It’s time for “Confusing Words of the Week” where I take a set of two or three words that get confused and give you definitions and try to give you a memory trick to help you remember when to use which word. If you have words that confuse you, use the Ask PTB tab on the website or send an email to [email protected] and they may appear here soon!
This week’s words are:
flack – (n.) one who provides publicity; (v.) to provide publicity
- The press agent was called a flack.
flak – literally, debris from exploding antiaircraft shells; criticism
- He took a lot of flak for his political stance.
Memory Tips:
I think I would remember that since flack deals with publicity, and publicity reminds me of paparazzi, which is like a flock of birds pecking at a celebrity, that I would change one letter in flock to make it flack.
Since flak isn’t dealing with publicity, it isn’t related to a flock, so doesn’t need the c.
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