You’ve seen it before. You’re reading a perfectly good blog or book and there it is — right in the middle of the page, glaring at you like a neon sign. Of course, writer that you are, your focus on whatever it is that you were reading is now completely gone.
What on earth am I talking about? What could cause such a disruption in someone’s reading? What is it?
It’s a misused word, of course. I’m talking about homonyms. Homonyms are words that sound alike, but have completely different meanings. They are usually spelled differently. (You can read the Merriam-Webster definition of a homonym here.)
I read many blogs and books and I see homonyms misused often. Some blogs are so full of homonym mistakes that they are actually difficult to read. I don’t know how others react, but every time that I see a misused word my perception of that writer goes down slightly. It’s not a conscious decision that I make, it’s just the result of years of reading and writing.Â
Homonyms are especially hard for writers and bloggers to catch, because they don’t show up in spell check. (That is because they are actually words. They are just words that are being used incorrectly.)
It helps to be aware of the words that are commonly misused. The Alan Cooper Homonyms site lists some of the most common homonyms. Funbrain has a quiz game to help you to learn correct word usage. (It’s for kids, but it’s also a good brush up for adult writers and bloggers.) Here is another helpful homonym game.
There are literally dozens of homonyms. Probably the ones that I see misused most often are two, to, and too. So, for the record, here are the correct uses of those words:
- Two — “Two” can be used as an adjective, noun, or pronoun. Most importantly, its use refers to a number. Example: I have two articles due tomorrow.
- To — “To” can be used as a preposition or an adverb. Examples: I went to a bidding site to find some help for my projects. To my shock, the article was poorly written and full of misused homonyms.Â
- Too — “Too” can be used as an adverb or adjective. Examples: There were too many mistakes in what she submitted. She had gone too far when she claimed that she could help.
I’ve hated homonyms ever since a homonym disqualified me from the fourth grade spelling bee. (That’s a true story; I correctly spelled the homonym, though.) But, the truth is, if you want your writing to hold the attention of your reader and to appear professional, then you need to avoid making mistakes with homonyms.
 Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved.
15 responses so far ↓
1 Mihaela Lica // May 18, 2007 at
That’s a good point. I used to believe that only foreigners have problems with homonyms. Glad (he he) to learn that natives find them difficult too. 😉
2 Julia Temlyn // May 18, 2007 at
Homonyms are one of the biggest mistakes I see when I’m editing and proofreading books and other text for clients. Thanks for bringing light to this issue! And have a super weekend!
3 Phil // May 18, 2007 at
What was the homonym that disqualified you? Has it haunted your life since?! 😀
I have to agree though, seeing something like that does make me lose faith in a writer’s ability too. In the same vein, I particularly hate reading “should of” instead of “should have” — it drives me crazy!
4 Laura // May 18, 2007 at
Thanks Julia! I’m glad somebody can relate.
Phil, you had to ask… Okay, I’ll tell. It was carat (or karat), which I dutifully spelled as c-a-r-r-o-t.
What can I say? I was only in fourth grade.
5 Jeanne Dininni // May 18, 2007 at
So, so true, Laura!
Other than typos, misspellings, or misuse of words that are almost–but not quite–homonyms, this can be one of the worst offenders. We have to face the fact that, when we’re busy, or distracted, or in a hurry, or _______ and we make such errors, it does lower our credibility with our readers quite a bit. I’m always very embarrassed when I look over my work later only to find that I’ve made one of the above faux pas!
And grammatical errors are even more embarrassing! I generally manage to avoid these, as long as I give my work one final “read” before posting! And when I do notice them, I fix them in a hurry!
Jeanne
6 Lillie Ammann // May 18, 2007 at
I agree that homonyms and other misused words are among the most common problems I find in editing. Some I see often in addition to those mentioned above are then/than, use/used (people don’t seem to think use has a past tense), and the always-popular its/it’s.
One of my clients comes up with some really strange errors that cause me to stop and think about what he means. He’s blind and uses a speaking program for his computer, and sometimes what he says and what the program writes aren’t the same thing. He called me today to ask about a sentence that he thought was wrong in the edited chapter I sent him. The sentence was dialogue: “I’ll tear you apart.” His computer read tear (pull asunder) as tear (fluid coming from the eye). I don’t think the other character would be too worried about that threat.:-)
Of course, as Jeanne said, it’s easy to overlook our own errors. I can catch everyone’s mistakes but my own.
7 Phil // May 19, 2007 at
Carat! What a nightmare!
And of course I had to ask, you can’t hint at something like that, but keep the important bits of information away from us!
8 Michi // May 19, 2007 at
Ugh! This is one of those areas where so many people have problems. I see it all the time, and not just with people that have English as a second language. It really is amazing how many people have trouble with this, but it wasn’t something I had thought about in a while. Thanks for bringing it up again, because it reminds me to be careful of that in my own writing.
9 Laura // May 19, 2007 at
Jeanne, I think it’s good advice to read your work over. There have been so many times, even on this blog, that I am about to be lazy and click the submit button. That’s usually when I find a mistake. Reading it aloud is even better.
Lillie, Thanks for stopping by. I think that your client is lucky to have you since you are patient enough to work with his unique problem.
Phil, I bet you won your spelling bee!
Michi, I had been doing a lot of editing recently. That, coupled with a kid’s homework assignment on homonyms, was the inspiration for the post.
10 Jeanne Dininni // May 20, 2007 at
Laura,
I agree that reading your work aloud is the way to go. I do this all the time. This is the best way to know whether or not your writing flows well.
Left a comment (actually TWO) on the post in which you recommended my blog; however, I forgot to change my website info above the post–which means that the link that your software creates from my name will be incorrect in those comments (as well as all my older ones)–unless your software updates the old ones when the info is later changed, which I have just done in THIS comment.
11 Laura // May 21, 2007 at
Jeanne, I think a redirect can fix the link problem. I’m not a techie, but I know that there is code that will cause the search engines to treat the old url and the new url as one site. Try doing a google search on redirect.
12 Jeanne Dininni // May 21, 2007 at
Thanks, Laura! I’ll look into it! In the meantime, I’ve simply written a (very) short post on my old blog redirecting people to the new domain.
13 Matt Keegan // May 22, 2007 at
They’re, Their, and There are the ones I see the most as well as Your and You’re.
Carat v. Karat in the 4th grade?! Ouch. Isn’t it something when a detail like that sticks with us for life.
14 List of Confusable Words // Oct 27, 2008 at
Indeed, homonyms do cause a lot of confusion to writers. Equally important is writing such words correctly.
The Alan Cooper list is quite a resource. Thanks for the link to it.
15 Spelling Errors | Writing Problems Explained // Mar 27, 2009 at
[…] how homonyms can hurt your writing – you’ve seen it before. you’re reading a perfectly good blog or book and there it is – right in the middle of the page, glaring at you like a neon sign. of course, writer that you are, your focus on whatever it is that you were reading … […]