Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Discreet compliment

I was reading an article and halted at the mention of "pore over" for scrutinize. I supposed I knew it was pore rather than pour, but it looked odd since it made me think of skin pore.

So here are some more commonly mistaken homophones. Write a sentence for each pair ... about time travel. :-)

compliment (flattering remark)
complement ("a full complement" amount, "the perfect comlement" accompaniment)

discrete (separate)
discreet (careful, circumspect)

hoard (stock of valuable items)
horde (large group of people)

pour over (dump liquid over)
pore over (careful study over)

principle (a truth)
principal (first in importance)

site (area of ground)
cite (to quote)

effect (result)
affect (influence)

free rein (freedom, from loosened reins to allow a horse free movement)
free reign (the phrase often used mistakenly for free rein so can mean whatever you want it to mean)

2 comments:

Nana Kafka said...

Wow! Awesome post :) Even without being used for a writing prompt it's still interesting to read about how something that sounds so similar can mean something totally different. ^_^

Joyce Fetteroll said...

Thank you! The quirkiness of English sure makes it fascinating :-)