Surmise vs. Suppose

Belief vs. Conviction

Business vs. Company

Loquacious vs. Garrulous

Free vs. Independent vs. Autonomous

Frequent vs. Often

"Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent."
~ Friedrich Nietzsche

"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily."
~ Zig Ziglar

Often. Frequently. OK writers: What's the difference?

(Thanks to the always loquacious dictionary.com for this week's tidbits!)

Let's start with frequent. In the 1500s, frequent was a french adjective describing ample amounts or crowded rooms. English morphed it into every imaginable part of speech:

The noun: a frequency, a habitual or predictable occurrence, such as radio waves.
The adjective: We take frequent trips to Tyler, Texas. Like the noun, this implies that we travel to Texas at regular intervals.
The adverb: We frequently eat meat. Here, the adverb fosters a sense of habitual or characteristic behavior.
The verb: We frequent the Texas State Fair. Although this style is falling out of usage, it has attracted a Gen X masculine connotation. Several online military and men's groups use it to describe their regular activities.

Paradoxically, frequent is used less frequently than its dictionary hubby, Often.

Often is even older than frequent. We stopped pronouncing the "t" in words like often, listen and soften by the end of the 15th century. Since then, often's usage has distilled into two key categories:
The diminuitive: "Out, damned spot!" is an oft-quoted line from Shakespeare
The adverb: She sings in the festival as often as she can.

The Difference:
Use frequent for events that repeat with the predictability of a pulse.
Use often for events that repeat in vague clusters, such as heart attacks.

Slice Up Your Synonyms

Synonyms: different words, similar meanings
Pertinent vs. Relevant
Acumen vs. Knowledge


My blog untangles homonyms, homophones, homographs and heteronyms.

"Homonym" is the general term for words that sound or look the same but have unique meanings.
- Ex: Fair (county fair) vs. Fair (reasonable, just)
- Memory Trick: Homonyms have homogeneous sounds.

1.. Homophones sound the same and they're spelled differently.
- Allude vs. Elude, They're / Their / There, Carrot vs. Carat
- Memory Trick: Homophones happen on the phone, because sound-alike words are so different in every way.

2. Homographs have the same sound and spelling.
- Lie (lie down) vs. Lie (Lie To Me),
- Memory Trick: Autograph, Homograph. The same name (John Smith) may refer to different people.

3. Heteronyms sound DIFFERENT but they have the same spelling.
- Content (the contents of your suitcase) vs. Content (happy, satisfied)
- Memory Trick: Heteronyms are identical twins. Same face, different personalities.

Let's try:

Affect vs. Effect
- Sound? Similar. Spelling? Different. Homophones.

Close vs. Close
- Sound? Different. So it's a heteronym. All the others sound the same.

Grace (noun) vs. Grace (verb)
- Sound? Same. Spelling? Same. Homographs.

I'll vs. Aisle vs. Isle
- Sound? Similar. Spelling? Different. Homophones.

Shift vs. the shift key
- Sound? Same. Spelling? Same. Homographs.

Tear vs. Tear
- Sound? Different. Heteronym!

Redundant Relevance

Yahoo!News kills me.

Today they wrote: "Billy Joel's lyrics still have relevancy."

Online dictionaries do list "relevancy" as a word. But it already exists in noun form: "relevance." "Billy Joel's lyrics still have relevance." or in adjective form: "Billy Joel's lyrics are still relevant."

Allude vs. Elude

Homonyms like Allude & Elude cast an illusion of sameness. Both allude to playfulness; both elude precise definitions. Synonyms stick to them like pink on Juicy Fruit. Let's pin them down:

Allude: to make an indirect reference. It comes from the Latin "allusio" – a play on words or game.
"Superman comics allude to the Jesus & Hercules stories, but they never explicitly cite any parallels.

Elude: to escape using trickery and cleverness.
"The Flash eluded his captors with super-speed."

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Language is a big game of algebra.

When you write abc, xyz, the, etc...

You want the audience to understand the meaning of X.

But English is the motherload differential equation of all languages. We love homonyms, homograms, borrowed words, e-words. List all the nuanced meanings of the word "fishy" and you could wallpaper the Chrysler Building.

Tune in Friday when we begin differentiating grey and gray, rapt/wrapped/rapped, council vs. counsel, Cavalier vs. Maverick, and what IS a San Francisco 49er anyway?

Submit your own differentiation requests in the comments :)