Usage Guide — Often Confused or Tricky Words
Introduction
Finally, a section which makes definite judgements, which manages to say that Y is correct and Z is wrong. No more descriptivist shilly-shallying, no more inverted commas round words like “mistake”, at last some firm decisions.
Well, mostly, yes. There are a few words like “lie” and “lay” which have been changed by common usage or, like often-interchangeable “imply” and “infer”, which have never conformed to a traditional distinction. But especially with written language, almost all the other million-or-so words in our language’s vocabulary have fixed, agreed meanings as defined in our dictionaries, so it is possible for us to get them wrong. As when, for instance, some vigilantes in Wales daubed “Paedo” on the house of a hospital paediatrician.
Vocabulary errors are rarely so disastrous. Nor do they normally lead to confusion or misunderstanding. However, a mistake can still be very important for the person making it – being medievally ignorant, ours is not a forgiving culture with language, so there’s always the danger that any slip-up will be greeted with derision and contempt.
For problematic words that aren’t in my selection, I strongly recommend The Cambridge Guide to English Usage by Pam Peters – 600-plus pages, 4,000 entries. It can’t claim to be up-to-date, having been published in 2004, but it starts with “@” and includes an entry on “emoticon”, and as the compilation of a linguist it’s about three hundred years more advanced in its approach than any of the traditional guides.
Adverse – averse
The difference between these two negative-themed adjectives is that “adverse” things are external hindrances or threats, and “averse” describes a state of mind, of disinclination or indeed aversion. “She was not averse to walking despite the adverse conditions”.Affect – effect
Usually, “affect” is a verb, meaning to have an influence on, and “effect” a noun, referring to the result. However, to “effect” something can mean “to bring it about” – “they effected the plan” – and “affect” as a noun is growing in popularity, meaning the general impression someone gives – “his affect has an awful effect”.Already – all ready
As one word, this is an adverb of time (as in “he has already left”); as two words it means “everyone prepared”. Hence, “I see you’re already all ready”.Alright – all right
My own practice is to use “all right” because some people take against “alright” as a mistake. However, the Cambridge Guide says that “alright” is perfectly acceptable, and indeed that there are times when it is to be preferred – when it means “okay then”, as in “alright, alright, I’ll get rid of the body” – since “all right” has a confusing sense of “everything correct”.Balmy – barmy
Unless you have round, firm Rs, these are soundalikes. They have different spellings only in the UK. Everywhere else, “balmy” has two meanings – the first, applied to sea conditions or weather in general, means calm, tranquil, probably warm and definitely windless. “Barmy” is the British-only spelling of the second meaning, pitched somewhere between “daft” and “crazy”, as in the Barmy Army of England cricket fans.Besides – besides
Without the “s”, “beside” means “next to”; with the “s”, “besides” means “apart from” or “as well as”.Callous – callus
“Callous” with an “o” is an adjective that means uncaring, having no sympathy or feeling; a “callus” without the “o” is a bit of thickened, hardened skin. So “he was very callous about her callus”. (The noun “callus” came first so the adjective “callous” originally meant literally thick-skinned, then metaphorically thick-skinned, then a lack of feeling for someone else’s suffering.)Climactic – climatic
“Climactic” is the adjective of climax; without the middle “c”, it’s the adjective from climate.Complement – compliment
These two nouns sound the same but their meanings are quite distinct. With an “i”, “compliment” refers to a piece of praise – “my compliments to the chef”; with an “e”, a “complement” means something that completes or is complete, as in “the full complement”. They are often also confused as adjectives: "complimentary" can refer to either praise or something given free – “complimentary basket of fruit” (originally because it was being offered as a gift to pay a compliment); "complementary" means somehow completing or harmonising, as in “complementary medicine” and “complementary colours”.Crudité – crudity
Borrowed from French, “crudités” are raw vegetables with dips, served as an hors d’oeuvre or finger food. Crudity refers to coarseness, usually of a sexual sort. Carrots and cucumbers always reliable for both.Decent – descent – dissent
