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:

• currant – a berry
  • I haven’t yet tried currant jam.
• current – (adj.) belonging to the present; (n.) a flow of water or electricity
  • Joe needed to do a report on current events.
  • Jane was shocked by the electrical current.

Memory tips:

• currAnt – jAm made of currant berries
• currEnt – prEsent; Electricity

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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:

• Annals – historical records
  • She researched the church annals looking for her genealogy records.
• Annual – yearly
  • He looked forward to the annual celebration of new officers.
• Annul – to cancel
  • She couldn’t wait to annul the agreement to serve on the committee.

Memory tips:

• Annals – records about your Aunt Ann
• Annual – U Always Love your birthday every year
• Annul – undo

As an extra, someone posted this sign on my Facebook page, and since it fit perfectly to demonstrate the issues with misspelling annually, I’m adding it here:

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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:

• flesh out – to give substance to; to make something fuller
  • She fleshed out the presentation with quizzes over the material.
• flush out – to cleanse; to force something to the surface
  • He flushed out the radiator and added fresh fluid.

Memory tips:

• flesh out – think of filling out flesh thus making it fuller
• flush out – flushing the toilet cleanses it

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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:

• collision – a clashing
  • The receptionist had a car collision on her way to work today.
• collusion – a scheme to defraud
  • He was accused of collusion in billing his elderly client through another corporation.

Memory tips:

• collision – remember the “i” as in “incident”
• collusion – remember the “u” as in “fraud”

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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:

• anxious – desirous, but also implies fear or concern
  • He was anxious to get the results of the lab work.
• eager – desirous
  • She was eager to go on the girls’ weekend.

Memory tips:

• Since the words have pretty much the same definition, but anxious implies fear or concern, I would associate the “x” in anxious with a sign to avoid something because of fear or concern.

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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:

• magnet – something that attracts
  • The chocolate cake in the kitchen was a magnet for the dieters.
• magnate – someone of high rank
  • He appeared to be a business magnate with his fancy car and nice suits.

Memory tips:

• magnet – a “net” to attract
• magnate – this person could have reached such a high rank by what they “ate” along the way

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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:

Through – by means of; from beginning to end; because of

• John read the report through multiple times.

Threw – did throw

• Sally threw her laundry in the washer before she left this morning.

Thorough – exhaustive

• The report was a thorough summary of the upcoming changes.

Memory tips:

Through – like building a trough, you are going through something

Threw – past tense of throw so just change one letter

Thorough – think of it as more cOmplete so it contains the extra O

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