They used the hose to dig his garden; then they took the hoes to the far end of the garden to water the plants in the boarders.
OK, that’s an extreme example above… and a made-up one. But if you do any sort of proofreading you’re bound to come across examples of how the wrong word sends the reader off on a tangent that the writer had not intended.
It defeats the purpose of the sentence, often irritates the reader – and sometimes it means the reader is lost to the sentence or even the article he or she was reading.
The literal meaning of the example above is that some people used a long, flexible, rubber or plastic pipe (hose) to dig a garden; then they took some digging implements (hoes) to the far end of the garden to water plants in people who were paying to live there (boarders).
Here’s one I’ve come across often in its confused misuse: peak and peek.
“I stole a peak” is what I would write if what I mean is that I took a mountain that’s not mine. If I meant that I took a quick or sly look, I would say “I stole a peek”.
Then there’s defuse and diffuse.
Police officers were “on the scene to help diffuse the situation and calm crowds down”, a reporter wrote in a regional Australian newspaper recently. No, they helped defuse the situation.
Another newspaper, in Britain, included the following correction in the Homophone corner of its Clarifications and Corrections column: “The truth about Hard Sun is revealed to the public, forcing the government to diffuse the situation” (TV listings, 13 January, page 48, the Guide).
The trick is to use defuse only as a verb, and in cases where it describes a dangerous situation being made safer (or safe).
Another confusing word is lead. It has two pronunciations and several forms in which it can be used in written contexts:
One form is for the metal, pronounced “led”;
The same pronunciation is used for the past tense of the verb, and spelt “l-e-d”.
A different pronunciation – “leed” – but spelt l-e-a-d, is used for its verb form meaning to guide or show the way;
a third form is as a noun meaning to be ahead of others in a race (she was in the lead from the start, he took the lead in the choir), and again pronounced “leed”.
Aisle and isle
“The airline steward walking down the isle” gives a completely different picture to “The airline steward walking down the aisle“. One conjures images of a carefree jaunt down an island, the other triggers a picture of an airline employee serving customers.
Other examples
Another pair that’s worth knowing about is bated and baited, as in “bated breath” or a “baited hook”.
I’ve also seen mix-ups between bare (empty or nude) and bear (the animal, or carry), faze (puzzle, as a verb) and phase (a segment or time period), hours (periods of 60 minutes) and ours (the possessive pronoun), and of course the famous grizzly (the type of bear) and grisly (horrible or unpleasant)
Whatstheword 