With the stress on the first syllable “decent” is an adjective meaning morally good. With the stress on the second syllables, “descent” refers to downward movement, and “dissent” to non-agreement.Definite – definitive
There’s a small but noticeable difference in meaning between these two adjectives. “Definite” means certain or precise – as in “definite article”, because “the” specifies its noun. If something is “definitive”, then it’s authoritative, conclusive and final, used with nouns like “verdict”, “statement” and “study”.Defuse – diffuse
“Defuse” means “remove the fuse from” and, metaphorically, “take the heat out of”. “Diffuse” is usually an adjective meaning “spread out”.Deprecate – depreciate
Here’s a couple of words with originally distinct meanings that have come close to converging, especially if there’s a “self-” shoved in before their nouns – I think “self-depreciation” is often used to mean self-deprecation. To wrest them apart again for clarity’s sake – to “deprecate” means to disparage or “express disapproval of”, to quote the OED. The main meaning of “depreciate” now is financial, referring quite specifically to the lowering of value – “cars usually depreciate”. However, lest anyone gets too upset about people who use “depreciate” to mean “deprecate”, it’s useful to bear in mind that the first meaning in the OED is not the value loss but “Disparage, belittle, underrate”, with a quote from the eminent Oxford professor and biographer Richard Ellman (“Wilde depreciated pity “).Desert – dessert
A “desert”, with one “s” and the emphasis on the first syllable, is full of sand: a “dessert”, with the stress on the second syllable, is usually full of sugar, and in an ideal world is crème brulee. There’s also the verb, to "desert", meaning to run away, usually from the army, and the adjective “deserted” meaning uninhabited, which in turn gives the phrase “desert island”, which I suspect is often taken to mean a tiny island of only sand, and in the cartoons, a single palm tree in the middle. “Just deserts” are what you get when you deserve something and usually it’s not nice. “Just desserts” would be a meal only of puddings, as in the “discrete” example.Discomfit – discomfort
They’re next to each other in the dictionary and in accents with no Rs they sound identical but these are two separate words with their own roots. “Discomfit” is a verb, meaning to disconcert or sometimes to defeat. “Discomfort” is usually a noun for the condition of being uncomfortable.Discreet – discrete
I still have to look this one up, every time. So, once again, for my benefit if not yours – “discrete” means separate, made up of identifiably distinct bits; “discreet” is the adjective from discretion, meaning tactful, not blabby. “My bill showed my three discrete courses – crème brulee £6.50, crème brulee £6.50, crème brulee £6.50. Fortunately, the waiter was discreet.”Disassemble – dissemble
Not to be confused because they are so different: “disassemble” means the opposite of “assemble”, ie “take apart”; “dissemble” means “pretend”, “hide real feelings”.Draft – draught
One shows our spelling system at its silliest and with their shifting meanings both show English at its most confusing. In the US, matters are simpler with “draft” appearing for all meanings and whether as noun, adjective or verb. In British English, “draught” as a noun is now used mainly for an unwanted movement of coldish air in a room in the singular and in the plural for the game Americans call checkers. In maritime lingo, it refers to the depth that a ship lies in the water. “Draught” also appears in British English as an adjective, usually before “beer”, meaning it has been hand-pulled from a cask, and occasionally with “horse” if it’s a big one that can pull heavy loads. “Draft” is the spelling used in British English when it means a version of a document, a selection for the military and as a banking instruction.Economic – economical
These two adjectives are derived from the separate meanings of the parent noun “economy”. “Economic” refers to the economy in its sense of a general financial system; “economical” is the adjectival form of “economy” meaning “cost-cutting”.Elementary – elemental
When Sherlock Holmes announces that a baffling case is “elementary, my dear Watson”, he means that it’s basic, simple, belonging to the first stage of education, as in “elementary school” or “elementary course”. “Elemental” is the adjective from “element” as in the pre-scientific notion of the four elements of air, earth, fire and water, so it refers to natural forces in general, often to some dramatic form of weather.Elder – eldest (vs older, oldest)
