amoral/immoral
amoral: Lacking a moral sense or standards; not caring about or aware of what is right or wrong (it was amoral for people to raise money to help those suffering from the floods and then to keep for themselves a large amount of the funds collected)
immoral: Not conforming to a given set of standards or accepted patterns of behavior (in some countries adultery is considered immoral and the female can be stoned to death)
appraise/apprise
appraise: To assess the worth of something (we appraise the value of this horse at $2,000)
apprise: To inform (you should apprise the government of the situation in Japan immediately)
biannual/biennial
biannual: Occurring twice a year (our biannual fair is held every year in January and July)
biennial: Happening every two years (the biennial festival is scheduled next year in November)
ceremonial/ceremonious
ceremonial: Relating to formalities observed at solemn or important occasions (the ceremonial rites of baptism were observed with the child being sprinkled with water)
ceremonious: Excessively formal or polite (the usher was ceremonious in the way he showed us to our seats and made sure we were comfortable)
childish/childlike
childish: Acting like a child; weak, silly (it always annoys me when Peter plays these silly games and is so childish)
childlike: To have the qualities of a child (her artistic works are so childlike)
complementary/complimentary
complementary: Something that completes or balances to make a whole (the violins, viola, and cello are complementary parts of a string quartet)
complimentary: Something given away for free (we received complimentary tickets for the ballet); expressing a compliment (the critic made complimentary remarks when reviewing the play)
confidant/confident
confidant: Someone to whom secrets are confided (Jack has been my confidant for many years, as I can depend on him not to reveal anything I tell him); the feminine of confidant is confidante
confident: Believing in your abilities; being sure of yourself (Jimmy was confident that he would win the title bout; the Republican Party is confident of victory in the coming elections)
conscience/conscious
conscience: The internal mechanism that allows a person to distinguish right from wrong and act accordingly (Carl wrestled with his conscience and finally made the decision to tell the truth about taking the money left on the table)
conscious: Aware of and responding to one’s feelings, own existence, surroundings, etc. (Rebecca was conscious of her feelings of inadequacy when dealing with the attempted suicide of her brother)
consequently/subsequently
consequently: As a result of a previous action (I forgot to take my umbrella with me when I went for a walk and consequently was soaked when it started to rain)
subsequently: Following closely in time, order, or sequence (we were late arriving at the movie theatre and subsequently missed the beginning of the film)
continual/continuous
continual: Proceedings continuing over some time but with periods of interruption (the continual interjections during the president’s speech were irritating to all who attended the rally; the mother was annoyed by her children’s continual interruptions while she was making dinner)
continuous: Proceedings extending over time without interruption (there was a continuous procession of cars following the hearse to the cemetery)
defective/deficient
defective: Being faulty or imperfect (Susie returned the new kettle to the store where she purchased it as it was defective and had a missing part)
deficient: Lacking some element or quality: inadequate (the mother thought her daughter was totally deficient in common sense when she went shopping without the list of groceries)
detract/distract
detract: To take away (as you did not turn up for work until 9:30 this morning, I will detract one hour’s pay from your wages); to reduce in quality, value, or status (please don’t wear that pink blouse, because it will detract from the rest of your outfit)
distract: To divert the mind or attention (keep him busy and distract his attention until I have finished making this model for his birthday)
Extracts taken from: “The Right Word ~ Correcting Commonly Confused, Misspelled, and Misused Words” by Elizabeth Morrison.
Honestly, I didn’t know most of the words above, but there are one or two words that I know and the others I only heard them once or twice. It is really helpful for me because I didn’t know most of the words, but this section helped me know a lot of new words. So, getting straight right into it, the words that often confused me is complementary/complimentary. I always get mixed up when using those words and ended up using the wrong word. But now I understand what both of the words mean. The second words that confused me is consequently/subsequently. As they both can be used as conjunctions and transitions. However, after really reading the meaning of both words I finally understand both of them completely. It is true that both words are conjunctions and transitions, but with different functions. The last one that made me confused is childish/childlike. And honestly, even after reading the definition repeatedly, I’m still confused. Maybe after using the words a couple of times, I wouldn’t get confused anymore.
ReplyDeleteThe first words that I wants to highlight is childish and childlike. At first before I read the article thoroughly read the definition one by one o still used childish and childlike interchangeably because I thought there is a word in both so it might share the same or similar meaning. After I read the article now I know that childish more explaining about someone’s traits that acted as if they are a child, yet childlike is explaining more about skill set of someone usually hard skill such as writing, drawing or anything.the second list that I wants to talk about is conscience and conscious which I thought have the same meaning yet conscience more to person’s ability to distinguish between one and another, right or wrong. But for conscious is more explaining about the reaction of one to something. This definition of words and how it differ from one another help me to determine which words are suitable for particular situation.
ReplyDelete