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Some pairs of words are easily confused because of close similarities in spelling and/or meaning
THE PROBLEM OF TRICKY WORD CONTRASTS
Most users of English have encountered vocabulary items that are easily confused because they resemble each other in spelling and/or meaning. Some of these – for example principle/principal – are particularly well-known because they are often explained in English language coursebooks. However, many others are not found there and can remain unexplained and sometimes not even recognised.
It is vocabulary pairs like this, especially ones that are likely to occur in professional writing, that are the focus of the present post, just as they are of various others with a similar title (see the “Posts on Specific Words” page for a complete list). Other Guinlist posts that deal with vocabulary confusions include 16. Ways of Distinguishing Similar Words, 44. Troublesome Prepositional Verbs, 94. Essay Instruction Words and 211. General Words for People.
For some grammar confusions, see 129. Differences between Necessity Verbs, 133. Confusions of Similar Structures and 217. Tricky Grammar Contrasts. For some pronunciation ones, see 144. Words that are Often Heard Wrongly.
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LIST OF CONTRASTS
1. “Responsively” versus “In Response”
English resembles various other languages in possessing numerous adverbs which, like responsively, can be made into a similar-looking preposition phrase. In most cases, such pairs are very similar in meaning, the distinguishing factor being something other than meaning, such as sentence position (see 85. Preposition Phrases and Corresponding Adverbs). However, responsively does differ significantly in meaning from in response, and is hence sometimes misused.
In the majority of cases, in response is likely to be the correct choice. It just shows that an utterance is a response to something external to the speaker – usually the words of another person. Responsively, by contrast, indicates more than this. The primary meaning of its related adjective responsive is “willing and quick to respond”, and this idea of rapid, willing response is carried over into the adverb.
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2. “On the Top of” versus “On Top of”
The first of these, with the, just conveys the basic meaning of top, namely “highest part”, and is typically found before physical top-possessing ideas like a hill or a cake. The use without the could still communicate the same meaning (on top of a hill), but it could alternatively mean “in addition to”, as in:
(a) The claimant suffered personal injury on top of financial loss.
This is an example of a metaphorical meaning (see 229. Metaphorical Prepositions), also expressible with besides. On top of seems more easily classifiable as a multi-word preposition than on the top of. For further idiomatic contrasts involving the, see 235. Special Uses of “the”, #8.
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3. BE SUPPOSED TO versus BE INTENDED TO
These passive verbs can both help to name the purpose of something, but supposed is negative, suggesting that the purpose is unlikely to be achieved. A typical sentence might be:
(b) Parking charges are … to discourage car use.
Supposed here would express scepticism about the ability of parking charges to achieve their purpose, whereas intended would merely state the purpose without indicating any opinion. A synonym of intended would be aimed at (+ -ing: see 226. Words with Complicated Grammar 2, #3). Instead of supposed, one could say meant. For more words that suggest falseness of an idea, see 319. Superficiality. For more ways of expressing a purpose, see 60. Purpose Sentences with “for”.
A tricky feature of both verbs is that their meanings change when they become active instead of passive. SUPPOSE loses its purpose-indicating meaning completely and becomes more like BELIEVE. INTEND still expresses a purpose, but differently from AIM (see 114. Tricky Word Contrasts 3, #5 and 195. Tricky Word Contrasts 7, #2).
Moreover, the “believe” meaning of SUPPOSE can also be expressed by BE SUPPOSED TO. Indeed, sentence (b) could be understood in this way (“People believe that parking charges discourage…”). This means SUPPOSE needs to be treated with special care.
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4. “Aspects” versus “Respects”
Aspects usually refers to parts or components of an abstract idea like “problem”, “love” or “behaviour” (see 196. Saying what is inside Things). However, respects is preferred to express a similar meaning in one specific but common situation. Consider this:
(c) Einstein modified Newton’s theory in various respects.
The message here is that various parts of Newton’s theory were modified. The reason why respects is preferred to aspects is nothing more than the preposition in. This preposition seems always to rule out the use of aspects after it, and respects seems always to require it. However, ways is sometimes preferred to respects.
A context where in…respects is particularly likely to be found is comparisons, e.g. differs in some respects or is greater in three respects (see 82. Common Errors in Making Comparisons).
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5. “Effect” versus “Affect”
This confusing pair is sometimes explained in coursebooks. The first, beginning with “e”, is mostly a noun meaning “an impact”. It can be used alone, e.g. The effect was …, or combined with HAVE to express an action (see 116. Rarer Uses of HAVE):
(d) Climate has a great effect on culture.
Affect, beginning with “a”, is a verb meaning “cause to be different”. It too could be used in (d): the underlined words could become greatly affects. Changing the adjective great into the adverb greatly recognises that affects is a verb and not a noun (see 120. Six Things to Know about Adverbs, #2).