“Elder” is older than older but has been losing out to it since older and oldest first appeared in the fifteenth century, so that now “elder” and “eldest” are confined to specific contexts, particularly in British English where they are almost always used to describe members of a family, as in “elder brother”. “Elder” can also shift to refer to seniority rather than age in phrases such as “elder partner” in business or “elder statesman” in politics, and when it is used as a noun (“the tribe’s elders”, “the elders of the church”).Elicit – illicit
“Elicit” is a verb meaning “draw out”, “illicit” is an adjective meaning “illegal”.Eminent – imminent
Easily confused, entirely different. “Eminent” describes someone who is famous as a leader in her or his field, usually of academic study. “Imminent” means “about to happen”, “soon”. As an adverb, “eminently” is mostly used as a fancy alternative to “very”.Farther – further, farthest – furthest
Some traditional grammarians seem to think that “further” and “farther” are two different words with slightly different nuances in meaning, but in fact these are just two different ways of spelling the same word. “Farther” and “farthest” are on the decline, particularly in British English, although “farthest” is still the preferred superlative form in the US.Ferment – foment
These sound almost the same and have meanings that sometimes converge, but these are two distinct verbs. “Ferment” is the verb of “fermentation”. “Foment” means to “start” or to “encourage” and is mostly used in the context of civil unrest or rebellion.Flare – flair
The older word is “flare”, connoting something that spreads out, as in “flared” trousers and the “flare” of a fire’s flames. “Flair” refers to an innate creative ability – “his flares show he has a real flair for fashion.”Flaunt – flout
These verbs are sometimes confused because they sound alike and both carry a sense of going against the conventional. To “flaunt” is to display or to show something off, with an added nuance of this being possibly risqué, as in the Mail Online’s obsession with female celebrities “flaunting” their curves. “Flout” means to jeer or to mock or to defy an order. I think it’s now used most of the time with words like “convention”, meaning to go against established or expected norms: “She flouted the Mail photographers by not flaunting her beach-ready body”.Get – got – gotten
For some people, there’s the whiff of coarseness about “get” and “got”, which is why British train announcements use the fairly archaic “alight” rather than “get out”. In British English “gotten” is usually rejected as American or slang but either way downright unacceptable. “Gotten” is part of standard American English, as the past tense of “got” when it means “came to be”, “became”.Gorilla – guerrilla
The obvious misanthropic definition: one is a killer from a scarily violent species, the other a mostly peaceable ape found only in sub-Saharan Africa.Hang – hung
When it refers to stringing someone up, “hang” has a regular past-tense form – “he was hanged for stealing a bun”. When it refers to any other kind of pendulousness, “hang” in standard English goes irregular with “hung” in the past, as it also does when it is used as a phrasal verb usually with some sense of staying on or lingering – “he hung around her and hung on her every word, but don’t get hung up about it”.Hello – hallo – hullo
Proof of the basic unreliability of our spelling system, all three are acceptable. “Hello” is the most popular form everywhere in the English-speaking world, with “hullo” and “hallo” distant runners-up, though not quite so distant in the UK.Hoard – horde
A “hoard” is an accumulated stash, possibly guarded or hidden. (The word “hoarder” concentrates on the accumulation aspect.) A “horde” is a large group of people, with negative connotations – invasion, violence, ignorance. Since both refer to large masses – of possessions in “hoard”, humans in “horde” – it’s no wonder that they are often confused, usually in mistaken phrases like “hoards of people”.Homogenous – homogeneous
“Homogenous”, pronounced “hawmawjennus”, means “having the same structure”, whereas “homogeneous”, pronounced “homo-genius”, means “made up of the same stuff”.Hummous – humous – hummus – humus
The middle-Eastern chickpea-based dish has various spellings in English, but the one to avoid is “humus”, which also refers to mulchy soil. Endless confusion in the cafés of garden centres.Iconic – iconographic
An icon originally was a holy image used in the eastern Christian church; it has come to mean something like “pinnacle” or “perfect example” or “much-revered legend” (“He’s an absolute icon in the annals of the game”). Sometimes misused as a poshed-up “iconic”, “iconographic” is the adjective of iconography, referring to an overall system of symbols or specifically to the study of religious icons. (Neither adjective applies to the more recent use of “icon” as a symbol on a screen.)Illusion – delusion
