The Grammar Doctor

Words and phrases commonly confused or misused

The students were uninterested in the Grammar Doctor's lecture on the Great English vowel shift.

• accept, except
• adapt, adopt
• advice, advise
• affect, effect
• allude, elude
• alot
• alright
• among, between
• amount, number
• awhile, a while
• bad, badly
• compliment, complement
• defuse, diffuse
• delusion, illusion
• desperate, disparate
• discrete, discreet
• disinterested, uninterested
• eminent, immanent
• energize, enervate
• etymology, entomology
• evoke, invoke
• faze, phase
• fewer, less
• flair or flare
• hardy, hearty
• hopefully
• horde, hoard
• hyper or hypo?
• imply, infer
• ingenious, ingenuous
• its or it's?
• lie, lay
• loath,loathe
• loose, lose
• like or as
• martial or marital?
• peace, piece
• peak, pique, peek
• persecute, prosecute
• prescribe, proscribe
• principal, principle
• rein, reign
• rite, right
• sheer, shear
• sneak, snuck
• strait, straight
• there, they're, their
• supposed to
• than, then
• to or too
• torturous, tortuous
• unique
• verbal or oral?
• whose or who's?
• wreck or wreak?