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Some word pairs 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. A well-known example – often explained in English language coursebooks – is compliment someone (= praise someone for something about them that you like) versus complement… (= combine well with…). The problem is that such pairs are numerous in English, and many are rarely highlighted so that they are likely to remain unrecognised, or at least not fully differentiated.
It is these rarely-considered confusion sources, especially ones 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 (for a complete list, click the POSTS ON SPECIFIC WORDS tab at the top of this page). Other Guinlist posts about vocabulary confusions include 16. Ways of Distinguishing Similar Words, 44. Troublesome Prepositional Verbs, 94. Essay Instruction Words, 198. Indicating Importance and 240. Nouns that End with “-ing”.
For some grammar contrasts, see 100. What is a Grammar Error?, 133 Confusions of Similar Structures 1 and 217. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 1. For some pronunciation ones, see 144. Words that are Often Heard Wrongly.
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LIST OF CONTRASTS
1. “Content” – “Contented”
These are both adjectives derived from the verb CONTENT ONESELF WITH…, which means “choose (something less than perfect) to have or do” (see 268. Types of “-self” Object, #5). In both, the most strongly-pronounced syllable is -tent-. Content is not to be confused with the noun content, whose strongest syllable is con- and whose related verb is CONTAIN (see 196. Saying what is inside Things).
It is not unusual for a verb to have an identically-spelled related adjective. Other verbs that do include CLEAR, OPEN, SUSPECT and WELCOME (see 66. Types of Passive Verb Meaning). However, for such a verb to also have a related adjective spelled the same as its own “past” participle, like contented, is unusual. Most verbs have just one related adjective, of one kind or the other (see 245. Adjectives with a Participle Ending, #4).
Content is the kind of adjective that must always follow its noun with a link verb like BE in between (see 184. Adjectives with Limited Mobility). Its meaning is similar to that of CONTENT ONESELF WITH, but differs in indicating a state resulting from a choice rather than the action of making one. Like the verb, it often needs to be followed by mention of the chosen thing. It can similarly do this with with + noun (or -ing), but an alternative is a to verb:
(a) Caesar was content to wait for his enemies.
Contented, by contrast, can go before its noun as well as after with BE in between, and means “lacking cause to complain” or “happy”. It can describe people (customers, employees) or their activities (life, holiday, sleep). In the first case, the cause of a person’s contentment can be added in a with phrase (contented with life).
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2. MAKE Noun Noun – MAKE Noun INTO Noun
Without into, two nouns after MAKE can refer to two different things or one thing twice. In the first case, the first noun is an indirect object – recipient of what is made (see 141. Ways of Using MAKE, Other Structure #2). The second case is the relevant one here. Consider this:
(b) Jones’ past achievements made him a favourite for the position.
Clearly, him and a favourite both refer to Jones. We understand from made that Jones changed in some way, but remained Jones. Grammatically, him is the object of made and a favourite for the position is an “object complement” (see 220. Features of Complements, ‘#1).
MAKE with into after its object is a “prepositional” verb (see 123. Prepositional Verbs Containing a Noun). As with many prepositional verbs, there can be difficulty seeing how its meaning differs from that of the non-prepositional use (see 44. Troublesome Prepositional Verbs). The following is perhaps illuminating:
(c) Yeast makes fruit juice into wine.
Here, makes again indicates a change, but a more profound one. Although the two nouns still refer to the same substance, we would not say they refer to the same thing: wine is a not a new state or role of fruit juice, but a derivative of it. This difference is reflected in the fact that a noun after a preposition is not normally considered to be a complement.
One further point is that the difference between the two structures is not always as clear-cut as the above examples might suggest. Often, deciding whether or not a change has created something completely new is a subjective one, so that some people might want to add into and some not. It would certainly be possible to add into in (b). However, dropping it in (c) would sound strange.
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3. SLOW UP – SLOW DOWN
These phrasal verbs obviously both mean “decelerate”. They differ from it in having, like most phrasal verbs, a more informal tone (see 108. Formal & Informal Words), but they also differ slightly from it in meaning. They can affect either fast or slow movement, but they would be the preferred choice in relation to slow movement, such as human walking.
