this<\/a> helpful site from the Oxford dictionary, listing commonly confused words.<\/p>\nAnother area where writers err is in commonly-heard sayings. One writer had me gritting my teeth every time she had her characters tell someone they “had another thing coming.” The correct phrase, of course, is “another think<\/strong> coming,” as in “If you think that, you’ve got another think coming.”<\/p>\nHere are some more commonly mis-heard phrases:<\/p>\n
\n- “I could care less<\/em>” – this means that you do care, and have more caring you could do. If you want to show your total lack of caring, it’s “I couldn’t<\/strong> care less.”<\/li>\n
- “Nip it in the butt<\/em>” – this would mean something’s backside is getting bitten. If you want to cut something out before it starts, you’d be “nipping it in the bud<\/strong>,” just the way you’d nip or pinch off a plant’s bud before the branch or flower forms.<\/li>\n
- “For all intensive purposes<\/em>” – this means your purposes are intense, which probably isn’t what you mean. “For all intents and<\/strong> purposes,” on the other hand, means in every practical sense.<\/li>\n
- “One in the same” – this would mean that something was inside another thing that was the same. If you want to say two things are no different, you say “one and<\/strong> the same.”<\/li>\n
- “Giving you leadway” – there’s no such word, though it sounds like the correct term. Leeway<\/strong> means room on the lee – or sheltered – side of something; in other words, enough room to pass or do what you need to do.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"Writing](\"http:\/\/www.jeshays.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Writing-24-of-30.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n