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Category Archives: Usage Tips

Usage Tip: Tenant/tenet

One amusing usage error is when people use tenant when they mean tenet. A tenant, of course, is someone renting a property, while a tenet is “a principle, belief, or doctrine generally held to be true.”

Posted byCatherineMay 27, 2022October 12, 2022Posted inUsage TipsTags:homophones, usageLeave a comment on Usage Tip: Tenant/tenet

Usage Tip: Historic/historical

Do you know the difference between something that’s historic and something that’s historical? These do in fact mean different things! Historic refers to something that has a big impact on history – say, for example, the historic first landing on the moon.

Posted byCatherineApril 22, 2022May 30, 2022Posted inUsage TipsTags:adjectives, usageLeave a comment on Usage Tip: Historic/historical

Usage Tip: Complementary/complimentary

a 59-degree angle adjacent to a 31-degree angle

Another pair of commonly confused words is complementary and complimentary.

Posted byCatherineMarch 25, 2022March 25, 2022Posted inUsage TipsTags:homophones, usageLeave a comment on Usage Tip: Complementary/complimentary

Usage Tip: Effect/affect

There are so many words that are spelled similarly to each other and therefore frequently get mixed up in writing. One of the most common pairs of these words is effect and affect. And while most writers usually know the difference between them, sometimes these words still get confused.

Posted byCatherineMarch 4, 2022March 4, 2022Posted inUsage TipsTags:homophones, usageLeave a comment on Usage Tip: Effect/affect
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