Confusable Words
See also: semantic change
Confusable Words
There are a variety of confusable words. Many learners of English as a second language find few and a few difficult to distinguish and while native speakers may find it hard to explain the difference, they can see clearly the distinction in He has few ideas and He has a few ideas.
Some words are confusable based on the spelling: complement and compliment, being a good example. It is not always so easy to judge which one is appropriate (as in The garnish complimented/complemented the meal) and the two spellings may come to be seen as variants, as insure and ensure are in American English (for the ensure reading). Infer and imply are interesting. Some speakers use infer with the imply/suggest meaning and again for this pair of words there may be an unstoppable change underway.How about discreet and discrete? Disinterested and uninterested?
Let's have a quiz -- or should that be a test?