Category Archives: Words of the Week

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:

• later – more recent; after a time
  • You can play on the PlayStation later.
• latter – second in a series of two
  • If I had to choose between baked chicken or fried chicken, I would choose the latter.

Memory tips:

• later – after without the t (because latter took it)
• latter – second in a series of two; two t’s.

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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:

• everyday – ordinary
  • She was wearing her everyday shoes.
• every day – each day
  • She spent every day wishing she could wear heels.

Memory tips:

• everyday – it is a single word, so kind of an ordinary word
• every day – remember this as every SINGLE day, so it has to have a space between it.

For more information on these words, there is a blog post about it at https://proofthatblog.com/2014/03/13/we-appreciate-proofreading-tips-each-and-everyday/

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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:

• trial – examination; experiment; hardship
  • They were busy getting ready for the trial.
• trail – a path
  • She took the trail up to the to top of the hill.

Memory tips:

This is a pair of words that I think is more misspelled than used incorrectly. But it is something that needs to be checked before the document is finalized.

• trial – I am in trial
• trail – adventure is at the end of the trail

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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:

theirs – possessive form of they; used when a noun does not follow

• The red car was theirs.

there’s – contraction of there is or there are

• There’s [there is] no doubt that she is the best person for the job.

Memory tips:

• theirs – belonging to them
• there’s – apostrophe represents missing letter (in this case the i) for there is 

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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:

Defuse – to make less harmful

• The officers worked to defuse the bomb

Diffuse – (v) to spread; (adj.) wordy, badly organized

• She prepared a diffuse report of the accident
• He wanted to diffuse the lavender in his bedroom.

Memory tips:

Defuse – to De-Fuse the situation

Diffuse – make a difference in the atmosphere (to spread) and to make it difficult to read (wordy, badly organized)

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