less commonly confused words...

[joko]

we all know the usual ones that are mistaken - your, you're etc - but this question is not about all those common ones - i was just thinking about the less common ones...

over the last 6 months - year, i have noticed quite a large number of people using wandering instead of wondering, and weary instead of wary...

these are not merely mispellings - they mean different things, so i wonder what the people think when they see the other word written down somewhere...? why do they think this? do they really not know both words...?

one who said weary, was my friend and i was confused by it because it changed the meaning of her comment...basically saying she was tired of someone she had only just met... but when i realised she meant and said it...she wouldnt have it at first...then accepted it... then used it again a few months later

any thoughts?
and have you noticed any less common words that get often mixed up...?

[Roddles]

I thought a homophone was a gay chat line until I discovered Smirnoff...

[mike11111]

Boor does not sound like boar and bore. It is pronounced boo-er.

[wiltsman]

The one that gets me is people saying 'would of' when they actually mean 'would have'.

[Frank97]

I was ranting on here once about a road sign with black borders but I'd written black boarders, that seemed to raise a smile with some.

[mike11111]

To say "would of", meaning "would've" in rapid speech is forgiveable. To put it down in writing is not.

[Wharton]

shepherd had 26 sheep - 5 died - 21 left
shepherd had 20 sick sheep - 5 died - 15 left

[joko]

so mike...they are very similar then...

your descriptions of the two things more or less amounts to the same thing... 2 similar sounding words with different meanings that are mistakenly used in place of each other... hardly 'completely different creatures'

i have also seen people saying 'im board' instead of bored.

[sidkid]

talking of Smirnoff....try typing it into a predictive text phone....

[atalanta]

There's that large lump of land to the West of England and Wales, whose name the weather forecasters don't know. They just call it "Island"

[ann_h]

Yes, weary for wary "pacifically" annoys and confuses me too :)
I remember when the media (n, pl) started using "pressurised" which means the opposite of what they use it for. Bet the dictionary's changed it now, easier than tiredly telling people...(hmph)
A relatively recent addition to the list is discrete when they mean discreet. I'm particularly surprised to see this regularly in print now; I think it irritates me because discrete is more of a technical term than everyday speech (I didn't know the word existed until I was doing a Statistics course) so proving that one initial error is copied over and over.

[boxtops]

One i find very common these days is where people write "I didn't let it phase me" - no, you didn't let it FAZE you, something else altogether!

[DTCwordfan]

Glen Morangie.

The locals in Tain do not pronounce it More-à-ngie, much softer rolling the r through and a softer a for Morrãngie

[boxtops]

That's the same with lots of local pronunciations though, DT - my sister lives near Brizzle.

[B00]

I always get confused which one of these to use in a sentence....affect/effect

[DTCwordfan]

We have Lawn-ces-ton often said by visitors down here, when its "Lanston" to the locals

[maggiebee]

I used to go to monthly meetings in Friockheim. Anyone out there take a guess at how it's pronounced?

[ann_h]

effect = noun meaning result/consequence
effect = verb meaning to cause/bring about
affect = verb meaning to change/influence

The teacher's words had no effect. She was unable to effect an improvement in Sam's attitude. This affected her assessment.

[ann_h]

lol @ maggiebee !

[venator]

Go on maggiebee - enlighten us if you can!
I hope you visited my family seat while you were there, and met Annabelle...

[rosiebriar]

I've always known it as "Freekam".