Have you ever fallen into a word trap or traps? For example, “who” and “whom”. Personally, I seldom use “whom”. Many a time, my word spell check suggests “whom”, but I never pick it because I rate it’s pretentious.
One misspelled word can cost you the job of your dreams. A simple misspelled word can negatively affect the entire message.
It may sound unfair, but that’s the reality of thing.s Now, let’s make sure that doesn’t happen! Here are 10 common words you could be saying wrongly.
1 Ultimate
Ultimate does not mean “the one, the only, and the best”. It means the last item of a list.
Just think of how many times you’ve used the word wrongly. Not looking good, right?
Usage: “Veronica needs milk, bread, bacon, liver and ultimately margarine.”
There you have it; “ultimate” means the last one or thing.
2 Bottleneck
A bottleneck is a point in a process which causes it to slow down. It is a point of limitation or constraint.
Usage: “The price of fuel constantly going up, the fuel bottleneck has clearly crippled production.”
3 Nauseous
Nauseous doesn’t mean, “feeling ill”, it means, “to cause feelings of illness”. Get the difference?
I know a few people that make this mistake. If you’re feeling sick then you’re nauseated. The object that made you feel ill is nauseous. For example: walking shirtless on a winter morning may make you feel ill. That means the cold weather is nauseous because it’s making you feel nauseated.
4 Ironic
Ironic does NOT mean “something bad that happened to you”. It means “an occurrence that is opposite of what you’d expect”. Irony has two meanings; the other definition, according to wordsinasentence.com, is a form of humour in which you use words to express the opposite of what the words really mean.
Not over-exaggerating, Ironic is one abused word. I have Selinah (bless her dear heart), a colleague, to blame for this one.
Usage: The irony of the whole thing is that Miriam died, soon after she killed her husband for insurance money.
5 Terrific
Terrific does NOT mean fantastic or good. It means “horrific”, or “to inspire fear”. Let me be the first to admit this, I have used the word “terrific” wrongly.
Many a time people say they feel terrific, they mean to say fantastic or good or happy.
Usage: The fire was a terrific shock.
6 Disinterested
Disinterested does not mean “bored”, it means “neutral”.
Usage: Selinah couldn’t take her mind off Mike, especially since she began to think he’d taken her disinterest in him as a challenge.
7 Chronic
Chronic does not mean severe, rather, over the course of a long time.
Folk should know better but eish… old habits die hard. If one has chronic pain, it means that person had been in pain for a very long time. It has nothing to do with the severity of the pain.
Chronic diseases are called chronic because they stick around for a very, very long time.
8 i.e.
This is for many, confusing.
When you use i.e. you’re letting the reader know that you’re going to be stating the same information in different words.
Usage: It’s November and she moved out in October, i.e., a month ago.
9 Discreet
Discreet is often confused with discrete. Discreet means careful or cautious, while discrete means individual or distinct.
Usage: The thief was discreet while sneaking into the locked house.
10 Peruse
Peruse does NOT mean speed-reading or browsing a text. It means reading attentively.
Usage: She spends half of her day perusing the internet for tips on how to make a million dollars.
One misspelled word can cost you the job of your dreams. A simple misspelled word can negatively affect the entire message.
It may sound unfair, but that’s the reality of thing.s Now, let’s make sure that doesn’t happen! Here are 10 common words you could be saying wrongly.
1 Ultimate
Ultimate does not mean “the one, the only, and the best”. It means the last item of a list.
Just think of how many times you’ve used the word wrongly. Not looking good, right?
Usage: “Veronica needs milk, bread, bacon, liver and ultimately margarine.”
There you have it; “ultimate” means the last one or thing.
2 Bottleneck
A bottleneck is a point in a process which causes it to slow down. It is a point of limitation or constraint.
Usage: “The price of fuel constantly going up, the fuel bottleneck has clearly crippled production.”
3 Nauseous
Nauseous doesn’t mean, “feeling ill”, it means, “to cause feelings of illness”. Get the difference?
I know a few people that make this mistake. If you’re feeling sick then you’re nauseated. The object that made you feel ill is nauseous. For example: walking shirtless on a winter morning may make you feel ill. That means the cold weather is nauseous because it’s making you feel nauseated.
4 Ironic
Ironic does NOT mean “something bad that happened to you”. It means “an occurrence that is opposite of what you’d expect”. Irony has two meanings; the other definition, according to wordsinasentence.com, is a form of humour in which you use words to express the opposite of what the words really mean.
Not over-exaggerating, Ironic is one abused word. I have Selinah (bless her dear heart), a colleague, to blame for this one.
Usage: The irony of the whole thing is that Miriam died, soon after she killed her husband for insurance money.
5 Terrific
Terrific does NOT mean fantastic or good. It means “horrific”, or “to inspire fear”. Let me be the first to admit this, I have used the word “terrific” wrongly.
Many a time people say they feel terrific, they mean to say fantastic or good or happy.
Usage: The fire was a terrific shock.
6 Disinterested
Disinterested does not mean “bored”, it means “neutral”.
Usage: Selinah couldn’t take her mind off Mike, especially since she began to think he’d taken her disinterest in him as a challenge.
7 Chronic
Chronic does not mean severe, rather, over the course of a long time.
Folk should know better but eish… old habits die hard. If one has chronic pain, it means that person had been in pain for a very long time. It has nothing to do with the severity of the pain.
Chronic diseases are called chronic because they stick around for a very, very long time.
8 i.e.
This is for many, confusing.
When you use i.e. you’re letting the reader know that you’re going to be stating the same information in different words.
Usage: It’s November and she moved out in October, i.e., a month ago.
9 Discreet
Discreet is often confused with discrete. Discreet means careful or cautious, while discrete means individual or distinct.
Usage: The thief was discreet while sneaking into the locked house.
10 Peruse
Peruse does NOT mean speed-reading or browsing a text. It means reading attentively.
Usage: She spends half of her day perusing the internet for tips on how to make a million dollars.
No comments:
Post a Comment