This came in an email. Since they spelled the name of the sender company “Lasick Vision Institute,” I checked to see if there was a company spelled that way. As surprising as this might be, I did not find one. What’s worse is that they spelled it correctly in the body of the email.
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 a different play on words and a lesson on language. A friend sent this photo to me asking if “artefacts” was correct. I told her I didn’t think it was and would use it for Confusing Words of the Week. Well, once I started researching both “artifacts” and “artefacts,” I discovered–once again–that British English is sometimes just slightly different from American English. A lot of the time it is just one letter different. So although confusing, “artifacts” and “artefacts” both mean ” a usually simple object (such as a tool or ornament) showing human workmanship or modification as distinguished from a natural object; something characteristic of or resulting from a particular human institution, period, trend, or individual.”
Memory tips:
This week’s memory tip is to remember if you are in America, spell it “artifacts,” and if you are in Great Britain, spell it “artefacts.” And be consistent if you are proofreading something that talks about “artifacts/artefacts” depending on your location and your audience.
My daughter forwarded this one to me from her local Facebook Marketplace. Obviously, it should be a “dry-erase” board.
I saw this one on Twitter. Everything is spelled correctly, nothing would trigger spell check, and free Grammarly didn’t catch it, but this headline is really unclear about exactly who will remain in jail. I mean, obviously, the judge is not in jail and Mr. Epstein is, so we can assume they are talking about Mr. Epstein, but that’s not really what it says. Read literally, the judge denied bail and will remain in jail pending trial.
I purchased this package on Amazon for a family gift exchange. My sister actually found the “supper easy” error, but as I’m preparing this, I found the other.
I received this email this week from a local restaurant. Email subjects are just as important as the email itself. It’s obvious they know HOW to spell “independence,” but it’s also obvious they didn’t check it before hitting send.
I saw this sign recently. Not only was this antique store advertised with the restaurant we were going to and then it was permanently closed, but the sign indicating that had lots of trouble. I know this person probably has a cell phone. I know dictionary.com is free. I know this person should have tried to spell everything correctly.
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