With an “illusion” you see something that doesn’t exist. With a “delusion”, you believe something that doesn’t exist. The difference between a magician’s show and a place of worship. Neither is to be confused with “allusion”, which means “indirect reference”.Immoral – amoral
A philosophical difference: to be “immoral” involves going against a moral system, knowingly breaking moral rules; to be “amoral” is to have no consideration of morals at all. So the Terminator is amoral, a paedophile priest immoral.Imply – infer
By alphabetical coincidence, these verbs occupy either side of a not explicit or direct reference. To “imply” is to hint at something without saying it straight out; to “infer” means to deduce meaning which hasn’t been stated directly. Many people use them interchangeably and have done so since Shakespeare’s time – thus upsetting those who think this is a grievous error.Inapt – inept
These two adjectives share the theme of inadequacy but with slightly different meanings – “inapt” means unsuitable or inappropriate, “inept” ineffective or incompetent. A poor performance at a job interview could be “inept”: wearing a mankini to that interview would be "inapt".Incredible – incredulous
Both words deal with unbelievability. The useful distinction in the Cambridge Guide is that only a person can be “incredulous”, not able to believe something. “Incredible” applies to the things that are unable to be believed. But “incredible” is now mostly used to mean “amazing” or “wonderful”, and “incredibly” has become a not very powerful intensifier, often meaning just “very” rather than something that stretches belief.Ingenious – ingenuous
“Ingenious” means “clever, in an original and problem-solving way”; with the two “u”s, “ingenuous” means “naïve, unaware”, and its opposite is “disingenuous”, meaning either pretending to be naïve or just not trustworthy.Instantly – instantaneously
I think there used to be a greater distinction in the meaning of these two adverbs that might be on the wane, that “instantly” means right away, immediately, and “instantaneously” refers to events that happen at the same time.Insure – ensure
In American English, both spellings are used interchangeably for the various meanings, but there is a distinction in formal British English, where “insure” refers to guaranteeing against loss and “ensure” to making sure that something happens.It’s – its
“It’s” is the contracted form of “it is” and sometimes “it has”. “Its” is the possessive pronoun, like “his” or “hers” – “every dog has its day”. The same rule applies to “who’s / whose”, “you’re / your” and “they’re / their” – the apostrophe indicates that part of the auxiliary verb is missing: “who’s” = who is; “you’re” = you are; “they’re” = they are. See Apostrophes on the Punctuation page. (Warning – this is one of those explanations that don’t clarify but muddify, so read on only if you’re confident about the distinction.) The confusion happens because an apostrophe can indicate a possessive (“Mary’s hummous”) but it can also indicate that something is missing, as it is with “it’s”, whereas the possessive pronoun “its” doesn’t have an apostrophe even though it is possessive.
Lay – lie
Here are two verbs that are so alike in meaning and form that for many / most of us, standard and non-standard speakers alike, they’ve melded into one. However, they remain distinct in formal, official, written standard. First, “lie”, which is two verbs in itself – to tell a falsehood, which is regular (“I lie all the time, I lied yesterday, I have lied all my life”), and to become horizontal, when it becomes irregular – “I lie on the floor, yesterday I lay on the floor, I have lain on the floor for three hours straight.” “Lay” and even more so “lain” are passing out of common usage and heading towards archaism, because most people now use “laid” and “have laid” instead. Then there’s “lay”, meaning to place down, which has a regular form of “laid” in the simple past and the past participle (eg, with “has” or “have”). Traditionally, “lay” takes an object (“I have laid the table”; “that lays the foundations”) whereas “lie” can’t. To further confuse, many people now use “lay” for traditional “lie”, meaning proneness. Hence Bob Dylan’s “Lay, lady, lay, lay upon my big brass bed.” Also Snow Patrol’s “If I lay here, if I just lay here”, which prefers “lay” to “lie”, even at the cost of missing out on a pun.Libertine – libertarian
These two terms derived from “liberty” are based on very different meanings of freedom. A “libertine” is a hedonist who is free and unconstrained in their sex-life; a “libertarian” is in favour of people being free to do what they want without state interference or control. A libertarian might support the decriminilisation of drugs, libertines wouldn’t be bothered by any political policy as long as it didn’t prevent them having a party.Lightning – lightening