Adding to the confusion, effect (with “e”) is also a verb meaning “cause to happen”. For example, effecting a change is causing a change to happen. Contrast this with affect a change, which would mean “cause a change to be different”.
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6. “Underline” versus “Underlie”
It is easy not to notice the second “n” in underline. This word means “draw a line under”, or (metaphorically) “emphasise”. Without “n”, the meaning is basically “be under” or, metaphorically, “cause” (see 306. Ways of Giving a Reason, #3). The cause is usually implied to be hidden. Here are the two words in use:
(e) The road accident rate underlines (emphasises) the need for lower speed limits.
(f) Excessive salt intake often underlies (invisibly causes) high blood pressure.
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7. “Failure(s)” versus “Failing(s)”
Failure is a noun that can express the same action meaning as the verb FAIL (“the action of failing”), being then what I call an “action” noun:
(g) Failure to follow this advice may result in serious accident.
As the absence of any word before singular failure here shows, this use is, like that of most action nouns, uncountable (see 14. Action Outcomes). Also like most action nouns, it is replaceable in sentences like (g) with the “gerund” (-ing) form of the verb, failing (see 131. Uses of “Action” Nouns). This gerund is not the same as failing(s) above because, like any gerund, it cannot be made plural (see 240. Nouns that End with “-ing”).
When failure is an action noun it can, like the verb FAIL, link with a following to (infinitive) verb – failure to follow above (see the end of 239. Noun Phrases Made with a “to” Verb).
A further feature of many action nouns that failure shares is ability to be used in a countable way to refer to something associated with the relevant action, namely a person or project that has failed (see 19. Activity Locations):
(h) The first attempts to fly were failures.
By contrast, the noun failing only has a countable use, and never expresses the action meaning of the verb FAIL. It means “weakness” or “flaw”. One might say, for example, that a person or a project had a major failing or many failings.
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8. “Plant” versus “A Plant”
Many nouns have both a countable form (usable with a or plural -s) and an uncountable form (not usable with a or -s), the meaning being slightly different in each case (see 14. Noun Countability Clues 1).
The noun plant, however, has completely different meanings in its countable and uncountable forms, suggesting they are actually two different words with the same spelling (see 6. Homonyms and Homographs), rather than different uses of the same word. Uncountable plant means “heavy machinery” while countable a plant usually means the familiar “growing botanical organism”.
Complicating matters further is the fact that a plant occasionally has an alternative meaning, again completely different from the others: “building or buildings devoted to an industrial process”, as in a nuclear power plant or a bottling plant.
Another word with very different countable and uncountable meanings is company. The countable form a company means a commercial business, whereas uncountable company means people who are with somebody.
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9. “Amount” versus “Number”
These two nouns often accompany of and another noun, as in a large amount of money. The choice between them depends on the countability of this other noun: number with countable nouns (generally plural), amount with uncountable ones.
With no following of, the noun determining whether to use amount or number will usually be earlier:
(i) A crowd of people stood outside. A large number were shouting.
(j) Alcohol in moderation can be beneficial. Large amounts, however, are harmful.
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10. “Concern(ed) With/About/For”
The meanings of concerned change according to the preposition. Concerned with means “involved” or “associated” (e.g. problems concerned with driving). In this case, concerned is a “past” participle of the verb CONCERN.
On the other hand, concerned with either about or for is an adjective meaning “worried” (see 245. Adjectives with a Participle Ending). The prepositions make slight modifications to this basic meaning. It is not unusual for a single adjective meaning to be closely associated with different prepositions in this way (see 134. Words with a Variable Preposition, #1).
The choice between about and for depends mainly on whether the noun after them names a bad situation (e.g. drug abuse) or its sufferer (e.g. drug abusers):
(k) Most doctors are concerned about drug abuse.
(l) Most doctors are concerned for/about drug abusers.
If there is a difference between the prepositions in (l), it is perhaps that for suggests worry about the future welfare of the people mentioned after it, whereas about links the worry more with what they are doing now.
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11. “Editor” versus “Publisher”
Editors make judgements about the content of publications – what is said, how it is said, and (when there are multiple authors) who says it and in what order. In a bibliography, an editor is named only when reference is being made to an article in a multi-author book (see 197. The Language of Bibliographies). The name is normally recognisable from the abbreviation (ed.) – plural (eds.) – written after it (see 130. Formal Abbreviations).
Publishers, on the other hand, are companies that make publications available to the public. They are responsible for all aspects of producing a publication, including the hiring of editors. In a bibliography, publishers’ names are given for all books but not for periodicals. They are usually positioned after a book’s title.
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