The difference between SLOW UP and SLOW DOWN is that up suggests slowing with no benefits, for example because of a traffic jam or old age, while down suggests slowing in order to gain a benefit, such as safety on a wet road or compliance with a speed limit. Thus, a passenger in a car being driven dangerously fast would more likely shout Slow down! than Slow up!.
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4. “Near” – “Nearby”
Closeness can be static or changing. Static closeness may be of practically permanent objects and features like plants, buildings and towns, or of objects or people that have halted a journey, whether temporarily or not. Changing closeness, on the other hand, is that of people or objects on the move.
Nearby usually indicates static closeness. It can be either an adjective (a nearby house; …is nearby) or an adverb linked to a static position verb (…is situated nearby). Near, on the other hand, has a variety of meanings, depending on its grammatical role.
Used as a preposition (e.g. The fire was near the house), near can indicate either static or changing closeness. Used as an adverb, near typically needs to accompany a movement verb, so that changing closeness is usually expressed (e.g. The fire came near). If the verb is not a movement one, nearby is normally necessary instead. Used as an adjective after BE or similar (e.g. The fire was near), near again tends to imply changing closeness. Used as an adjective before its noun, near means “almost”, as in the common phrases a near disaster and a near success. For more on adjectives changing their meaning according to their position, see the end of 184. Adjectives with Limited Mobility.
Appreciating the main meaning difference between near and nearby can prevent misunderstandings in reading. For example, a text saying an army was near would imply it was going somewhere, whereas was nearby would imply it was stationary, perhaps encamped.
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5. “Knowledgeable” – “Knowing”
The difference between these adjectives is partly in the kind of knowledge involved and partly in what they suggest about the person they describe – their “connotation” (see 16. Ways of Distinguishing Similar Words, #2).
Knowledgeable is a positive description meaning “full of knowledge”. It implies that the described person knows more than the average about something, or things in general.
Knowing is a good example of how adjectives made by adding -ing to a verb differ from participles (see 245. Adjectives with a Participle Ending). The participle knowing means “having knowledge of…”. As a participle, it needs a following noun (object) just as its verb KNOW does. The adjective knowing, by contrast, has no object, and means “aware of something that nobody wishes to mention”. Quite often, there is a negative connotation: that the unmentioned matter is embarrassing (or worse) and the person described as knowing somehow approves of it.
As well as a person, knowing may describe an indicator of the knowledge in question, such as a glance, look, smile or wink.
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6. WISH – HOPE
Both of these verbs introduce something wanted by their subject. Their confusion potential is illustrated by an incorrect public statement that I came across during the recent pandemic:
(d) *We wish (that) we will see you again when the pandemic is over.
This should have hope, not wish. HOPE indicates that meeting a desire is possible but outside the speaker’s control; WISH indicates various other things, depending on the grammatical forms after it.
With a following to verb, WISH expresses a request made to someone in a subordinate position. In a modification of (d), the request would be for the addressees to visit after the pandemic. To make such a request in a public statement like (d) would sound rather impolite because the addressees are not subordinates.
With a following that (explicit or understood) the tense of the subsequent verb is important. An ordinary future, illustrated by using will see in (d), is quite rare because it usually suggests that the very utterance of the wish brings its fulfilment. This is a usage in stories about magic and miracles, leading WISH to be mentioned among the verbs considered in detail in this blog in 238. Using a Verb to Perform its Action.
Much more common after wish that… is a past tense verb expressing an “unreal” wish – one that the maker of the wish believes to be impossible. Wishes about past events that did not happen generally need a past perfect tense (with had):
(e) Many people wish (that) dinosaurs had survived.
Wishes about present unreal situations need the past simple tense, for example …dinosaurs still lived above.
Other places where “unreal” events or situations may be found are after if (see 118. Problems with Conditional “if”, #6), after as if (see 191. Exotic Grammar Structures 3, #3), and in questions starting What if…? (see 274. Questions with a Hidden Meaning, #2).
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