Without the “e”, “lightning” is the electrical discharge in the sky; with the “e” it is the “ing” form of the verb “lighten”. (Similarly, “enlighten” and “enlightening”.)Loath – loathe
Without the “e”, “loath” is an adjective meaning “reluctant"; with the “e”, “loathe” is a verb meaning “to hate” – “I’m loath to say so, here at the Grand Ole Opry, but I loathe all country music”.Loose – loosen – lose
“Loose” is usually an adjective, meaning the opposite of “tight”. “Loosen” is a verb meaning “make less tight”. “Lose” is a verb, meaning the opposite of “win” or “keep” – in standard English it’s an irregular with “lost” in the simple past and the past participle.Maunder – meander
“Meander” means to “wander here and there”, not to go in a straight direction, originally from the Greek name for a particular river which wound its way to the Mediterranean. “Maunder” refers to a different kind of wandering, in speech, where it means not getting to the point, prattling idly or unconnectedly.Moonlit – moonlight
“Moonlit” is an adjective describing something lit by the moon, “moonlight” is either a noun referring to the moon’s light or a verb referring to a second, possibly unofficial job – “the vicar was moonlighting as a gigolo”.Militate – mitigate
“Militate” comes from the same Latin verb militare (to serve as a soldier) which also gave us “militant”, so to “militate” means to contend, to exert force or influence, almost always against something. To “mitigate” means to make less harsh or severe, often found in the phrase “mitigating circumstances”.Negligent – negligible
Both adjectives involve lack of attention – something is negligible if it is too small to merit attention, someone is negligent if they didn’t pay proper attention to a task.Notable – noticeable
“Notable” means worthy of note, usually in a positive way; if something is noticeable, it’s worthy of notice, and the attention could be either positive or negative.Of – off
With one “f”, the word is pronounced “ov”, and it’s a preposition indicating possession – “the pen of my aunt”. Although it’s the one with the double consonant, “off” is pronounced with a softer “f”, and it usually indicates something not near – as in “a long way off”, “throw off” and probably English’s best-known phrase. “Off of” is a combination that’s frowned on by British sticklers but accepted by all bar the very stickliest of Americans.Of – have
In their contracted forms, “of” and “have” do sound alike, fair enough, but one is a preposition, the other is an auxiliary verb – how on earth could they be confused? Because hardly any English speaker can confidently tell an auxiliary verb from a slice of cheese is how. Hence such unfortunate stabs as “I would of done it”, “he could of tried” and “it will of increased”. These are mistakes. It should be "I would have done it", "he could have tried" and "it will have increased". That this explanation is necessary shows how badly we have all been taught.Official – officious
“Official” is the neutral term, as either an adjective or a noun, whereas “officious” is negative, connoting an excessive or intrusive use of authority.Pallet – palate – palette
A “pallet” is a flat wooden platform of the kind that’s moved by a fork-lift truck. The “palate” is the roof of the mouth, and by extension can mean “taste”. A “palette” is the board used by an artist to mix colours, and by extension can mean a colour-scheme.Peek – peak – pique
As a noun and a verb, “peek” means “quick look” and “peak” means “top” or “summit”. As a verb, “pique” can mean “to rouse”, usually found in phrases like “pique someone’s interest”, and as a noun it refers to a state of huffy disappointment, most commonly in the phrase “a fit of pique”. The adjective meaning “poorly” is spelled with an “a” – “I was feeling a bit peaky after eating humus by mistake”.
Personal – personnel
Pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, “personal” means “belonging to a person”, as in “personal belongings” and “personal problem”. With the stress on the third syllable, “personnel” refers to the people of an organisation, usually the employees of a company. “I have a personal grudge against someone in the personnel department”.
Pore – pour
I wouldn’t have thought of this one had it not been for President Trump who got this one wrong in a tweet boasting about his writing skills. The more usual word is “pour”, the verb meaning to transfer liquid. Not to be confused with “pore” which refers to the tiny opening found in skin as a noun and “pore” as a verb specifically with “over”, meaning “read with concentration for some time”– “I pored over the menu then ordered crème brulee for each course”.
