Unfortunately, there word is so often used in both ways that, at least in written English, it’s often difficult to understand which meaning the writer intended. In reality, ‘nonplussed’ means “bewildered” or “at a loss of what to think”. Because the prefix -non means “not”, some people misuse ‘nonplussed’ as ‘unfazed’ or ‘uninterested’. We’ve arrived at our sixth difficult word, another where a sneaky prefix is the culprit. Nonplussedįeeling a bit nonplussed after our brief trip through linguistic history? It’s certainly possible. Then, English pinched the word for itself, before finally both the French and the English switched back to its original borrowed spelling (and the English to a whole new pronunciation). ‘Colonel’ came from the French, who had originally borrowed it from Italian, after which they changed a letter ( coronel). Well, it’s an old tale of word-borrowing across history. But how did ‘colonel’ end up being spelled like that? And who could blame you? It’s not so simple, however, as it’s pronounced kernel (like a corn kernel!). This is a pronunciation bungle for many students! When you look at this word (meaning a rank of officer in the army), you might think it’s pronounced co-lo-nel. (Handy trick: both words end in m.)įor example: “Who/whom are you going to Brazil with?” Would you answer “With him,” or “With he”? You’d choose him – so whom is correct! 5. If ‘hi m’ could be the answer, ‘who m’ is your word. But how can you tell which one you need? Try answering your own question with ‘him’ or ‘he’. Who knew such a little word could be so confusing! In English, we use ‘who’ to refer to a sentence’s subject and ‘whom’ to its object. This means that although it technically exists, it shouldn’t be thrown about by people who’d like to learn and use English well. So remember: While ‘irregardless’ appears in dictionaries, it’s listed as a nonstandard word. ‘Regardless’ means “without regard” or “despite something” (“He maxed out his credit card regardless of the consequences,”) and is perfectly acceptable.īut despite what you might think, ‘irregardless’ isn’t a synonym! Because of it’s double negative (the prefix -ir means “not” and suffix -less means “without”) it means “not without regard”, which is actually the opposite of what its users intend.
You might have heard people use ‘irregardless’ when they mean to say ‘regardless’. Truthfully, irony is not an essential ingredient to a regular day and no one will think badly of you if you don’t use the word at all! 3. So what should you do in the face of such confusion? One option is to…let it go. But wait! There’s also dramatic irony, situational irony, historical irony and others. However, unlike sarcasm (which also does this), irony is not intended to hurt. While the concept of irony is extremely multi-layered, at its most simple it’s a way to use words to express the opposite of their literal meaning. (In fact, as Alanis Morissette’s famous song, Ironic – with around 10 poor examples of irony – shows us, coincidences and unfortunate events aren’t enough.)
Handy synonym full#
(No, really – we could write a whole course on using irony correctly!) While irony is often understood to mean a coincidence or strange turn of events, that in itself doesn’t cover its full meaning. Here is a word that has confused almost all English speakers – native or otherwise. Interestingly, because of the sheer reach of its incorrect use, the Oxford English Dictionary has included an informal use for ‘literally’ allowing it as a tool to give emphasis, like in the above examples. ‘Literally’ means, “in a literal sense”, or “what I’m saying is not imagined, but truly happened as I’m saying it.” Therefore, popular uses like “I literally died laughing,” or “He was so embarrassed his cheeks literally burned up,” are not correct. Misuse of this word has been known to raise people’s blood pressure.
If you know a language purist, watch out. As a follow up to our article on confusing words, here are ten of the most difficult words in English.
Sometimes they’re difficult to understand, other times they’ve been misused so often that their original meaning has gotten lost. English can be a real pest, and even native speakers find themselves stumbling over some stubbornly tricky words.
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