{"id":22484,"date":"2014-04-17T08:19:02","date_gmt":"2014-04-17T13:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=22484"},"modified":"2014-04-17T08:19:02","modified_gmt":"2014-04-17T13:19:02","slug":"even-more-commonly-confused-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2014\/04\/even-more-commonly-confused-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Even More Commonly Confused Words"},"content":{"rendered":"

Below are just a few more commonly confused words, with those post adding to this one<\/a> and this one <\/a>on the same topic.<\/p>\n

Although\/while<\/span> \u2013 A former student recently asked me about this combination. There isn\u2019t, as far as I can tell, a hard and fast rule on when to use each of these terms, but there may be preferred usage, and that\u2019s what I\u2019ll explain here.\u00a0 \u201cAlthough\u201d tends to mean \u201cin spite of the fact that.\u201d According to Mignon Fogarty, also known as Grammar Girl<\/a>, \u201calthough\u201d is called a concessive conjunction, which means that it expresses a concession. For example, Although he admits he saw her in the crosswalk, he drove through the intersection anyway.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile\u201d can also mean \u201cin spite of the fact that,\u201d but it can also mean \u201cat the same time.\u201d The same sentence with the word \u201cwhile\u201d instead of \u201calthough\u201d now has one of two different meanings. While he admits he saw her in the crosswalk, he drove through the intersection anyway. <\/i>In that construction, the sentence could mean that in spite of the fact that<\/i> he saw her in the crosswalk, he chose to keep driving through the intersection. This sentence might imply some indifference on the driver\u2019s part, which may (or may not) matter to the meaning of the sentence. This same sentence could also mean that at the same time<\/i> that he saw her in the crosswalk, he drove through the intersection. Perhaps there\u2019s less driver indifference with that construction.\u00a0 \u201cWhile\u201d meaning \u201cat the same time\u201d is more clearly illustrated in this sentence: While Patrick raked the lawn, I cleaned the windows.<\/i> In that sentence, the reader more clearly gets the sense that Patrick and I are each doing two separate tasks at the same time.<\/p>\n

The difference between \u201calthough\u201d and \u201cwhile\u201d may be slight, but when you\u2019re striving for precision in your writing, you might be wise to choose \u201calthough\u201d when you\u2019re making a concession and \u201cwhile\u201d when you really mean \u201cat the same time.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Assure\/Insure\/Ensure<\/span> \u2013 \u201cAssure\u201d means to make someone comfortable or confident about something. She assured him that she would finish the project tomorrow. <\/i>\u201cInsure\u201d and \u201censure\u201d do mean pretty much the same thing: \u201cto guarantee or to make certain.\u201d \u201cInsure\u201d is most often used when referring to insurance, as in I need to insure my new car.<\/i> In older writing, there appears to be no distinction between \u201cinsure\u201d and \u201censure,\u201d and they were\u2013and are\u2013often used interchangeably. Some readers, though, do insist there\u2019s a difference, so if you\u2019re not writing about insurance, you\u2019ll want to use \u201censure.\u201d For example, To ensure that everyone has an equal chance to win, each person can enter the drawing only once.<\/i><\/p>\n

Complement\/compliment<\/span> \u2013 \u201cComplement\u201d means that things go well together in some way, they complete each other, while \u201ccompliment\u201d is to say something nice to someone else.\u00a0 Mike complimented Michelle on her shoes<\/i>. But: Michelle\u2019s shoes complemented her outfit<\/i>. To say Michelle\u2019s shoes complimented her outfit<\/i> would be to say that Michelle\u2019s shoes told her that her outfit was nice.\u00a0 You can remember the difference by remembering that if something comple<\/span>tes<\/i> something else, it comple<\/span>ments <\/i>it.<\/p>\n

Rational\/rationale<\/span> \u2013 \u201cRational\u201d is an adjective (a describing word, if you will) that means \u201cbased on reason or logic.\u201d As in, Jesse\u2019s over-the-top reaction to winning first place seems rational to me.<\/i> That is, it makes logical sense to me that Jesse would have such a reaction to a first-place win.\u00a0 \u201cRationale,\u201d on the other hand, is a noun that means \u201cthe reason or reasoning or explanation\u201d behind something. The rationale for the smoking ban was to address the adverse health effects of second-hand smoke.<\/i><\/p>\n

A post<\/a> today on The Huffington Post covers some more commonly confused words, including moot\/mute and gauge\/gage, two other sets I\u2019ve seen misused.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Below are just a few more commonly confused words, with those post adding to this one and this one on the same topic. Although\/while \u2013 A former student recently asked me about this combination. There isn\u2019t, as far as I can tell, a hard and fast rule on when to use each of these terms, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-writing","category-public","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}