Precede – proceed
To “precede” means to “go before, in front of”, “proceed” to “go ahead, to carry on”. “He preceded me in this job and soon as he left he proceeded to be a constant pain in the arse”.
Principal – principle
“Principal” means “chief”, “head” or “most important”. It can be an adjective or a noun – “the principal talked about his principal aims”. “Principle” is a noun usually meaning something along the lines of “rule” or “fundamental law”, as in “first principles”, “the Peter principle” and “he resigned on principle”.
Proprietary – propriety
“Proprietary” is an adjective denoting possession, ownership, from its original use referring specifically to the property of an individual, as in “proprietary rights”. “Propriety” is a noun meaning correct behaviour.
Proscribe – prescribe
These almost-soundalikes have almost opposite meanings. To “proscribe” is to “ban, order not to do something”, whereas to “prescribe” is to order to do something. Of course, prescribing easily leads to proscribing – saying how something should happen leading to issuing orders about what can’t. (One pertinent example is the “grammar” police, who are labelled “prescriptivists” because they prescribe, but mostly what they do is proscribe. Those who take a linguistical approach to grammar are called “descriptivists”, because they describe the language without making value judgements which are based only on prejudice.)
Prostate – prostrate
The first is a noun referring to the little gland that can cause chaps problems in later life, with the two “r”s, it’s an adjective meaning lying flat on the ground. “He was prostrate with the pain from his prostate”.
Raise – rise – raze – arise
As verbs, “raise” and “rise” both refer to upward movement, “rise” to the movement itself, “raise” to the act of making something go up -- “prices have risen”; “they have raised their prices”. As these examples show, in standard English, “rise” is irregular, “raise” regular. (Both verbs have lots of other meanings too – “raise” from “bring up a child” to “reanimate”, “rise” from “rebel” to a river springing from its source.)
As nouns, “raise” and “rise” both refer to an increase, most often in pay, with “raise” the American form and “rise” the British one, although I think more and more Brits are also using “raise”. As for the flour, it’s “self-raising” in the UK, “self-rising” in the US. To make things even more complicated, there’s also “raze”, another regular verb with a specific meaning quite unlike the upward sense of “raise” and “rise” – to destroy completely, to level, usually in the phrase, “razed to the ground”. There’s also “arise” -- this is an irregular verb which can mean “spring up” (“the problem arose from her mistaken interpretation of ‘humus’”), or “get to one’s feet”, as in the monarch’s command to a kneeling and newly knighted subject.
Rhyme – rime
With the “hy” it happens at the end of lines of verse, normally spelt it’s frost. Oddly, the poetic meaning used to be spelled as “rime” too, until “rhyme” emerged in the sixteenth century, with an upmarket “rhy” to indicate a classical Greek origin that is actually fake. With its false credentials, upstart “rhyme” replaced good old no-nonsense “rime”, though that spelling lingered with some, like Coleridge and his Rime of the Ancient Mariner. That was rather old-fashioned even when it was first published in the late-eighteenth century – for nearly 200 years, “rhy” has been the form for the poetic meaning, “ri” for the chilly dew.
Role – roll
There are lots and lots of different meanings for “roll” – in the Chambers Dictionary, there are nineteen as a noun, from a scroll to a breaded good to a bookbinder’s tool, thirty-six as a verb, from “perform revolutions” to “have sexual intercourse with”. Whereas a “role” is specifically and only a part in a drama.
Stalactite – stalagmite
Another pair that I include mostly for my own benefit. I wonder if putting them down here will finally make me remember which cave icicle is which. So – a “stalactite” (with a t for top) hangs from the roof of a cave, and a “stalagmite” grows from the ground up (with a g for ground). T for top, g for ground. T for top, g for ground. T for top, g for ground . . .
Sow – sew
In English we “sow” seeds in fields and “sew” with a needle and thread. Both verbs can be regular or irregular – like “dreamt/ dreamed” -- so “sow” is “sowed” in the simple past, with past participles either “sowed” or “sown”. Differing only in its “e”, “sew” has a simple past form of “sewed” and past participles either “sewed” or “sewn.”
