I hate to sound like a fussbudget, but it's right there above the fold in today's newspaper:
Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberries--and Boston Lager? As nationwide interest in craft beers grows, more Americans are making like the Pilgrims this Thanksgiving by adding complimentary brews to the menu."Complimentary brews"? Only if microbreweries have started giving the stuff away. What the writer probably had in mind was "complementary brews"--beers that go well with a turkey dinner.
This slip-up (immune to the powers of the spell checker) reminded me of a little verse I used to give my students:
You might devise a scheme to sell a device,Of course, these are just a few of the hundreds of words in English that are easily confused because of similarities in sound and spelling.
Or advise a friend to seek better advice.
You can lose a bet and loosen a tie,
Lay down the law and lie down to die.
But there's really no need to lose your mind over homophones. My advice is to study the examples, definitions, and exercises at our extensive Glossary of Commonly Confused Words. Then proceed (not precede) to the Review Quiz.
It's all a lot easier than you might think. Cheers!
Today's Commonly Confused Words:
Comments
In case of a person employed by an organization whose business happens to be dissemination of information in written format using a particular language, one could argue about whether it should be simply ignored without any protestations or not; but in case of mere mortals like me and many others who just happen to have an interest in the English language, should they be declared ignorant or careless upon making such a mistake or the blame should rest with those who rather than properly incorporating a foreign word, just make it part of the lexicon without either modifying the spellings or the pronunciation.
Even with very limited knowledge, I would still like to comment that compliment it seems has been borrowed from French, a language in which i, e, and y all are pronounced in the same manner, with the exceptions arising in case of e when diacritics are used with it. Upon inclusion into English lexicon, they could have at least introduced a new pronunciation, which would have made differentiating between the two somewhat easier.