Confusing Words Of The Week

Words of the WeekIt’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:

  • quash – to suppress (a legal motion)
    • We are filing the motion to quash the subpoena on Wednesday.
  • squash – (v.) to press down, to flatten; (n.) a vegetable
    • She sat on the suitcase to squash it so she could lock it.

Memory tips:

  • quash – you’re not trying to flatten something, you just want it to end, so you don’t need the extra “s”
  • squash – it takes more weight and energy to squash something, so it needs the extra “s”

Grammar Giggle – Because Of To An Injury

This is an example of what appears to be rewriting copy, but not proofreading it once you’re done to make sure it still makes sense. It looks to me like it originally said “due to an injury” and they MEANT to change it to “because of an injury.” Unfortunately, that’s not what happened.

Because of to an

Happy National Proofreading Day!

Now THIS is my favorite holiday of the year! It’s a chance for me to once again extol the virtues of the importance of proofreading. In fact, I wrote a blog post about how important proofreading is to law offices here. Let’s celebrate by proofreading that email you’re writing, the pleading you are filing today, or that memo to your boss. Happy National Proofreading Day!

National Proofreading Day

Confusing Words Of The Week

Words of the WeekIt’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:

  • precede – to go before
    • The flower girl will precede the bride down the aisle.
  • proceed – to advance
    • We will proceed to order lunch at 10:00 whether or not we have your order.

Memory tips:

  • precede – the prefix pre- means before, so precede means to go before
  • proceed – think of pro- as being the same as go and you are going to advance or go forward, so you will proceed 

Grammar Giggle – Miss Conception

I hate spam! And I receive a lot of it in my blogs. But this one caught my eye. While since the sender is “playboy casino,” I could almost understand the “miss conception” error–ALMOST–but I think the second error leaves out the word “ready.” I realize that people who spam are probably not among the most intelligent humans out there, but every once in a while it makes for good Grammar Giggle material.

miss conception

Confusing Words Of The Week

Words of the WeekIt’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:

  • tack – (n.) direction; (v.) to change direction
  • tact – considerate way of behaving so as to avoid offending others

Memory tips:

  • tack – think of the “k” as a road with a choice of direction

k

  • tact – think of the “t” as keeping things even to avoid offending others

t