Stationary – stationery
With an “a”, “stationary” is an adjective meaning “not moving”; with an “e,” “stationery” is a noun and a collective term for writing paper. So a stationery vehicle would be made of paper and a stationary shop would be one that, like most shops, doesn’t move.
Story – storey
In British English, a “story” is a tale, and a “storey” is the floor of a building. In American English both are “story”, as used to be the case in British English. In all versions of English, the first storey /story is the one on the ground – in Britain, the first floor is the one above the ground.
Though – although
These are often interchangeable when they concede something (“he won though / although he’d never played before”; “though / although she was tired, she couldn’t sleep”) or turn an argument like a “but” (“I told him I believed him though / although I didn’t”).
Till – until
Some style guides have tried to ban “till”, but the Cambridge Guide says that “till” and “until” are the same interchangeable word, so let’s go with both forms being fine and meaning the same. The version with the apostrophe – ‘til – isn’t necessary because “till” already exists as the shortened form.
Too – to
With one “o”, “to” goes with verbs (“going to go”; “to be or not to be”) and adjectives (“near to”, “oblivious to”) and is a preposition of direction – “all the way to the bank”, “head to the right”. “Too” can mean “also” or “as well” (“Rita, Sue and Bob too”) and can be an intensifier indicating excess – “too much”, “too little too late”).
Torturous – tortuous
It’s no wonder these adjectives are often confused: they sound almost exactly the same and in their usual, non-literal uses they have convergingly similar connotations. But they are derived from two separate words, with very different literal meanings: “torturous” is defined in the OED as “characterised by, involving or causing torture”; “tortuous”, the neighbouring entry, means “full of twists and turns; twisted, winding, sinuous”. Torture and twisty-turniness may not have much in common in fact but metaphorically they do as they converge on difficulty – with added suffering for “torturous” and unstraightforwardness for “tortuous”. Oddly, the less familiar “tortuous” is far more popular – I think it’s often used to mean “involving torture” and even when it means mainly something like “long-winded and drawn out and complicated” (“a really tortuous process”; “we had such a tortuous journey”), I think there’s usually some influence from “torture” in the semantic aura.
Troop – troup
Both refer to particular groups of people, “troop” to soldiers, “troup” to performers. Hence also “trouper”, usually referring to a performer of great experience and determination, and “trooper”, which in the UK refers to a soldier in the army and in the US to a cop on horseback or in the state police.
Triumphant – triumphal
“Triumphant” describes the feeling that comes with triumph, whereas “triumphal” is the matter-of-fact adjective usually applied to buildings or ceremonies that mark a triumph -- “a triumphal arch”, “a triumphal march”.
Urban – urbane
Without the “e”, “urban” means “of the town or city”, “urbane” means “worldly, sophisticated”. (In the US, “urban” is often a euphemism or codeword for “Black”.)
Vein – vain – vane
A shame we don’t have a “veign” or a “vayn” to complete the set. A “vein” is a blood vessel or, inanimately, in rock and wood, a thread or streak. “Vain” is an adjective which refers either to self-fancying or to fruitlessness – “you’re so vain”, “it was a vain pursuit”. “Vane” is now used mostly as a compound noun with “weather” to denote the wind-direction-indicating ornament.
Venial – venal
Two words which often get mixed up because they both involve sin. “Venal” refers specifically to bribery, “venial” means “forgivable”. A “venial” sin is pardonable, a “mortal” sin means hellfire and an eternity of torment.
Wake – waken – awake, awaken
In standard, “wake” is an irregular verb, with “woke” in the past tense and “woken” as a past participle. “Awake” is the only adjectival or adverbial form (“she was awake but sleepy”; “she stayed awake”). As verbs, well, “awaken” is a bit archaic-sounding, “waken” also, but they can both usually operate as alternatives to “wake”, either as an action the subject is doing (“I woke at dawn”) or being done to (“I woke / wakened / awakened him with a cup of cold water”). “Wake” is the form we use most – but it does have that irregular twist (“woke, woken”) that could catch out non-standard speakers who have “woke” in both past forms (so “he was woke by the alarm”). See Non-Standard Irregular Verbs in The Real Rules of English.