Chapter 5
Confusing Words and Homonyms
Many words in English sound or look alike, causing confusion and not a few headaches. This chapter lists some of these words, and other troublemakers.
A
A, AN
Use a when the first letter of the word following has the sound of a consonant. Keep in mind that some vowels can sound like consonants, such as when they're sounded out as individual letters. Also, some letters, notably h and u, sometimes act as consonants (home, usual), other times as vowels (honest, unusual).
| Examples: | a yearning |
| a hotel | |
| a U-turn (pronounced “yoo”) | |
| a NASA study |
Use an when the first letter of the word following has the sound of a vowel.
| Examples: | an unfair charge |
| an honor (the h is silent) | |
| an HMO plan (H is pronounced “aitch”) | |
| an NAACP convention (the N is pronounced “en”) |
ABBREVIATION, ACRONYM
This is a fine distinction that some consider nitpicking. Terms such as FBI, HMO, and NAACP, although widely called acronyms, are actually abbreviations. The difference is in how they are spoken. An abbreviation, also called an initialism, is pronounced letter by letter. An acronym is pronounced as if it were a word. The abbreviation FBI is pronounced “eff-bee-eye.” The acronym NASA is pronounced “nassa.”
ACCEPT, EXCEPT
Accept means “to acknowledge” or “to agree to.”
Except is usually a preposition used to specify what isn't included: I like all fruits except apples.
ACRONYM
See abbreviation, acronym.
AD, ADD
Ad: short for “advertisement.”
Add: to ...
Get The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation: An Easy-to-Use Guide with Clear Rules, Real-World Examples, and Reproducible Quizzes, 11th Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
