{"id":1497,"date":"2015-04-13T08:44:27","date_gmt":"2015-04-13T14:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/?p=1497"},"modified":"2016-02-04T15:38:17","modified_gmt":"2016-02-04T21:38:17","slug":"is-that-the-word-i-wanted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/is-that-the-word-i-wanted\/","title":{"rendered":"Is that the word I wanted?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Samantha Bronkar<\/p>\n<p>Many words in the English language seem to be nearly identical. How can you know which word you actually meant to say (or write)? Below are some commonly confused words, their definitions, and different usages.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">amount\/number<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Amount <\/strong>is used when the object <strong>cannot be counted<\/strong> or measured.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Example:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He had an unwarranted <em>amount of trust<\/em> in those criminals.<\/li>\n<li>Explanation:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The concept of \u201ctrust\u201d cannot be given a numerical value; it can\u2019t be counted.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Number <\/strong>is used when the <strong>object can be counted<\/strong> or given a number.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Example:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The teacher helped a <em>number of students <\/em>today in class.<\/li>\n<li>Explanation:\u00a0 One can count the <em>number of students <\/em>that were helped.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">less\/fewer<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Less<\/strong> is used when something <strong>cannot be counted<\/strong> or <strong>cannot be used in the plural form<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Example: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I have <em>less time<\/em> than I thought!<\/li>\n<li>Explanation:\u00a0\u00a0<em>Time <\/em>cannot be written as \u201ctimes\u201d in this case; one cannot \u201chave less times.\u201d The concept of \u201ctime\u201d cannot be counted.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Fewer <\/strong>is used when <strong>something can be counted<\/strong> or given a number value.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Example:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She scored <em>fewer goals<\/em> this season than last.<\/li>\n<li>Explanation:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One can count the number of <em>goals<\/em> she scored.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">then\/than<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Then <\/strong>is related to time and <strong>helps describe the passage of time<\/strong>. It can also be used to show the <strong>relationship between actions and consequences<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Example: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You will see the railroad tracks, <em>then<\/em> you will cross the bridge.<\/li>\n<li>Explanation:\u00a0\u00a0 One thing logically follows another.<\/li>\n<li>Example: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If you had started your paper sooner, <em>then<\/em> you would have had more time to work on it.<\/li>\n<li>Explanation:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Because the student waited to start his paper, he has less time to work on it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Than <\/strong>is used to make <strong>comparisons <\/strong>between two things.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Example:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The beach is much <em>windier today than it was yesterday<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Explanation:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One day\u2019s weather is compared to another.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">compliment\/complement<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A <strong>compliment <\/strong>is a phrase of <strong>praise <\/strong>about something or someone.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Example: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After the dance, he <em>complimented <\/em>her on her grace and rhythm.<\/li>\n<li>Explanation:\u00a0\u00a0He praises her ability to dance; he gives her a <em>compliment.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Complement <\/strong>is used to describe when <strong>something goes well with something else<\/strong>; one thing <strong>enhances <\/strong>another.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Example:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That music was a perfect <em>complement <\/em>to her mood.<\/li>\n<li>Explanation:\u00a0\u00a0The music matched, enhanced, or sharpened her mood; they went together.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When in doubt, look it up! These aren\u2019t the only words that cause confusion, but you can sort out the tricky ones with a quick web search or glance through a writing handbook for \u201chomophones\u201d or \u201ccommonly confused words.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Samantha Bronkar is a sophomore majoring in English, and she plays for the women\u2019s soccer and softball teams at Principia College.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Samantha Bronkar Many words in the English language seem to be nearly identical. How can you know which word you actually [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,109],"tags":[92,125],"class_list":["post-1497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clarity","category-writeherewritenowwriteon","tag-editing","tag-word-choice"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5DI6r-o9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1497"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1509,"href":"http:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497\/revisions\/1509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}