You know what is (a bit) scary? When you say or write something that you don't mean. You don't intend to do it, but you do it anyway.

Why?

<span style="text-decoration: underline;">First, it's because you use words that you don't understand, or you misuse words.</span> This is more common in speech than in written communications, since we don't have the luxury of having a dictionary available when we talk. This type of scary mistake seems to happen a lot in television/cable news.

Here are two examples:

A political analyst/journalist who said <strong>nonetheless </strong>(which Webster's defines as "in spite of that") when she really meant <strong>never mind </strong>(which means much less or let alone).

Someone who said <strong>outset </strong>(which means beginning or start, and can be used alone, without a modifier, such as,<em> from the outset</em>) when he/she should have said <strong>onset </strong>(which also means beginning or commencement, and is usually used in conjunction a phrase, such as in the <em>onset of winter</em>).

It's easy to mess these up. They are very similar and similar sounding, but yet are different words with slightly different usages and meanings.

<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Second, it's when you use words that are spelled similarly to what you meant to say, but are not the right word.</span> This happens mostly in written communications, and it's because you rely on spellcheck and you don't proofread.

Here are a couple I have seen recently:

A sentence that used <strong>neatly</strong> instead of <strong>nearly</strong>.

And even more weird, a sentence that used the word <strong>bong</strong> instead of <strong>bond</strong>.

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Happy Halloween!

I've started collecting these, and I intend to publish them once a month. I invite you to share any you find by sending me an email at info@deborahbrody.com.

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