “Emma’s manuscription is surpassing excellence.” It says the same thing but it’s a bit pompous and confusing. Using lots of long and obscure words will make your writing less accessible, especially in something less formal than academic writing. It doesn’t always make you look more intelligent and it can make your writing more difficult for people who are dyslexic or who have English as a second language. You don’t want to be sending your reader to use the dictionary all the time.

In Summary

The key takeaway from this is to make sure you are using the right word for the job. If in doubt look it up in the dictionary to make sure. Remember, if it bites you and you die, it’s venomous, but if you bite it and you die, it’s poisonous! See you next time!

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