THE AMERICAN ENGLISH EXPRESS Chapter 9 page 2
(Continued)
D.
Accept/except: This is
one of those instances when the homonyms not only sound alike but also actually
have opposite (or nearly opposite) meanings.
·
to
‘accept’ is a verb which means to ‘include’, ‘believe’, ‘recognize’, ‘agree to’,
‘admit’, ‘acknowledge’, ‘allow’, ‘agree to’, ‘consent’, ‘receive’, ‘take’, ‘put
up with’, ‘endure’, ‘tolerate’, ‘take on’, ‘undertake’, or ‘assume’, as in the
sentences:
“I accept your gift.”
“The student accepted the assignment with enthusiasm.”
· to ‘except’ is a preposition which means ‘but’, ‘excluding’, or ‘not including’, as in the sentences:
“The student read every chapter except for the one assigned for today.”
Note also that the word ‘except’ is only slightly different than the word ‘expect’. Once again, owning your words (knowing your spelling) will help in such situations.
E. THAN/ THEN: not a true homonym, but the words belong here because students confuse them. (Notice I could have written this informally: ‘students get them confused”).
· ‘Than’ is a word of comparison, as in the sentence:
“This student studied harder than that one and surely will pass.”
“My dog is bigger than yours.”
· ‘Then’ is an adverb with many meanings relating to time, timing, sequence, and/or logic:
‘Then’ can mean: ‘after that’, ‘next,’ ‘afterward’, ‘subsequently’, ‘followed by’, ‘at that time’, or ‘at that moment’, as in the sentence:
“First Socrates drank the poison, and then he died”.
‘Then’
can mean ‘in that case’, ‘so therefore’ ‘therefore’, or ‘it follows that’, as in
the sentence:
“If the student didn’t study, then it is not a surprise that she didn’t learn.”
‘Then’ is often used to express the results (consequences) of an action as the back end of the expression “if…then”, as in the sentence:
“If the students study hard, then they will learn to read and write English well.”
F. TAUGHT/ TAUT/THOUGHT: although the third word, ‘thought’, is not a true homonym, the other two are. Students frequently confuse these words because of the way others pronounce them:
· ‘Taught’ is the past tense of the verb ‘to teach’, as in:
“The teacher
taught the class to write better.”
· ‘Thought’ is a noun meaning ‘idea’, as in:
“A sentence is a complete thought.”
· ‘Thought’ is also the past tense of the verb “to think”, as in:
“The teacher thought the student could improve if she worked harder.”
· ‘Taut’ can mean 'tight', 'stretched tightly', 'rigid', 'stiff', 'extended', 'firm', or 'inflexible'.
· ‘Taut’ can also mean 'tense', 'worried', 'anxious', 'nervous', or ‘on edge’.
words for ‘taut’ include ‘wired’ and ‘strung out’.
Do not use these (or any other slang words) in formal writing.
NB: Be careful not to confuse these words with the words ‘though’,
‘although’ and ‘tough’,
which look very similar but have very different meanings:
‘although’ and ‘though’ both mean ‘even if’, ‘despite the fact that’, ‘nonetheless’ and ‘however’.
‘Tough’ means ‘hard’, ‘strong’, ‘harsh’, ‘sturdy’ or ‘rough’.
G. WIVES/WIFE’S and LIVES/LIFE’S:
The context in which student’s become confused with these sound alike words is when they begin to write about their own lives. This usually happens in beginning writing courses (called ‘remedial’ or ‘below college level’; these classes are designed to bring the student ‘up’ to college level writing) because many college professors believe that asking students to write about themselves accomplishes two goals: it requires the students to think and guarantees that the students will have something to say. You should expect this to happen to you!
The apostrophe before the letter S is used for singular possessive forms: ’s
The letter S followed by the apostrophe is used for plural possessive forms: s’
Wife
is the singular form meaning ‘one female spouse’.
Wives is the plural of ‘wife’ and means ‘more than one wife’.
Wife’s is the singular possessive form and means ‘belonging to the wife’
Wives’ is the plural possessive form and means ‘belonging to the wives’
The
same is true for “life’s” and “lives”:
Life is the singular form meaning ‘one existence’ or ‘one living being’, as in the sentence:
“This is my life.”
Life’s is the singular possessive form and means ‘belonging to life’, as in the sentence:
“Curing cancer has been her life’s work.”
Lives is the plural of ‘life’ and means ‘more than one life’, as in the sentence:
“It is said that a cat has nine lives.”
Lives is also third person singular for the verb ‘to live’, as in the sentence:
“Even after 911, he still lives in New York City.”
Lives’ is the plural possessive form of the word life and means ‘belonging to the lives’, as in the sentence:
“Their lives’ successes and failures depended on the weather.”
Which is better stated as: “The successes of their lives depended on the weather.
H.
THINKS/THINGS:
· ‘Thinks’ is the third person singular of the verb ‘to think’:
Conjugation of the verb ‘to think’ (present tense):
Case Singular Plural
first person I think We think
second person You think You think
third person He, she, it thinks They think
· ‘Things’ is the plural of ‘thing’, a noun that means just about anything except a person. Among other possibilities, a ‘thing’ could be an object, an event, a device, an item, an entity, a gadget or even an article.
The only acceptable use of ‘thing’ in formal writing is when you refer to a ‘living thing’.
Otherwise, stay away from this word, as it is vague and imprecise and generally means that you, the writer, cannot think of a better word to use.
Copyright: 2004 English 4 All, Inc.